Enter the Dragon Star Jim Kelly Dies

Jim Kelly, a martial artist who starred alongside Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon, died Saturday of cancer at his home in San Diego, Calif., The Associated Press reports. He was 67.

Born in Paris, Ky., Kelly attended the University of Louisville and played football, but eventually turned his attention to karate and other martial arts. In 1971, won the middleweight title at the 1971 Long Beach International Karate Championships and opened his own dojo afterward.

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In 2010, Kelly told Salon.com that working on Enter the Dragon, in which he played wisecracking martial artist Williams,was "one of the best experiences in my life. Of his co-star Lee, Kelly said: "Bruce was just incredible, absolutely fantastic. I learned so much from working with him. I probably enjoyed working with Bruce more than anyone else I'd ever worked with in movies because we were both martial artists. And he was a great, great martial artist. It was very good."

Kelly's other film credits in the 1970s include Three the Hard Way and Black Belt Jones.