Mark Alan Dacascos was born on the 26th April 1964. in Honolulu, Hawaii, and is an American film and television actor and martial artist, whose big break on film came in 1993, when he starred in “Only the Strong” alongside Stacey Travis and Geoffrey Lewis. Since then, he has racked up numerous television and film credits, most notable being his recurring role as criminal Wo Fat in “Hawaii Five-0” (2010-2014).
Have you ever wondered how rich Mark Dacascos is, as of early 2017? According to authoritative sources, it has been estimated that Dacascos’s net worth is as high as $2 million, earned mainly through his successful career in acting which started in the mid-1980s .
Mark Dacascos Net Worth $2 Million
Mark Dacascos has a mixed heritage, since his father Al is of Chinese, Filipino, and Spanish ancestry, while his birth mother, Moriko McVey-Murray, is of Irish and Japanese ancestry. He has two brothers and three sisters. Mark’s talent for martial arts runs in the family, since his father is a martial arts instructor, as is his ex-stepmother, Malia Bernal. An award-winning martial artist, Malia raised him and served as his first martial arts teacher, along with his father. Mark’s education included Los Angeles Valley College, and later Portland State University in Oregon. He also studied various martial arts under various teachers, including Capoeira, Muay Thai, and Wushu. However, he is the most skilled in various styles of Kung Fu, winning numerous championships from 1973 to 1982.
Mark’s first role, that in Wayne Wang’s comedy film “Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart” (1985), never saw the light of day, since it ended on the cutting room floor. His film debut had to wait another five years, before he landed a small role in “Angel Town” (1990). His martial arts skills were noticed, leading to him starring in several action films in the next couple of years, including “American Samurai” (1992) and “Only the Strong” (1993), which cemented his status as a martial artist movie star – his career path brought him in close contact with the legacies of Bruce Lee, and his son, Brandon Lee, several times, strengthening this perception. First, Mark played Eric Draven in the short-lived television series “The Crow: Stairway to Heaven” (1998-1999), a spin-off from the 1994 movie “The Crow”, which starred Brandon Lee. Ten years later, Marko also joined the cast of Chinese television series “The Legend of Bruce Lee”, playing the part of Master Yamamoto, one of Bruce Lee’s greatest opponents.
Since 2005, Mark has played the role of The Chairman in the American cooking show “The Iron Chef America”. He has also played recurring roles in two hit television series, “Hawaii Five-0” (2010-2014) and “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” (2015-2016), which increased his net worth significantly. His other acting credits include guest-starring in “Stargate Atlantis” (2007-2008), “Chicago PD” (2014), and Lucifer” (2016). Additionally, he portrayed Kung Lao in the web series “Mortal Kombat: Legacy” (2013), based on the video game franchise of the same name.
As for his notable big screen roles, Mark starred in the 2001 French historical horror-action film “Brotherhood of the Wolf”, together with Samuel Le Bihan, Monica Bellucci, and Vincent Cassel. For this role, he was nominated for Saturn Awards in 2002 in the category of Best Supporting Actor. In recent years, he has extended his interests to directing, making his debut with the 2016 film, “Showdown in Manila”.
In his personal life, Mark Dacascos is married to the actress Julie Condra, who he met on the set of “Crying Freeman” (1995). Together, they have two sons and a daughter. In his free time, Mark enjoys surfing, snowboarding, and playing drums. Mark is multilingual, speaking English, French, German, and basic Mandarin Chinese.
Crying Freeman, Only the Strong, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Drive, Cradle 2 the Grave, Instinct to Kill, I Am Omega, Double Dragon, American Samurai, Kickboxer 5, Boogie Boy, Showdown in Manila, Code Name: The Cleaner, No Code of Conduct, China Strike Force, Roger Corman's Operation Rogue, Alien Agent...
TV Shows
The Next Iron Chef, Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight, The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, Hawaii Five-0, Dancing with the Stars, Iron Chef America, The Legend of Bruce Lee, Iron Chef Australia
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Trademark
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Cropped black hair and lean, muscular physique
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While I was doing Brotherhood of the Wolf, I had many conversations with the producer Sammy Hadida, who I worked with on "Only the Strong" and "Crying Freeman", about a possible sequel to Only the Strong, but he is very busy and the rights are tied up with a couple of other producers and Twentieth Century Fox.
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[on "Drive"] There were many changes in the producers 's version, which is very different from the director's cut by Steve Wang, that I prefer. They know I do not like their version, I told them. Even if the director's cut won at the Toronto Asian action movie Festival and in Japan, they insisted on their own version. I do not understand why. They changed the music. They cut out a whole part of the story, which means that you do not understand the motivations of the characters. They just put all the action scenes all together, without even thinking of the coherence. The original version was dealing with a whole story, with a very touching sensitivity.
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[on his favorite movie] All around, all time, I would still have to say...".Enter the Dragon". "Enter the Dragon" is probably the number one. And then as far as beautiful movement I think that Jet Li's "Shaolin Temple" was extraordinary. And then, "Snake in the Eagle's Shadow", Jackie Chan, still love that one.
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[on being cast as Eric Draven] Ed Pressman and one of his partners approached my representatives and asked if I would possibly doing the series. And I wanted absolutely. So I had a full on screen test with wig and make-up, actually it was a 4 hour screen test. I did three different things and a week later they called up and said I had the part. That's a fantastic role because I think Eric Draven has so much heart and Brandon did a good job portraying him.
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[on filming "The Crow"] Things were a bit intense during the filming of the pilot. There was a lot of pressure on everybody. Several executives were on the set for the first few days of shooting and here I was still trying to figure out the physicality of The Crow and of Eric. The cast and crew were also getting to know each other and trying to jell. Fortunately we did and, I thought, rather quickly.
Ex-stepson of martial artist/actress Malia Bernal.
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Hometown is Honolulu, Hawaii.
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He participated in season 9 of Dancing with the Stars (2005), partnering with Lacey Schwimmer. They made it to week 7 where Lacey unfortunately got sick, forcing Mark at short notice to dance with a new partner, Anna Trebunskaya, leading to a low score and eventual elimination.
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He met his wife Julie Condra during the shooting of Crying Freeman (1995) where they fittingly played a couple falling in love. They have two sons, Makoa and Kapono, and a daughter, Noelani.
Mark was educated at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, where he majored in Chinese and drama.
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Trained in Wun Hop Huen Do (It's a combination fist-arts style that derives from Kajukenbo (Karate, Judo Jujitsu, Kenpo, and Chinese & Western Boxing) and Chin Na, Shui Jao, Tai Chi and Capoeira.
Plays "The Chairman", on Iron Chef America: The Series (2005) on the Food Network, the fictional nephew of Takeshi Kaga, "Chairman Kaga" of the original Japanese series of Iron Chef programs.
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Special skills: Chinese Kung Fu, basic Capoeira, tumbling, surfing, snow boarding, drums.
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He speaks English, German, basic Mandarin and French.
$2 Million
