Ray Park

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"As a kid, I used to always fantasize about, you know, being in movies and doing the type of martial art moves and skills and tricks as my masters would do, so I would go away and practice it and, because I would see that and visualize it, it was there in my head to keep on practicing. Even though it was hard, I've not always got it and I got frustrated, I knew as a kid and a teenager that by putting the work in and the practice and the sweat, blood, and tears and the dedication it would get there eventually. And then I got lucky. Y'know, my sort-of dreams were answered in the sense of being part of movies, but I never thought in a million years that that I would be doing Star Wars or G.I. Joe. The sort of thing I wanted to do was Hong Kong action, you know?"

―Ray Park^[src]

Raymond Michael "Ray" Park (born August 23, 1974) is a Scottish actor who portrayed Maul in The Phantom Menace and Solo: A Star Wars Story. The character was voiced first by Peter Serafinowicz and later by Sam Witwer, whose lines were dubbed over Park's. Ray Park's talents as a martial artist allowed him to perform the difficult moves required by the role.

Park performed stunts as The Headless Horseman in Sleepy Hollow (1999, Tim Burton), although the Horseman was played by Christopher Walken in non-combat scenes. Park also portrayed another athletic villain, Toad, in the first X-Men film (2000, Bryan Singer). Toad briefly showed off his "lightsaber" skills in the movie with a metal pole as homage to his Star Wars counterpart; similarly, the Headless Horseman also moves his sword in this fashion.

In a 2007 interview with C.C. Banana, Park revealed that he intends to pass along his martial arts wisdom by opening his own training academy in Los Angeles, with hopes of later taking the venture worldwide.