Vice President of Investor Relations, Mativ Holdings
Search every verified Robert Samuels interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Robert Samuels, also known as Sifu Robert (Bobby) Samuels, discussed his early career in a 2020 interview for the *Red Wolf* DVD extras. He said that in the early 1980s, he took a week's vacation from his job at US Air and flew to Hong Kong, his first time leaving the U.S. He recounted attempting to enter Shaw Brothers studio but being turned away by security guards, and then going to Golden Harvest. Samuels stated that he became the first black man inducted into the Hong Kong Stuntmen's Association after performing a stunt for action directors including Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. He also described becoming severely ill with toxic food poisoning after a film festival in China, which he said caused a heart attack and required treatment from specialists imported by Hung. Samuels noted that he had planned to resign from US Air and stay in Asia after smelling a layoff coming. He mentioned working on music video directing and a film project in development at the time of the interview, titled *Kung Fu Theater*, which he said was an offer from Mandalay/DreamWorks and was expected for release in late 2002 or early 2003.
“In the early 80s I got a job with US Air and the first year after I worked you get a week's vacation — I took that week and I flew to Hong Kong; I'd never been anywhere outside of the U.S., that was the first time I left the country.”
“I went to Golden Harvest — they were more or less known for Jackie Chan — and I also tried to get into Shaw Brothers but at the gate there were a bunch of old security guards who wouldn't let me pass.”
“Chuchi Ling tried to manage me — he thought it was unusual that a black guy would want to come all the way to Asia and be in movies, so he kind of tried to guide my career along.”
“I smelled the layoff coming at US Air, so I asked for my vacation weeks up front, requested advanced vacation pay, prepared a letter of resignation — the plan was to get the vacation pay, hand in the resignation and just stay in Asia.”
Sifu Robert Samuels, an idol of mine, was interviewed for extras on the Yuen Woo Ping directed Red Wolf DVD. Sifu Robert was ...
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