Bruce Lee[b] (born Lee Jun-fan;[c] November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was a Hong Kong-American martial artist, actor, filmmaker, and philosopher. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy which was formed from Lee’s experiences in unarmed fighting and self-defense—as well as eclectic, Zen Buddhist and Taoist philosophies—as a new school of martial arts thought.[2][3] With a film career spanning Hong Kong and the United States,[4][5][6] Lee is regarded as the first global Chinese film star and one of the most influential martial artists in the history of cinema.[7] Known for his roles in five feature-length martial arts films, Lee is credited with helping to popularize martial arts films in the 1970s and promoting Hong Kong action cinema.[8][9]
Born in San Francisco and raised in British Hong Kong, Lee was introduced to the Hong Kong film industry as a child actor by his father.[10] His early martial arts experience included Wing Chun (trained under Ip Man), tai chi, boxing (winning a Hong Kong boxing tournament), and frequent street fighting (neighborhood and rooftop fights). In 1959, Lee moved to Seattle, where he enrolled at the University of Washington in 1961.[11] It was during this time in the United States that he began considering making money by teaching martial arts, even though he aspired to have a career in acting. He opened his first martial arts school, operated out of his home in Seattle. After later adding a second school in Oakland, California, he once drew significant attention at the 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championships of California by making demonstrations and speaking. He subsequently moved to Los Angeles to teach, where his students included Chuck Norris, Sharon Tate, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
His roles in America, including playing Kato in The Green Hornet introduced him to American audiences. After returning to Hong Kong in 1971, Lee landed his first leading role in The Big Boss, directed by Lo Wei. A year later he starred in Fist of Fury, in which he portrayed Chen Zhen, and The Way of the Dragon, directed and written by Lee. He went on to star in the US-Hong Kong co-production Enter the Dragon (1973) and The Game of Death (1978).[12] His Hong Kong and Hollywood-produced films, all of which were commercially successful, elevated Hong Kong martial arts films to a new level of popularity and acclaim, sparking a surge of Western interest in Chinese martial arts. The direction and tone of his films, including their fight choreography and diversification,[13] dramatically influenced and changed martial arts and martial arts films worldwide.[14] With his influence, kung fu films began to displace the wuxia film genre—fights were choreographed more realistically, fantasy elements were discarded for real-world conflicts, and the characterisation of the male lead went from simply being a chivalrous hero to one that embodied the notion of masculinity.
Early life
Bruce Lee’s birth name was Lee Jun-fan.[19]
His father, Lee Hoi-chuen, was a Cantonese opera singer based in Hong Kong. His mother Grace Ho was born in Shanghai.[20] In December 1939, his parents traveled to California for an international opera tour in Chinatown, San Francisco.[21] Bruce was born there on November 27, 1940.[22] His birth in the U.S. allowed him to claim U.S. citizenship due to the United States’ jus soli citizenship laws.[23] When he was four months old (April 1941), the Lee family returned to Hong Kong.[24] Soon after, the Lee family experienced unexpected hardships as Japan, amid World War II, launched a surprise attack on Hong Kong in December 1941 and ruled the city for the next four years.[25]
The ethnicity of Bruce Lee’s mother, Grace Ho, is contested. The consensus is that Grace Ho’s father was a German immigrant, and that her mother was Chinese, as attested by biographers Robert Clouse and Bruce Thomas. Bruce Lee’s wife, Linda Lee Cadwell, wrote that Bruce Lee’s grandfather was a German Catholic.[26][27]
A new alternative theory argues that Grace Ho’s father was actually the son of a Dutch Jew, Charles Maurice Bosman, and his Chinese concubine.[28] Charles Russo has questioned this origin story entirely, suggesting that Grace Ho’s father might have been Chinese or mixed-Chinese, and that her mother might have been English.[27] Matthew Polly concedes that Grace Ho’s paternal grandfather was a Dutch Jew, but likewise asserts that her mother was English.[29]
However, according to Doug Palmer, the claim that Grace Ho had an English mother is only speculation.[30] Palmer also notes that family records suggest that the Dutch-Jewish Bosman family had originated from Germany, which may account for the assumption that Grace Ho was part German.[30]
Career and education
1940–1958: Early roles, schooling and martial arts initiation
Lee’s father was a Cantonese opera star. As a result, Junior Lee was introduced to the world of cinema at a very young age and appeared in several films as a child. Lee had his first role as a baby who was carried onto the stage in the film Golden Gate Girl.[31] He took his Chinese stage name as 李小龍, lit. “Lee the Little Dragon”, for the fact that he was born in both the hour and the year of the Dragon by the Chinese zodiac.[32]
At age seven, Lee began practicing tai chi together with his father.[33] As a nine-year-old, he co-starred with his father in The Kid in 1950, which was based on a comic book character, “Kid Cheung”, and was his first leading role.[34] By the time he was 18, he had appeared in 20 films.[32] After attending Tak Sun School (德信學校; several blocks from his home at 218 Nathan Road, Kowloon), Lee entered the primary school division of the Catholic La Salle College at age 12.[35]
In the early 1950s, Lee’s father became an opium addict.[36] In 1956, due to poor academic performance (and possibly poor conduct), Lee was transferred to St. Francis Xavier’s College.[37] He was mentored by Brother Edward Muss, F.M.S., a Bavarian-born teacher and coach of the school boxing team.[38][39][40]
In 1953, Lee’s friend William Cheung introduced him to Ip Man.[41][42] According to Cheung, Lee’s European background on his mother’s side led him to be rejected, initially, from learning Wing Chun kung fu under Ip Man because of the long-standing rule in the Chinese martial arts world not to teach foreigners.[43][44][45] Cheung spoke on his behalf and Lee was accepted into the school and began training in Wing Chun with Ip Man.[46][47] Ip tried to keep his students from fighting in the street gangs of Hong Kong by encouraging them to fight in organized competitions.[48]
After a year of his training with Ip Man, most of the other students refused to train with Lee. They had learned of his mixed ancestry, and the Chinese were generally against teaching their martial arts techniques to non-Asians.[49][50] Lee’s sparring partner, Hawkins Cheung, states, “Probably fewer than six people in the whole Wing Chun clan were personally taught, or even partly taught, by Ip Man“.[51] However, Lee showed a keen interest in Wing Chun and continued to train privately with Ip Man, William Cheung, and Wong Shun-leung.[52][53]
In 1958, Lee won the Hong Kong schools boxing tournament, knocking out the previous champion, Gary Elms, in the final.[38] That year, Lee was also a cha-cha dancer, winning Hong Kong’s Crown Colony Cha-Cha Championship.[54]
1959–1964: Move to Seattle
In his late teens, Lee’s street fights became more frequent and included beating the son of a feared triad family.[55] In 1958, after students from a rival Choy Li Fut martial arts school challenged Lee’s Wing Chun school, he engaged in a fight on a rooftop. In response to an unfair punch by another boy, he beat him so badly that one of his teeth was knocked out, leading to the boy’s parents making a complaint to the police.[56]
Lee’s mother had to go to a police station and sign a document saying that she would take full responsibility for his actions if they released him into her custody. Though she did not mention the incident to her husband, she suggested that her son return to the United States to claim his U.S. citizenship at the age of 18.[57] Lee’s father agreed as Lee’s college prospects were not very promising if he remained in Hong Kong.[56]
The police detective came and said, “Excuse me, Mr. Lee, your son is really fighting bad in school. If he gets into just one more fight I might have to put him in jail”.
In April 1959, Lee’s parents decided to send him to the United States to stay with his older sister, Agnes Lee (李秋鳳), who was already living with family friends in San Francisco. After several months, he moved to Seattle in 1959 to continue his high school education, where he also worked for Ruby Chow as a live-in waiter at her restaurant. Chow’s husband was a co-worker and friend of Lee’s father. Lee’s elder brother Peter Lee (李忠琛) joined him in Seattle for a short stay, before moving on to Minnesota to attend college.[59]
In 1959, Lee started to teach martial arts. He called what he taught Jun Fan Gung Fu (literally Bruce Lee’s Kung Fu).[60] It was his approach to Wing Chun.[59] Lee taught friends he met in Seattle, starting with Judo practitioner Jesse Glover, who continued to teach some of Lee’s early techniques.[61] Lee’s early student group was the most racially diverse group of practitioners of Chinese martial arts until that time.[62] During this time period, Lee invented his one-inch punch.[63] He also became interested in boxing and the techniques of Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson.[64]
Taky Kimura became Lee’s first Assistant Instructor and continued to teach his art and philosophy after Lee’s death.[65] Lee opened his first martial arts school, named the Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute, in Seattle.
Lee completed his high school education and received his diploma from Edison Technical School on Capitol Hill in Seattle.[66]
In March 1961, Lee enrolled at the University of Washington.[67] Despite what Lee himself and many others have stated, Lee’s official major was drama rather than philosophy, according to a 1999 article in the university’s alumni publication.[68] In his junior year, he took two classes in psychology and two classes in philosophy; both of these became core interests for him for the rest of his life.[69] He socialized with wealthy young people, but lived in relative poverty and worked as a dishwasher in a Chinese restaurant.
1971–1973: Hong Kong films, stardom, and Hollywood breakthrough
In 1971, Lee appeared in four episodes of the television series Longstreet, written by Silliphant. Lee played Li Tsung, the martial arts instructor of the title character Mike Longstreet, played by James Franciscus, and important aspects of his martial arts philosophy were written into the script.[108][109] According to statements made by Lee, and also by Linda Lee Cadwell after Lee’s death, Lee pitched a television series of his own in 1971, tentatively titled The Warrior, discussions of which were confirmed by Warner Bros. During a December 9, 1971, television interview on The Pierre Berton Show, Lee stated that both Paramount and Warner Bros. wanted him “to be in a modernized type of a thing and that they think the Western idea is out, whereas I want to do the Western”.[110]
According to Cadwell, Lee’s concept was retooled and renamed Kung Fu, but Warner Bros. gave Lee no credit.[111] Warner Bros. states that they had for some time been developing an identical concept,[112] created by two writers and producers, Ed Spielman and Howard Friedlander in 1969,[113] as stated too by Lee’s biographer Matthew Polly.[114] According to these sources, the reason Lee was not cast was because he had a thick accent,[115] but Fred Weintraub attributes that to his ethnicity.[116][117]
The role of the Shaolin monk in the Kung Fu was eventually awarded to then-non-martial artist David Carradine. In an interview with The Pierre Berton Show, Lee stated he understood Warner Bros.’ attitudes towards casting in the series: “They think that business-wise it is a risk. I don’t blame them. If the situation were reversed, and an American star were to come to Hong Kong, and I was the man with the money, I would have my own concerns as to whether the acceptance would be there”.[118]
Producer Fred Weintraub had advised Lee to return to Hong Kong and make a feature film that he could showcase to executives in Hollywood.[119] Not happy with his supporting roles in the US, Lee returned to Hong Kong. Unaware that The Green Hornet had been played to success in Hong Kong and was unofficially referred to as “The Kato Show”, he was surprised to be recognized as the star of the show.[120] After negotiating with both Shaw Brothers Studio and Golden Harvest, Lee signed a film contract to star in two films produced by Golden Harvest
1978–present: Posthumous work
Robert Clouse, the director of Enter the Dragon, together with Golden Harvest, revived Lee’s unfinished film Game of Death. Lee had shot over 100 minutes of footage, including outtakes, for Game of Death before shooting was stopped to allow him to work on Enter the Dragon. In addition to Abdul-Jabbar, George Lazenby, Hapkido master Ji Han-jae, and another of Lee’s students, Dan Inosanto, appeared in the film, which culminated in Lee’s character, Hai Tien, clad in a yellow tracksuit[d] taking on a series of different challengers on each floor as they make their way through a five-level pagoda.[135]
In a controversial move, Robert Clouse finished the film using a Lee look-alike (Kim Tai Chung, with Yuen Biao as a stunt double) and archive footage of Lee from his other films with a new storyline and cast. It was released in 1978. The cobbled-together film contained only fifteen minutes of actual footage of Lee.[135] The unused footage Lee had filmed was recovered 22 years later and included in the documentary Bruce Lee: A Warrior’s Journey.[citation needed]
In 1972, after the success of The Big Boss and Fist of Fury, a third film was planned by Raymond Chow at Golden Harvest to be directed by Lo Wei, titled Yellow-Faced Tiger. However, at the time, Lee decided to direct and produce his script for Way of the Dragon instead. Although Lee had formed a production company with Raymond Chow, a period film was also planned from September–November 1973 with the competing Shaw Brothers Studio, to be directed by either Chor Yuen or Cheng Kang, and written by Yi Kang and Chang Cheh, titled The Seven Sons of the Jade Dragon.[136]
In 2015, Perfect Storm Entertainment and Bruce Lee’s daughter, Shannon Lee, announced that the series The Warrior would be produced and would air on Cinemax. Filmmaker Justin Lin was chosen to direct the series.[137] Production began in October 2017, in Cape Town, South Africa. The first season has 10 episodes.[138] In April 2019, Cinemax renewed the series for a second season.[139]
In March 2021, it was announced that producer Jason Kothari had acquired the rights to The Silent Flute “to become a miniseries, which would have John Fusco as a screenwriter and executive producer
