Bruce Lee

Quick Facts

Date of Birth11/27/1940

Date of Death7/20/1973

Country of OriginHong Kong

OccupationActor

Also known asLee Jun-fan

Biography

Bruce Lee, born Lee Jun-fan, was an actor and the founder of Jeet Kune Do. He was born on 27 November 1940 in San Francisco, the son of Cantonese opera singer Lee Hoi-chuen. He died on 20 July 1973 in Kowloon, Hong Kong, aged 32, of cerebral edema, though the exact cause of death remains disputed.

He began training in Wing Chun with Ip Man around 1953, the Bruce Lee Foundation gives 1954, and the family website says five years of study. Wong Shun Leung is also named as his teacher. At St. Francis Xavier's College he boxed under the religious brother Edward Muss, and in 1958 he won the Hong Kong school boxing tournament.

At the 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championships he demonstrated the “one-inch punch” and push-ups on two fingers. The same year he fought a disputed match with Wong Jack-man: according to Wong it lasted 20 to 25 minutes, according to Lee it ended in his victory after three minutes. Lee was dissatisfied with the result, and the match shaped the development of his approach to fighting. In 1967 he founded Jeet Kune Do, built on the philosophy of “style without style” and on putting practicality before rigid form. His students included Dan Inosanto, Taky Kimura and Ted Wong. The book Tao of Jeet Kune Do was published only after his death.

His first leading adult role was in The Big Boss (1971), followed by Fist of Fury (1972), The Way of the Dragon (1972), which he also directed and wrote, and Enter the Dragon (1973). Game of Death (1978) was completed after his death with a double. According to his wife Linda Lee Cadwell, the series Kung Fu (1972) with David Carradine was based on his idea. Biographer Matthew Polly, however, states that the series was conceived by Ed Spielman and Howard Friedlander, who already had the concept in 1969.

Early life

Bruce Lee was born on 27 November 1940 in a hospital on Jackson Street in San Francisco, the fourth child of Lee Hoi-chuen and Grace Ho. At about three months old he returned with his parents to Hong Kong, where he grew up until the age of eighteen and lived through the Japanese occupation from 1941 to 1945.

According to the Bruce Lee Foundation, he appeared as a child actor in his first film in 1941 and by the age of eighteen had acted in about twenty films. According to Wikipedia he attended La Salle College and in 1956 moved to St. Francis Xavier College. In April 1959 he sailed to San Francisco with a hundred dollars and settled in Seattle, where he attended Edison Technical School and then the University of Washington. The family website gives philosophy as his subject of study, a 1999 university article gives drama.

Training and teachers

According to Wikipedia, Lee came to Ip Man and his Wing Chun in 1953 through William Cheung. The family website says he began at the age of thirteen around 1953 and studied with Ip Man for five years, while the Bruce Lee Foundation places the beginning in 1954.

According to Wikipedia, at St. Francis Xavier College he trained boxing under the religious brother Edward Muss and in 1958 won the Hong Kong school boxing tournament. According to the foundation, he also became Hong Kong cha-cha dance champion that year.

Contribution and innovations

In 1963 he opened the first Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute in Seattle, and in 1964 a second in Oakland with James Yimm Lee. In early 1963 he self-published the book Chinese Gung Fu: The Philosophical Art of Self-Defense. In August 1964 he demonstrated the one-inch punch and push-ups on two fingers at Ed Parker's tournament in Long Beach, which led to an invitation to a screen test from producer William Dozier. He played Kato in the series The Green Hornet from September 1966 to March 1967 in 26 episodes.

In 1967 he opened a third institute in the Chinatown of Los Angeles, and the same year the name Jeet Kune Do first appeared in writing. According to Wikipedia, he closed the schools about two years before his death and continued to teach privately. With the films The Big Boss (1971), Fist of Fury (1972), The Way of the Dragon (1972), which he wrote and directed, and Enter the Dragon (1973), the first Hong Kong-American co-production with Warner Bros., he brought martial arts into the mainstream of world cinema. The book Tao of Jeet Kune Do was published in 1975 from notes he wrote after his back injury in 1970. Part of the text consists of rewritten passages by other authors.

Philosophy and principles

By Lee's own words, Jeet Kune Do was not meant to be a new style. According to Wikipedia, he compared it to a boat for crossing water, to be left behind after landing. According to the family website, he wrote the motto Walk On, keep going, on a business card after his back injury and a period of struggling in Hollywood. In a December 1971 television interview with Pierre Berton he quoted Confucius that under the heavens there is only one family and people are merely different.

Legends and documented facts

There are two versions of the 1964 match with Wong Jack-man. Lee and his wife Linda Lee Cadwell state that Lee won after about three minutes, while Wong and witness William Chen say it lasted twenty to twenty-five minutes with no clear winner.

Many legends arose around his death, from a duel to drugs. The official inquiry gave as the cause a hypersensitivity to a component of the drug Equagesic, which caused brain swelling, while biographer Matthew Polly attributes the collapse to heatstroke.

According to Linda Lee Cadwell, the series Kung Fu was based on Lee's idea and the studio took it from him. Polly concludes, however, that it was conceived by Ed Spielman and Howard Friedlander with a concept from 1969. The one-inch punch is often portrayed as superhuman strength, but in a MythBusters test it reached roughly half the force of a classic punch.

Legacy

Lee died on 20 July 1973. His students Dan Inosanto, Taky Kimura, Ted Wong and Jesse Glover passed his system on, and according to Wikipedia Jeet Kune Do split into several streams, for example Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do and JKD Concepts. His legacy is managed by the Bruce Lee Foundation, founded by his daughter Shannon Lee and widow Linda Lee Cadwell, which runs the children's Camp Bruce Lee and awards scholarships. The company Bruce Lee Enterprises was formally launched in 2011.

He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 28 April 1993. Time magazine named him one of the hundred most influential people of the century in 1999, and statues of him have stood in Mostar and Hong Kong since 2005 and in the Chinatown of Los Angeles since 2013.

Teachers, students and family

Associated Martial Arts

Weapons

Works and sources

Achievements and honours

• National Championships1st place · 1958

Quotes

Filmography

A screen role does not mean the person actually practises the art — that is listed above.