“The martial arts world and the Tiger Claw family lost a great man recently,” reflects Jonny Oh, President of Tiger Claw. “Harry Mok passed away and we are all worse off for it.” Grandmaster Harry Mok succumbed to Covid on January 27^th after an intense prolonged battle.

Anyone who knew Harry knew he was a passionate proponent of martial arts. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, he was a practitioner of Sil Lum, Choy Lay Fut, Kajukenbo, and Shotokan Karate, as well as numerous other styles he picked up along the way. An actor, stuntman, producer, writer, and so much more, his second film was an uncredited role in RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II (1985) where he formed a lifelong friendship with Sylvester Stallone. They worked together in 2019 on the Netflix animated film ANIMAL CRACKERS. Harry was an Executive Producer and Stallone voiced Bulletman.  And when Harry’s family started a Gofundme to help with his mounting medical expenses, Stallone donated $10,000.

Harry acted in a dozen roles, including playing Blade in TC 2000 (1993), a B-grade sci-fi martial arts film that also starred Billy Blanks and Bolo Yeung. TC 2000 was supported by Tiger Claw (Tiger Claw’s signature line of TC 2000 sparring gear was used for the post-apocalyptic armor). That was just one moment in his longstanding relationship with Tiger Claw.

“For as long as I’ve known Harry, he was a Tiger Claw Ambassador,” says Jonny. “One of my first memories of Harry was his performance at one of our Tiger Claw events in the 90s. He laid concrete slabs on his back, only to be broken by a sledgehammer - all while resting his throat on 2 swords! He was already doing movies, but he wasn’t too big for anyone, and he became a mentor to me.  He also introduced us to James Hong, who went on to MC out our 10th anniversary event for Kung Fu Magazine.  After I started working at Tiger Claw full time, he’d still periodically pop into the office and would call me from time to time to see how business was.  He was great promoter of the martial arts and a great friend to our family at Tiger Claw.  He’d always make any event that we invited him to.  I’m sad that he won’t be able to make the next tournament we host, but I know he is now at Peace.”

If you didn’t know Harry, he was larger than life. If you did know him, you knew he was the epitome of humility, loyalty, and kindness. I can’t remember exactly when I first met Harry. He was one of those guys who was just always there, always part of the Bay Area martial arts scene, and I’ve been active there since the late 70s.

It was always great to see Harry. He had a contagious optimism and got into some crazy projects. I remember him trying to sell me on this wacky basketball kickboxing mash-up he was promoting years ago. I think there were trampolines involved too. That seems absurd looking back on it now, but this is the way for many professional martial artists. We try all sorts of unusual experiments in hopes that one might bring more popularity to our art. Harry was adventurous and I still salute his audacity.

And man, Harry was buff. He served as the official shirtless (and oiled) gong ringer for our 10 Year Anniversary Gala, a role he accepted so gleefully. Harry had a body that could have only been forged by countless hours in the gym coupled with a lifetime of training martial arts. He was in fantastic shape, always generous with his advice on training, body building, and supplements.

The elephant in the room was Harry’s stance on vaccination. Like so many friends, I didn’t see him at all during the pandemic, so we never discussed it. He questioned vaccine side effects on his social media (he was always very mindful about what he put in his body) but ultimately, I don’t know if he ever got vaccinated. It’s distressing that someone as physically strong, healthy, and robust as Harry can become yet another Covid victim. Harry lived life on his own terms, and in his case, I’ll mourn him and not judge.

There’s an ongoing Gofundme to cover Harry’s medical bills – see Help Harry Mok with Recovery & Expense.

Note: Gigi Oh was too upset from the loss of Harry, along with several other close friends and family she has lost over the last few months, to contribute to this memoriam. She conveyed her thoughts to Jonny who added them to his comments. Additionally, as a matter of form, KungFuMagazine publishes the birth year of those we honor with memoriams. Harry's birth year was not double verified and posted incorrectly initially. He was born March 1st, 1958. We apologize for the error.