Happy Birthday to actress Jan Gan Boyd, Charles Bronson’s co-star in ASSASSINATION (1987)!

Posted on January 6, 2025 by Bradley Crain

I wanted to take a moment and show some appreciation for actress Jan Gan Boyd on her birthday. Jan has been a part of my life since I was 13 years old since she co-starred with Charles Bronson in the 1987 Cannon film ASSASSINATION.

In a nutshell, the plot of ASSASSINATION revolves around secret service agent Jay Killian (Bronson), who finds himself in the position of trying to protect an extremely strong-willed first lady (Jill Ireland) from assassins trying to kill her. Jan plays Charlotte “Charlie” Chang, a member of the team assigned to protect the first lady, who has an extra special relationship with Killian. And while ASSASSINATION is not one of Charles Bronson’s best movies, I always liked Jan in the film. She had spunk and attitude, and her relationship with Bronson’s character is definitely unique in Bronson’s 80’s filmography. Believe it or not, Killian and Charlie had casual sex, and she survived the end of the movie to talk about it! As a matter of fact, her exchange with Killian the next morning leads to one of the great moments of Bronson dialogue:

Charlie Chang: “Killy, why don’t you move in here permanently?”

Jay Killian: “I don’t want to die of a terminal orgasm!”

I guess lines like that bond actors for life and Jan stayed friends with Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland all the way up to each of their deaths.

Jan got her start in the movies through her abilities as a trained dancer when she co-starred with Michael Douglas in the 1985 film, A CHORUS LINE, directed by Richard Attenborough. I think she’s one of the best characters in the film. And 1987 was a very busy year for Jan. After filming ASSASSINATION with Bronson, she would co-star with Martin Kove in the film STEELE JUSTICE, and then with David Soul in HARRY’S HONG KONG. She would spend the next few years of her career doing guest spots on shows like CHEERS, SISTERS, and SILK STALKINGS. It was at this point that she took a break from her career to get married and raise a family. Over the last few years, she has started to get involved in voice-over work, as well as appearing on shows like “Dance Dish,” where she discussed her time as a dancer and her work on A CHORUS LINE.

On a personal note, I must say that Jan Gan Boyd is one of the sweetest ladies I’ve ever met. My partner Eric Todd and I got the opportunity to interview her for an episode of the THIS WEEK IN CHARLES BRONSON podcast a couple of years ago. She told us some of the best stories about Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland, as well as what it was like to work with them on ASSASSINATION. She truly loved them in real life, and it was so fun sharing that time with her. As a matter of fact, over on our TWICB Facebook page, every January is now Jan-Gan-uary! I’ve attached a link to the podcast episode if you would like to hear more from Jan about her career and her work with Bronson, Michael Douglas, and Richard Attenborough.

Monday Live Tweet Alert: Join Us For Project Eliminator and Assassination!

Posted on January 29, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in hosting a few weekly live tweets on twitter and occasion ally Mastodon. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of Mastodon’s #MondayActionMovie ! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We snark our way through it.

Tonight, for #MondayActionMovie, the film will be 1991’s Project Eliminator! Selected and hosted by Rev. Magdalen, this movie is Canadian! So, you know it has to be good!

Following #MondayActionMovie, Brad and Sierra will be hosting the #MondayMuggers live tweet. We will be watching 1987’s Assassination!

It should make for a night of fun viewing and I invite all of you to join in. If you want to join the live tweets, just hop onto Mastodon, pull up Project Eliminator on YouTube, start the movie at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag! Then, at 10 pm et, switch over to Twitter, check the hashtag for the link to the movie and then start Assassination, and use the #MondayMuggers hashtag! The live tweet community is a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.

A Movie A Day #209: Assassination (1987, directed by Peter R. Hunt)

Posted on August 5, 2017 by Jedadiah Leland

Charles Bronson, man.

Long before Clint Eastwood starred in In The Line of Fire, Charles Bronson played an over the hill secret service agent in Assassination. Having just returned to active service after a six month leave of absence, Jay Killian (Charles Bronson), thinks that he is going to be assigned back to the presidential detail. Instead, he is given the job that no one wants. Jay is assigned to protect the first lady, Lara Craig (Jill Ireland, Bronson’s real-life wife).

Lara is a handful. Every one tells Killian that she is “even worse than Nancy.” (This running joke probably played better in 1987. If Assassination had been released ten years later, Lara would have been described as being “even worse than Hillary.”) Lara does not like being told what she can and cannot do. When she refuses to follow Killian’s orders not to ride in a convertible, she ends up getting a black eye when a motorcycle crashes and Killian instinctively throws her to the floor. Lara may not like Killian but when, she is targeted by a notorious terrorist (Erik Stern), she will have to learn to trust him. Her life depends on it, especially when it becomes clear that the order to have her killed is coming from inside the White House. It turns out that the President has been impotent for years. That may not have troubled Lara before but now Killian is showing her that a real man looks like Charles Bronson. A divorced president will never be reelected. A widowed president, on the other hand…

Assassination was one of the last films that Bronson made for Cannon. It’s never as wild as Murphy’s Law, Kinjite, or many of Bronson’s other Cannon films but it is always interesting to watch Bronson acting opposite of Ireland. Bronson famously did not get along with many people but he loved Ireland and that was something that always came through in the 15 movies that they made together. Whenever Bronson and Ireland acted opposite each other, Bronson actually seemed to be enjoying himself. And while it may be subdued when compared to his other Cannon films, Assassination provides just enough scenes of Bronson being Bronson.

Who other than Bronson could tell his much younger girlfriend that, because of her, he might “die of terminal orgasm?”

Who other than Bronson could drive around a motorcycle with machine gun turrets and execute a jump that would put his old co-star Steve McQueen to shame?

Who other than Bronson could use a bazooka to kill one man and then smile about it?

Charles Bronson, man. No offense to Bruce Willis, who will be trying to step into Bronson’s gigantic shoes with the upcoming Death Wish remake, but nobody did it better than Bronson.