Michael Dudikoff is an American actor of Russian origin, remembered by the audience primarily for his main role in the movie "American Ninja". In Russia in the early nineties, this film was distributed on cassettes in a one-voice amateur translation and was very popular. But, of course, this is far from the only role of the actor …
Childhood, youth and first work in the cinema
Michael Dudikoff was born in October 1954 in California. His mother was French-Canadian, and his father was Russian (and he even taught his son to speak a little the language of his historical homeland). Michael graduated from high school in the town of Redondo Beach, after which he was educated at Harbor College in the direction of "Child Psychology."
One of Michael's hobbies during his studies was bodybuilding. After he became the champion of several competitions in this sport, he was offered a job in show business (more specifically, it was the work of a model) and he agreed. Then he began to appear in commercials and play small roles in the series Dallas and Happy Days.
In 1980, he got his first role in a feature film - in the detective "The Black Ball". However, this picture did not have serious success with the audience, and the character of Michael Dudikoff is secondary here. After that, he took part in the films "Bloody Birthday", "Rare Courage", "Throne", "Best Girl in the World" and "Bachelor Party".
Particularly worth mentioning is the work of Dudikoff in the action-packed action movie Radioactive Dreams. Here, the actor actually got the main role for the first time. By the way, this action movie even received the Grand Prix of the festival of science fiction films in the French city of Avoriaz.
Participation in the American Ninja and other action films
Dudikoff’s real finest hour struck when he played the ordinary American army and martial arts expert Joe Armstrong in the movie "American Ninja." With a budget of one million dollars, this action movie has collected more than 10 million at the box office - a very good indicator!
The release of "American Ninja" on the screens made the 31-year-old actor very famous. Interestingly, up to this point, Dudikoff was just a bodybuilder, and only after the success of the film did he seriously engage in martial arts. Subsequently, four more sequels of "American Ninja" were released, but Dudikoff starred in only two of them.
In the second half of the eighties and nineties, the actor became a regular hero of the militants, along with, say, Stephen Seagal and Dolph Lundgren. His track record includes action films such as The River of Death (1989), Living Shield (1991), Save Me (1993), Under the Order (1994), Cyberjack (1995), etc.. d.
