Bronson's unique life story catches eye of Hollywood producer
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Anthony Gadson-agadson@timesuniononline.com
Warsaw resident Kevin Lee Bronson's tale of redemption has caught the eye of Hollywood. "All the different projects we have in mind are in the early stages of development, but all are moving forward," Bronson's entertainment lawyer and co-manager David Baker said. "He's sort of lived five lives in one, so part of what we've been doing is getting the content. Then, we can start treatments and screen plays.” Bronson began his martial arts training when he was 5, winning his first national fighting title at age 14. During this same time period he reached state and midwest U.S.T.A. rankings as a tennis player. The No. 1 singles player for Penn High School, he was also named a member of the academic national honor society. For someone who went on to earn a sixth-degree black belt in Golden Dragon Ryu Ju-Jitsu, a sixth-degree black belt in Taiho-Ryu Karate and a seventh-degree black belt in Golden Dragon Ryu Kempo-Jitsu, his time as a tennis player may seem odd, but it was a decision made by his mother. "My mom wanted something that wasn't violent or aggressive," he said. "So, she gave my father a choice between tennis and music. I was very unmusical, so I started with tennis. My entire youth was academics, martial arts and tennis." Despite living in what he described as "an upper middle class, hard-working family," Bronson, like any teen fresh out of high school, wanted to separate himself a bit for his college education. "I wanted to go to college somewhere warm," he said. That warmth was in Tampa, Fla., where he, along with three friends, including Bob Solliday traveled south so he could attend the University of South Florida. While in Florida, his martial arts prowess really took off, as he didn't only impress the competition, but also his friends. "He had an ability to do some amazing stuff," Solliday said. "He'd kick cans off of people's heads and just do amazing things. Definitely a gifted person. His workout sessions were just amazing. No one worked out as hard as Kevin did. Nobody." Concerning the outcome of Bronson’s hard work and intensive training, many people could comment. One of those is legendary martial artist Bill “Superfoot” Wallace. Wallace is Professional Karate Association’s World Full-Contact Karate Champion, action film star, and the teacher of famous students such as the late Elvis Presley. Retired from competition since the early 1980s, Wallace had this to say about Bronson. “We became friends several years ago and he’s really a top notch fighter. Good kicker, good movement and good technique. He’s a fine athlete. He’s strong and powerful. A real good fighter. All of us know how to punch and all that other stuff. It’s knowing how to put it together. Kevin can put it together pretty good.” One friend he met during his time in Florida was Dennis Lambson, who lived in an apartment complex where Bronson's childhood friends Solliday, Tom Brady and Fred Bedford resided. One of their encounters still has Lambson amazed. While cooking out beside the pool of the complex, a group of college students had a Frisbee sail onto the roof of a second-floor apartment, prompting Bronson to climb his way up balconies to retrieve the disc. From there, Lambson recounts what he witnessed. "He turned around and starting running back down the roof toward the edge of the roof," Lambson said. "He threw the Frisbee and the 10 or 15 people who were out playing Frisbee, they turned to look where it was going. I was staring at the roof because Kevin was running at the edge of the roof. I watched him dive off the roof of a two-story building like he was diving into a pool. Immediately, I was horrified. I thought he was going to fall, hit the ground and hurt himself. When I saw him dive from a good 20, 25 feet in the air, my jaw was hanging open as I saw him fall to the ground, do a forward roll and jump up into a stance about two feet away from me with this big grin on his face." That wouldn't be only time Lambson saw that grin following an unexplainable feat by Bronson. As most college students do, Bronson and Lambson would go to dance clubs, but those can be crowded places. With Bronson, that wasn't the case. Lambson recalls a time when he kept getting pushed up against a rail at a crowded club, making him wish he hadn't paid the coverage charge to enter. "I turned to Kevin and said, 'This is ridiculous. Three bucks to get in here and you can barely move,’" Lambson said. "He said, 'What's the matter? You don't have enough room?' I said, 'Not really. Do you?' He put his head down, didn't say anything for about 30 seconds, then looked up at me with that same grin on his face and said, 'How about now.' I looked around, and on the dance floor and behind me, people had backed up and created an eight-foot circle all the way around us." Bronson said the technique he used to clear out space was Kio-sung, an outward physical expression of the internal energy force ki. "I used to practice it at dance clubs," he said. After impressing friends with his athletic ability in Florida, his family in northern Indiana called on him for some support. "My mother's health began to get very bad," he said. "My dad came to me and said, 'I'm going to move my corporate businesses over a two-year period to Arizona. Your sister's and your oldest brother's families are going to follow. Will you go out there and get your mother settled?' I said, 'Sure.'" That move turned out to be a major one in his life. After transferring from South Florida to the Nautilus Institute, where he earned degrees in Exercise Physiology and Nutrition, Bronson continued his successful fighting career while in Arizona, but also struck up a business partnership with a man named Peter. "I'd only been out there a month or two, and a guy named Peter and I came up with a concept for a 24-hour health club, open seven days a week," Bronson said. "We were the first ones in the United States to have certified trainers and professional sales staff. So, we began 24-hour Nautilus health spas. Over a short period of time, we had 19 health clubs in four states." The business was a very good one, and coupled with his success in the ring, where Bronson was a five-time U.S Full-Contact Karate Champion, and the undefeated World Champion from 1982-85 in both full-contact karate and kickboxing, he was living the high life. "I was extremely wealthy," he said. "I was a World Champion in two different sports, full-contact karate and kickboxing. I was a successful businessman. A college graduate with two degrees and I was loving life. Then, the indictments came down." Just when things were going well, indictments came down after the federal government learned about money laundering going on at the health clubs. "Peter's family was connected to organized crime families," Bronson said. "Unknown to me, at first, five different families within the organized crime world began laundering money through our clubs. By the time I found out, there was nothing I could do about it. So, the federal government infiltrated our accounting department and indictments came down shortly after I retired from the ring. I retired on Oct. 26, 1985." Bronson retired with a 213-2 fighting record, which still stands as a record and is one of the reasons he’s been inducted into both the USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame and World Karate Hall of Fame in 2008 and again in 2009. But with his legal troubles Bronson had much bigger fights to face. "Shortly after the indictments, two of the accountants had accidents and it just left me and Peter," Bronson said. "Shortly after that, Peter took me out to dinner at a restaurant and shot me in the back with a .38. He took off, left the country and left me holding the bag." Faced with prison time, Bronson was given the option to cooperate with the federal government, but opted to serve out his time instead. "The way I looked at it, my business, my responsibility," he said. "I wouldn't talk, so I was sent to one of the most violent prisons our country has ever had." Entering prison in 1986, Bronson was faced with a tough decision, which would determine, most likely, if he lived or died. Staring at all the violence around him, Bronson opted to join a prison gang, one that would be a part of his life for the next 23 years. "By the end of my first week, I had watched someone get murdered, (sexual abuse), I had been in 21 fights, I had stabbed somebody and been stabbed once," he said. "By the end of my fifth day, I said, 'I'll join.' Because of my martial arts abilities, my business mind and my business contacts, over a short period of time I rose to national leadership." Working his way up in the gang, Bronson struggled to leave the white supremacist group upon his release from maximum security prison in 1992. In Arizona, Bronson continued to be a leader in the gang, but also began to get involved in drugs and alcohol, which too would have a hold on him for 16 years. While some members of his blood family began to distance themselves, Bronson replaced them with his gang family. "My family and I tried to reunite, but the gang had become my family," he said. "In my heart and my mind, they were my family. My mother and my father never let go of me. Until the day they died, they were by my side. But my siblings and I, and my extended family, since 1985, we have not been a part of each other's lives in any shape or form. For that, I'm very sorry." Despite siblings creating distance, his friends did not, as his childhood friend and martial arts training partner Dennis Thompson flew to Arizona in 1996 to retrieve him. According to Bronson, he didn't fight the prospect of returning to northern Indiana. "He just talked to me, and said, come home my old friend," he said. While he was in a new place, his old habits weren't far behind, although salvation was around the corner, coming in December of 1996. "I started drinking and drugging and fell off the wagon right away," he said about his return to Indiana. "I did some stupid misdemeanors and got sent to Kosciusko County Jail. A guy by the name of Charlie Haywood brought John Boren to me. Charlie came to my room and said, let me talk to you about Peter. I jumped off of my bunk, because I thought he was talking about my old business partner, the guy that shot me in the back. He said, 'No, I'm talking about Peter from the Bible.' Two days later, he convinced me to go meet John Boren at church and John and I just clicked. He's the man that brought me to salvation. I lived at John's house for five months, in 1998, his family is like my second family." Still engulfed in addiction, Bronson also began to get closer to Christianity while in Warsaw. In 1999 he got married. That marriage ended in a 2002 divorce. His son, Isaac Lee Bronson, was born in 2001 and now lives in another state with his ex-wife. But while trying to go straight, Bronson was also keeping a toe in the waters of addiction and gang life. The dark world struck again when he was incarcerated in 2001 after he traveled to Elkhart County, where he smacked a man he said owed him money, and was caught driving a car in which one of the passengers had cocaine. "I went to Elkhart County and did some stupid things," he said. "Because of who I was years before, I was sent to prison. I entered the jail and prison system in 2001 and I assumed the presidency for the state of Indiana for that white supremacist group I was a member of. Once again, I was very mad at mankind for what had happened to me, so I took it out on everybody through that organization." Released in November of 2004, Bronson then faced another battle, as he went through chemotherapy and radiation for his liver. "I had an extreme blood disease," he said. "It caused two other diseases to erupt and attack my liver. Chemotherapy was successful and ridded my blood of that disease, for a period of time – which was Hepatitis C. Now, years after treatment, blood tests have shown the disease might be returning in my blood and liver.” Bronson is currently seeking medical care through his family doctor and an internal specialist for help and treatment options. He originally went through treatments from November 2004 until the last week of August 2005, but was back in trouble with the law, for a technical violation of the terms of his November 2004 release from maximum security prison. That incarceration lasted until summer of 2006, but his real salvation didn't begin until he met his current wife, Lisa, on Jan. 10, 2007. "I mentioned that I was on a diet and trying to work out," Lisa said about her first encounter with Bronson, which happened while she was working at a local department store. "He said, 'Hey, if you go to a movie with me, I'll write you out a program and work with you.' I wondered if I wanted to, then said, 'OK.' We went to the movie, the worst movie we'd ever seen, so we talked all the way through it. There was just something about him that drew me to him. Even though we're from totally opposite worlds, something about us just clicked." That chemistry soon turned into a serious relationship, even though they came from different worlds. "When he first told me about his past, I was thinking, 'OK, everybody has something in their past.'" she said. "The first time I actually saw anything was only two or three weeks after we started dating and he took off for a couple days, which I didn't understand. I thought it was me. When he came back, he began to explain to me. The whole time, I think he was trying to fight this on his own. Finally, over the past few years, he's learned to let God control it. That's how he's overcome this." According to Bronson, living in two completely different worlds was just getting to be too much. "By August of 2007, I was convinced I couldn't continue as a gang leader, a functioning addict and a Christian," he said. "So, I went to the national leadership of this organization and said, 'Either take my life or give it back to me.' National leadership and state leadership took a two-year period to vote and decided. In July of 2009, I was allowed to go on with my life. For someone who achieves a level of rank or the level of leadership I had achieved, that doesn't happen. That was an act of God." After getting out of the gang, Bronson's next obstacle was his addiction, and he hasn't had any drugs or alcohol since Aug. 8, 2008. He credits his sobriety to Christ, his loving wife, and the tireless counsel of Grace College professor Dr. Mark Soto and Jeff “Hoss” Smith from Serenity House. "Until the time in 1996 all the way up until 2007, I kept trying to be a Christian and a gang leader," he said. "Couldn't do it. I kept getting filled with guilt and shame. What would happen was, I'd go out and punish myself through addiction. That cycle just continued." Helping him overcome his demons were his relationships with men of Christ, led by Soto, who he met through Boren in 1998. Soto has been with him through tough times, including the passing of his parents, as well as his oldest brother, who were the closest family he had. "His father observed (several of our intensive Christian based counseling sessions) and decided this was something he wanted for Kevin," Soto said of his discipleship of Bronson. "So, I began a more intensive relationship with him that resulted in him going to rehab centers. Once he got out of those, he'd continue for a while and go through a pattern of doing fairly well and talking about his faith, but then falling off the wagon. At that point, to use Paul's words in 2nd Timothy 3, ‘He had the form of Godliness, but denied the power of it.’” Along with Soto, Men Following Christ co-founder Don Clemens has also witnessed Bronson's devotion and transformation. "Kevin is always a bright spot at our monthly meetings," Clemens said. "His cheery attitude and love for God is very evident." Along with salvation, Bronson's life story has caught the eye of Hollywood. "There's just an enormous amount of projects and attention, and I don't think it has anything to do with Kevin Bronson," Bronson said. "I think it has everything to do with what God walked me through. I honestly believe God chose to sing a song of his son Jesus Christ through my life. I now know it's my responsibility to walk that out." The process of getting his life told on paper and on film began in 2008 when he met producer Michael Webber. "In 2008, it was my first induction into the United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame for being the winningest fighter," Bronson said. "At that event, there was a movie producer named Michael Webber that was there filming a documentary on another man, who had fought back when I fought. The movie was just released about him, titled 'Elephant in the Room' and his name was Tim Harrison, a famous police officer out of Ohio. At that hall of fame event, some people had mentioned to Michael Webber about 'You ought to look into Kevin Bronson's story.' We got to talking that night and couple weeks later, I got a phone call saying, 'Hey, I think a company would be interested in your life story.' That's how it got started." And those conversations have been ongoing. "I became interested in his story because it represented many elements that I look for in cinematic storytelling," Webber said. "I have always been drawn to true stories and Kevin's rise to the pinnacle of the martial arts world and ultimate fall from grace and incarceration is remarkable. But I am especially compelled with his subsequent and ongoing redemption, which is the hook that keeps me interested and hopeful that his story will be told." With Webber's experience in film, he's helped guide Bronson through the Hollywood world, where along with Baker, he's helped by Hollywood manager and agent Nelson Diaz. "With my experience producing and directing films, I have been involved from a consultation standpoint – helping Kevin and his team move the projects into development and hopefully into production when the time is right," Webber said. "As part of that process, Kevin is working with his management group in California, documenting significant aspects of his story and working with a writer to flesh out and develop it into a workable form. It can sometimes take an emotional toll on a person, going back to those dark places in their life, but it's a necessary and important part of the process. Kevin has shown to be as mentally and spiritually tough as he was physically in his fighting days." Bronson and members of his team recently spent a week in Hollywood and Burbank Calif., where his life was dissected from ages 5 to 32, which hasn't been easy for him, but they have two more trips planned before summer to continue the needed work of taping, writing and recording all the events, stories and facts of his life. "The Hollywood experience I've had so far has been very overwhelming and complex," Bronson said. "It's emotionally draining to have to relive, moment by moment, detail by detail, the good, bad and ugly parts of my life for the world to eventually read and see on the screen, and to see people dissecting the story right in front of you and questioning you in a matter-of-fact way. Being excited over years of things that gave you pain, is frustrating." No matter how difficult it may be, many believe it's a story that screams to be told. "I heard his life story in pieces," Soto said. "I never got it in one shot. He would just mead out pieces during our friendship. I've gotten a chance to read all the documentation, so when you put it all together, it is a remarkable story. It is unbelievable how much one man has actually gone through in the three domains in which he's had, what people would call, success. Whether its the gangs, organized crime or the fighting career. It is pretty wild. But it's real." The only problem with his story may be all the different aspects of it. "There are probably too many different stages of his life for it to be one story," Baker said. "I think it plays out in a couple different formats. That's where we really are, in terms of putting all those pieces together. There's everything you'd want. There's the 'Karate Kid' part, to the millionaire playboy, and the rise and fall of that. Then, the whole prison story and how his life's turned around since that." And it's the final part of the story that really interests Bronson. "This whole thing is about Christ singing a song," he said. "God is putting together a team to sing a song of his son's salvation. That's what I truly believe is going on." After an arrest for driving across a private parking lot without a license in September 2010 put him back in the county jail, he wasn’t released until August of 2012. During this time he kept his head up, keeping a positive attitude and remained in the word of God. He had a lot of support from many people in the community, including Dr. Soto and individuals from Relentless Martial Arts Academy and Christ’s Covenant Church, among other close personal friends. "I just knew I had to keep going to see him," Lisa said about her then-fiance's time in jail. "I could tell then there was just a total difference in him. He'd finally been able to let go of the past. When I looked into his eyes, I could see there was victory over his past." And he wasn't doing it alone, receiving counsel from one of Christ's Covenant Church Pastors Nate McLaurin, as he was able to connect with Bronson having lived through addiction and organized crime activities himself. "As we all do, we all carry a lot of baggage," McLaurin said. "We've all been conditioned by our history and we all have battles to face. As a shepherd of the flock, it's my commitment to walk alongside people in those battles." Upon his release, Bronson and Lisa were married on Oct. 13, 2012 at Christ's Covenant Church and things are going well. "I couldn't ask for it to be better," Lisa said. "For me, I couldn't ask for a better husband. He loves me, I know that he loves me. Oh, we still butt heads sometimes, but that's natural. It's like the old saying, hand in glove. We just fit. His goals and his desires he has, he wants to help people. With personal training, with people struggling with addictions, with jail ministries – all of those things he has a heart for now, just makes him more attractive. I'm proud to be his wife. Proud to be his friend." With Hollywood calling, Bronson, Soto, and Bronson’s attorneys have set up two organizations, one for profit, Young Dragon Enterprises, Inc., as well as the SIB Foundation (non-profit) which honors the memory of his late father and focuses on ministry. The foundation will be led and directed by the spirit of Jesus Christ, through Soto and a board of directors. While he has Hollywood projects in the works, he's still working close to home, helping with personal fitness training, nutritional counseling and martial arts instruction at Relentless Martial Arts Academy and Fitness Center at 524 E. Market St. in Warsaw with his partner and co- owner David Sumpter. "We teach over five martial arts ranging from MMA to traditional martial arts," Bronson said. "Open gym facility with equipment and personal training programs and nutritional counseling." "He called us, told us he'd heard about us and wanted a place to train," Sumpter said. "With him being a martial artist for so long, it's kind of stupid not to take a Hall of Fame, Grandmaster's point of view too. I can pick his brain on certain things, although its complete different martial arts, martial arts share a lot of the same things just put together in different ways." Working side-by-side, the two have a student-teacher, teacher-student type of relationship. "I get to be his student, and then, he gets to be my student," Bronson said. "We're not only teachers, but we're each other's students. Then, we're also each other’s friends and we're each other’s business partners. We have accountability with each other on almost every aspect of life. That's part of my life and I wouldn't be there without David Sumpter." But Sumpter isn't the only one Bronson gives credit to for being where he is today. "The two things that allowed me the strength to survive were my martial arts training, which gave me the physical strength to survive and live through all the battles, but also family and childhood friendships," he said. "Some of those people I haven't talked to in 30, 40 years. But it was those friendships and memories that I hung on to, that I never forgot. When it got to be the bloodiest and darkest, somehow those things always helped me through it." And those friends and family have helped forge the man and the story, which is one that may soon be on the big screen. Bronson is also excited about two of his childhood martial arts instructors being back in his life: Grand Master Randy Harvell and Master Don Wolf. "The story is just too unique and entirely too dramatic that it almost begs to be made into a movie," Soto said. "The remarkable thing for me is how God has arranged people in his path – from the initial conversations that he had a few years ago with an agent, to now having on-board personnel that have real credibility in the Hollywood community. Just watching how it's all falling together is almost a dramatic story all in itself."
