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Bruce Lee
Who2 Biography:Bruce Lee, Actor / Martial Artist
- Born: 27 November 1940
- Birthplace: San Francisco, California
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Died: 20 July 1973
(brain edema)
- Best Known As: Star of Enter the Dragon
Bruce Lee is the granddaddy of high-kicking, fist-fighting movie
martial artists. He got his start in America as Kato, the sidekick in
the jokey 1960's TV series The Green Hornet. Later he went to
Hong Kong and more or less founded the institution of kung fu movies.
Wiry and charismatic, Lee reached a pinnacle in 1973 with Enter The Dragon. His untimely death before the film's release helped make him an enduring cult figure. Other films include Way of the Dragon (1972), The Big Boss (1971) and Marlowe (1969, with James Garner).
The coroner ruled that Lee died of a brain edema (accumulation of
fluid and swelling) caused by an abnormal reaction to painkillers he had
been prescribed for back pain... His son, Brandon Lee, was killed by a
bullet accidentally fired from a prop gun while making the movie The Crow in 1993.
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:Bruce Lee
(born Nov. 27, 1940, San Francisco, Calif., U.S. — died
July 20, 1973, Hong Kong) U.S. film actor. The son of a touring Chinese
opera star, he spent his childhood in Hong Kong, where he acted in
several movies. He returned to the U.S., and in 1966 he landed a role in
the television series The Green Hornet. In the early 1970s he became a popular star of martial-arts action films, including Fist of Fury (1972) and Enter the Dragon
(1973), which gained an international cult following. His career was
cut short by his sudden death at 33 from a brain edema suffered after
taking a pain killer. Nevertheless, his films remained popular and
became widely imitated. His son Brandon Lee (1965 – 93) was emerging as
an action-movie star when he died in a shooting accident on a movie set.
For more information on Bruce Lee, visit Britannica.com. At the time of his sudden and mysterious death in 1973,
actor and martial arts expert Bruce Lee (1940-1973) was on the verge of
international super-stardom. Rooted strongly in both Oriental and
Western cultures, Lee brought to the ancient Chinese fighting art of
kung fu the grace of a ballet dancer. He was an actor as well, and
infused his performances with humor and a dramatic sensibility that
assured a place for king fu films as a new form of cinematic art. Raised in San Francisco, California, Hong Kong, and Seattle, Washington, Lee had gained his first American audience with a groundbreaking role on the 1966-67 television series The Green Hornet.
Eager to challenge Hollywood's stereotypical images of Asian Americans,
he returned to Hong Kong and ultimately developed his own style of kung
fu. On the strength of his film, Enter the Dragon (1973), Lee
returned to the attention of American audiences and posthumously ushered
in a new era of cinematic art. Stars such as David Carradine,
Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal, and fellow Hong
Kong martial artist Jackie Chan would follow his example, making Lee the
father of an enduring style of action hero. The "Strong One" In
1939 Lee's father, a popular Chinese opera star, brought his wife and
three children with him from Hong Kong to San Francisco while he toured
the United States as a performer. At the end of the following year, on
November 27, 1940, another son was born to the Lees. In accordance with
Chinese tradition, they had not named him, as his father was away in New
York; therefore the mother took the advice of her physician and called
the boy Bruce because it meant "strong one" in Gaelic. Lee reportedly
had a number of Chinese names, but it would be by the name of Bruce that
he would become famous. Stardom began early, with his first film appearance at age three months in a movie called Golden Gate Girl.
By then it was 1941, and though their native Hong Kong was occupied by
Japanese troops, the Lees decided to return home. According to Chinese
superstition, demons sometimes try to steal male children. Out of fear
for the young boy's safety, they dressed him as a girl, and even made
him attend a girl's school for a while. Meanwhile Lee grew up around the
cinema, and appeared in a Hong Kong movie when he was four. Two years
later, a director recognized his star quality and put him in another
film. By the time he graduated from high school, Lee had appeared in
some twenty films. As a teenager, he became involved in two seemingly contradictory
activities: gang warfare and dance. As a dancer he won a cha-cha
championship, and as a gang member he risked death on the streets of
Hong Kong. Out of fear that he might be caught at some point without his
gang, helpless
before a group of rivals, Lee began to study the Chinese martial arts
of kung fu. The style that attracted his attention was called wing chun,
which according to legend was developed by a woman named Yim Wing Chun,
who improved on the techniques of a Shaolin Buddhist nun. Lee absorbed
the style, and began adding his own improvements. This proved too much
for the wing chun masters, who excommunicated him from the school. Lee's
film career continued, and he was becoming a popular actor in the Hong
Kong film scene. Producer Run Run Shaw offered the high schooler a lucrative
contract, and Lee wanted to take it. But when he got into trouble with
the police for fighting, his mother sent him to the United States to
live with friends of the family. Teacher and Actor Lee
finished high school in Edison, Washington, near Seattle. He then
enrolled as a philosophy major at the University of Washington, where he
supported himself by giving dance lessons and waiting tables at a
Chinese restaurant. As a kung fu teacher instructing fellow university
students, he met Linda Emery, whom he married in 1964. The
newlyweds moved to California, and Lee-who had begun developing a new
fighting style called jeet kune do-ultimately opened three schools in
Los Angeles, Oakland, California, and Seattle. He also began to pursue
his acting more seriously, and landed a part in the TV series The Green Hornet. The show was based on a 1930s radio program, and Lee played the role of the Hornet's Asian assistant, Kato.
He virtually created the role, imbuing Kato with a theatrical fighting
style quite unlike that which Lee taught in his schools. The show would
be cancelled after one season, but fans would long remember Lee's role. After the end of The Green Hornet, Lee made guest appearances on TV shows such as Longstreet and Ironside. His most notable role during this time was in the film Marlowe
(1969) with James Garner, when he played a memorable part as a
high-kicking villain. Clearly Lee had the qualities of a star; but it
was just as clear that an Asian American faced limitations within the
Hollywood system, which tended to cast Oriental actors in stereotypical
roles. Therefore in 1971, the Lees, including son Brandon (born 1965),
and daughter Shannon (born 1967) moved to Hong Kong. Dramatic Rise, Tragic End Back in Hong Kong, Lee soon signed a two-film contract, and released the movie known to U.S. audiences as Fists of Fury
late in 1971. The story, which featured Lee as a fighter seeking
revenge on those who had killed his kung fu master, was not original in
itself; but the presentation of it was, and the crucial element was Lee.
He combined the smooth, flowing style of jeet kune do that he taught in
his schools with the loud, aggressive, and highly theatrical methods he
had employed as Kato. With the graceful, choreographic qualities of his
movements; his good looks and charm; his sense of humor and his acting
ability, Lee was one of a kind-a star in the making. Fists of Fury set box-office records in Hong Kong which were broken only by his next picture, The Chinese Connection,
in 1972. Lee established his own film company, Concord Pictures, and
began directing movies. The first of these would appear in the U.S. as Way of the Dragon.
Lee was enthusiastic about his future, not merely as a performer, but
as an artist: "With any luck, " he told a journalist shortly before his
death, "I hope to make … the kind of movie where you can just watch the
surface story, if you like, or can look deeper into it." Unfortunately,
Lee would not live to explore his full potential as a filmmaker: on July
20, 1973, three weeks before his fourth film, Enter the Dragon, was released in the United States, he died suddenly. Lee's death became a source of controversy. Officially the cause of death was brain swelling as a reaction to aspirin
he had taken for a back injury. But the suddenness of his passing,
combined with his youth, his good health, and the bizarre timing on the verge of his explosion as an international superstar, spawned rumors that he had been killed by hit men. Some speculated he had run afoul
of the Chinese mafia and other powerful interests in the Hong Kong film
industry, and had been poisoned. Throughout his life, Lee had been
obsessed by fears of his early death, and some believed that the
brilliant young star had some sort of bizarre "curse" on him. According
to legend and rumor, when Lee bought a house in Hong Kong shortly
before his death, he incurred the wrath of the neighborhood's resident
demons. The curse is said to last for three generation. Tragically, the
notion of a curse gained eerie
credence on June 18, 1993-a month and two days before the 20th
anniversary of Lee's death-when Brandon Lee died under equally strange
circumstances. While filming a scene for the movie The Crow, he was shot
by a gun that supposedly contained blanks but in fact had a live round
lodged in its chamber. Like his father, Brandon Lee was on the verge of stardom. Lee gave the world an enormous artistic legacy, in the process virtually creating a new cinematic art form. By the 1990s, Enter the Dragon
alone had grossed more than $100 million, and Lee's influence could be
found in the work of numerous Hollywood action heroes. In 1993, Jason
Scott Lee (no relation) appeared in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, directed by Rob Cohen. Actress Lauren Holly played Lee's wife Linda, and Holly became friends with Lee's daughter Shannon. Shannon
Lee once told People that she had not inherited any of her father's or
brother's fighting abilities. Although she became host of a TV show
featuring martial arts competitions, she has said in most respects she
was quite unlike her father. Further Reading Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television, Volume 15, Gale, 1996. Hoffman, Charles, Bruce Lee, Brandon Lee, and the Dragon's Curse, Random House, 1995. International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, Volume 3: Actors and Actresses, St. James Press, 1992. Jahn, Michael, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Jove Books, 1993. Lee, Linda, The Life and Tragic Death of Bruce Lee, Star Books, 1975. Notable Asian Americans, Gale, 1995. Uyehara, M., Bruce Lee: The Incomparable Fighter, Ohara Publications, 1988. Maclean's, May 10, 1993. People, October 23, 1995. Time, May 17, 1993. |