Rhee’s taekwondo schools thrived, in no small part because of the martial-arts boom sparked by Kung Fu, a television series starring David Carradine that aired on the ABC network from 1972 to 1975. And Rhee’s ads and theme song had incredible legs, even getting a nod from The Americans, a period-piece show where writers work overtime to get everything right about D.C. in the 1980s.
Rhee told me in 2000, at the age of 68, that to stay in top shape he did 1,000 pushups a day and would hold one leg over his head whenever he watched television. His goal, he said then, was to “live to be 136.”
Alas, he didn’t make his target age. But to generations of D.C. residents, Rhee seems utterly immortal.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dave McKenna
Staff Writer
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