David Belle is a French actor, film choreographer and stunt coordinator.
He is deemed the Founder or leading pioneer of the physical discipline Parkour, coining
it based on his training and the teachings from his father Raymond Belle.
This art of motion has since spread around the world and now has adherents in many countries.
Belle came to fame via his videos which spread on the internet and also via his film work
including his most well known films, District 13 and District 13: Ultimatum, which were
written and produced by Luc Besson.
Belle has also worked on Babylon A.D.
with Vin Diesel, Prince of Persia, with Jake Gyllenhaal, Colombiana with Zoe Saldana, and
The Family, with Robert De Niro.
Life and career Belle was born and raised in Fécamp, France,
the son of Monique and Raymond Belle.
He descends from a modest family in the suburbs of Paris.
His grandfather Gilbert Kitten, father Raymond, and brother Jean-François Belle have been
highly skilled rescuers in the Military Paris Fire Brigade.
In 1984, at the age of 11, Belle moved to Lisses, France.
He made close friends with a group of teenagers with similar physical passions who began training
with him.
Some of the friends that trained with David would later become known as the Yamakasi.
Later in life David spent time in the military and fire brigade with aspirations of following
in his father's and grandfather's footsteps.
He left soon after for personal reasons in order to dedicate himself to Parkour.
He later joined the Troupes de marine in Vannes, where he received a promotion, a gymnastic
agility certificate of honour, and champion records for regimental rope-climbing and the
Essonne obstacle course.
He has however said that his taste and love for adventure and freedom did not go well
with the regimented life of the military.
Upon completing his national service, he worked in various professions including a warehouse
worker, security guard and furniture salesman.
He also spent 3 months in India studying kung fu.
After his return he continued his training in Parkour and filmed footage of his capabilities
which he later turned into the famous Speed Air Man video.
In 1997 the Stade 2 team were shown a video of Belle and decided to film a news feature
about parkour.
In filming this news feature the term Yamakasi was used for the first time in connection
with the team.
David did not approve of the name and felt like it did not give credit to his father,
so he split from the group after the feature.
Later David would go on to train other students who gave themselves the name 'tracer.'
The spelling was later adapted to 'traceur', and has since been used to define a practitioner
of Parkour.
However more recently, David claimed that "A Traceur is not a practitioner of Parkour,
a Traceur is someone who is trying to understand Parkour."
Belle was first introduced to his acting career in a meeting with Hubert Koundé, in order
to discuss the success of Parkour in cinema.
He then began developing his acting ability with the play Pygmalion, and has since been
successful in obtaining a number of roles mostly in French films and promotions.
Belle has been featured in promotional videos for Tina Turner, and Iam.
He has starred in "Les gens du voyages" and "Un monde meilleur", followed by "L'Engrenages"
and "Femme Fatale", as well as "Les rivières pourpres 2", starring Jean Reno.
After filming several more advertisements and promotions for the BBC, Nissan, Canon,
and Nike, Belle was contacted by Luc Besson regarding co-starring as lead actor with Cyril
Raffaelli in the action movie District 13, followed by the sequel District 13: Ultimatum.
Belle co-starred with Paul Walker in Brick Mansions, a remake of District 13.
On 16 April 2012 Belle announced in a status on his Facebook that he was soon going to
become a father to a boy.
On 18 December, he posted a picture introducing the Parkour community and world to his son
Isaïah.
Filmography Acting
"Louis Page" as Laurent Engrenage, L' as Le créancier
Femme Fatale as French cop District 13 as Leïto
District 13: Ultimatum as Leïto Métal Hurlant Chronicles as Red Light
Brick Mansions as Lino The Family as Mezzo
"Jaya" 2014 Stunts
BBC One's advertising campaign Canon commercial
Nike commercial Nissan commercial
Crimson Rivers II: Angels of the Apocalypse Transporter 2
Prince of Persia : The Sands of Time Covert Affairs
Colombiana Media figure and business interests
In spite of Belle's fame he has stayed largely out of the media light over the years.
Aside from the occasional Facebook updates, he is known for being camera shy, but this
is most likely due to his principles and morals.
His last well known appearance was made in when he appeared as a guest at the New Yorker
Festival in 2007.
Belle also interviewed for the article "No Obstacles" written by Alec Wilkinson which
was published in April 2007.
Belle currently endorses the clothing company Take Flight.
David Belle's Parkour groups Les Traceurs
Belle was the leader of a group called "Les traceurs" which also included well known practitioner
Stephane Vigroux.
The name has since been used to refer to those that practice Parkour.
PAWA David helped form the Parkour World Association,
but he stopped the group for lack of cohesion.
Yamakasi Contrary to popular belief, David was never
a member of the Yamakasi group.
He was a part of the group that later called themselves the Yamakasi, but the group chose
the name Yamakasi during the filming of the Stade 2 news feature, credited as the first
news feature about Parkour.
Belle was against the name and wanted to call the practice Parkour.
He then split from the group after the feature because he felt that naming took away from
the recognition of the discipline and its history.
See also Parkour
Sébastien Foucan References
External links David Belle at the Internet Movie Database
David Belle @ ECI Global Talent Management