Welcome to 18 Trivia

JoAnn Willette can also be seen in the opening high school scenes as a high school student in the 1984 film "Real Genius".

As I said before, Welcome to 18 features a rare credited performance by Martial Arts legend Gene LeBell. LeBell’s accomplishments both as a stunt coordinator and a Martial Arts competitor would, (and do) fill many a web page, including genelebell.com. But as far as 80’s movies go, there’s one story that stands above the rest. LeBell is notorious for choking tough-guy “Aikido master”/actor Steven Seagal unconscious on the set of a film, after enduring many insults about his chosen art of Judo. Supposedly, Seagal boasted that LeBell’s techniques would not work in real life and after being goaded, LeBell offered to demonstrate Judo’s effectiveness. LeBell placed Seagal in what is known as a “rear naked” choke, a hold Seagal claimed he could easily escape. At the count of three, they locked up. Seagal desperately gouged at LeBell’s eyes and clawed at his groin in an attempt to escape the choke, but LeBell succeeded in rendering him unconscious in just seconds. As the pony-tailed actor slumped to the ground, a large stain appeared on the front of his pants. Steven Seagal had peed himself.

That’s the rumor at least, but in the Martial Arts community it’s considered a fact, and a lesson in the power of the grappling arts. LeBell’s Judo is fierce today and he trains many up-and-coming fighters, including UFC and WEC standout Karo Parysian, at his school in Hollywood. He has yet to work on another Steven Seagal film.

Mariska Hargitay’s mother was the infamous Jayne Mansfield, an actress and sex symbol who burned up the screen in the late Fifties and early Sixties, with such films as “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?” and “Too Hot to Handle”. In her later years she became involved with Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan and was killed in a horribly famous car accident. Mariska, three years old at the time and sitting in the back seat, survived. According to LaVey’s biography, the crash resulted from a “satanic curse” he had wished upon Mansfield’s boyfriend, Sam Brody, who was also killed. LeVey had not intended for Mansfield to be hurt and they were actually quite close.

The Mansfield wreck was redone, albeit with a significant twist, in the climax of David Cronenberg’s psychotic film about “automotive perversion”, “Crash”.

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