Cynthia Rothrock is an American film actress and athlete, the owner of seven black belts in various martial arts. In the eighties and nineties, she was known to fans of action films as the "queen of kung fu." Cynthia Rothrock's career in cinema has been going on for more than thirty years, during which time she starred in about sixty films.
Cynthia Rothrock as an athlete
Cynthia Rothrock was born in 1957 in Wilmington (Delaware). She began playing sports at the age of thirteen, following the example of family friends who had orange belts in tangsudo, a Korean martial art. Thanks to her perseverance and grueling training, Cynthia, who was not distinguished by outstanding physical data (her height is only 160 centimeters), was able to achieve tremendous success in this direction.
In the late seventies, at the age of 21, the athlete became the wife of her kung fu instructor Ernest Rothrock.
From 1981 to 1985, Cynthia was the US Karate Champion in the Weapon Kata category. In 1983, Rothrock became the first representative of the fair sex to appear on the cover of the most authoritative American martial arts magazine Black Belt. Then the editorial board of the magazine recognized her as "woman of the year".
Career in Hong Kong
In 1985, Cynthia Rothrock signed a contract with the Golden Harvest film studio and moved to live in Hong Kong. The first film in which she played a prominent role was called "Yes, Madame!"
The athlete stayed in Hong Kong until 1988, and during this time she took part in seven films. Ultimately, she became a real star of the local cinema. However, here she not only starred in action films, but also trained in various martial arts schools.
Career in Hollywood from 1990 to 2004
In the late eighties, at the initiative of producer Pierre David, Cynthia returned to her homeland - in the United States. The same producer offered her the lead role in the Hollywood film Curfew, which was released in 1990.
Over the next ten years, she made a good career in category B action films. Among the films in which Cynthia starred during this period - "Hasty Flight" (1991), "Tiger Claw" (1991), "Defiant" (1993), "The Eye for an eye "(1996)," Checkmate "(1997).
In 1999, Cynthia and Ernest Rothrock had a daughter - she was named Sophia. After that, the couple lived together for some time, but in the end they filed for divorce. Sofia stayed with her mother.
In 2004, Cynthia Rothrock played a heroine named Sally Kirk in the movie "Fantastic Fighter", and then practically left Hollywood cinema for several years. During this period, she was primarily engaged in teaching martial arts in her studio in Los Angeles.
Recent film work and other activities
In 2012, Cynthia again proved herself as a film actress - she starred in the family film "Santa's Summer Home".
In 2014, she, along with Kristanna Loken, Bridget Nielsen and Zoe Bell, took part in the action movie Mercenaries, and in 2016 she played a small role in the Russian-American film Showdown in Manila (directed by Mark Dacascos, another famous actor of action movies of the nineties).
It should be added that cinema is far from the only sphere of activity of Cynthia Rothrock today. She owns several gyms, comments on martial arts competitions, teaches practical kung fu workshops and travels a lot around the world.
