Terry O’Neill Sensei 8th Dan   

O'Neill Sensei was born in Liverpool on the 27th  February 1948, his father was a famous  police officer.  Like lots of young boys of his era he had a healthy interest and was fascinated by stories of people with great physical strength. In particular Tarzan of the Apes and Conan, which led to an interest in body building and martial arts.

He joined the famous Liverpool Jujutsu and Judo club. It was not long before he discovered the Liverpool karate club and told a little lie to get past the age restriction on members joining.

He studied with Andy Sherry who had started karate a few years earlier. The dojo had regular visits from Murakami Sensei, Vernon Bell, Terry Wingrove, Kanazawa Sensei and eventually Enoeda Sensei arrived and established himself as O’Neill Sensei’s main teacher.

His reputation in out of the dojo as a ferocious fighter and stylish kata performer in competition started in 1967 at the KUGB National Championships. O'Neill Sensei later won the KUGB National Championships Individual Kumite Kata title in 1972, 73, 74, 75, 77, and 1978. He was three times the KUGB Grand Champion and from 1967 to 1981, he was a member of the Red Triangle Team who were KUGB National Team Champions on no less than 13 occasions.  A member of the KUGB International Squad from 1968 till 1982, he was also Captain of the British All-Styles Squad who defeated Japan to win the 1975 World Championships held in Los Angeles, USA.

In 1972, he founded the UK Martial Arts magazine "Fighting Arts International", which he ran until 1997. Our own head instructor was a direct student of O’Neill Sensei and assisted and was a contributing writer to the magazine.

In 2006 the premier US martial arts magazine "Black Belt" published an unordered list of the "deadliest fighters on the planet" – the criteria was no deceased fighters and no mixed-martial artists, and attempted to subjectively rate the men according to how skilled they were in their prime, with Terry O'Neill listed No.1 .

Another aspect of Terry O'Neill's life is his work as an actor. He has appeared with such well-known names as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Caine and Sean Connery. He has also appeared on British Television in "Civvies" (1992), "Comics" (1993), and "The Governor" (1995), and more recently "The Commander: Windows of the Soul" (2007), "Giri" (2008) and "Above Suspicion" (2009). He has also acted as martial arts consultant on many other films.

Filmography

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)

Gangs of New York (2002)

Formula 51 (2001)

Quills (2000)

Entrapment (1999)

Kull the Conqueror (1997)

The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997)

Dragonheart (1996)

In the Name of the Father (1993)

Conan the Destroyer (1984)

O’Neill Sensei and Yamazaki Kaicho

O’Neill Sensei is a close friend of Yamazaki Kaicho and both worked together on several famous movie projects. He has been long-time supporter of the JKR and the JKRUK.