Martial Arts Legend: Bruce Lee
Honestly, who doesn’t know who Bruce Lee is? Who doesn’t react to the name of this great martial arts legend with a spoof martial arts move and say ‘huu yaaa’. The story of the great Bruce Lee began on November 27, 1940 in San Francisco, California. He was born as Lee Jun Fan, the fourth child of a Chinese father named Lee Hoi-Chuen and a mother of Chinese and German ancestry named Grace.
Bruce Lee married Linda Emery in 1964. They had two children together namely Brandon Lee and Shannon. Sadly though, his son, who also got into acting, was controversially and fatally shot in 1993 while on the set for the movie ‘The Crow’, by a gun that was supposed to have blanks in it.
Lee’s father was surprisingly a Hong Kong opera singer. He was on tour in San Franciso when Lee was born which is how he became a citizen of the United States. The family returned to a Japanese occupied Hong Kong three months later. When Lee was 12 years old, he enrolled in La Salle College and later took up at St. Francis Xavier’s College.
Lee’s father, Lee Hoi-Cheun, was actually his first martial arts instructor. He is credited for teaching him the Wu style of Tai Chi Chuan early on. But after getting involved with a Hong Kong street gang in 1954, Lee began to feel the need to improve his fighting skills and technique. Thus, he began studying Wing Chun Gung Fu, under Sifu Yip Man. While there, Lee often trained under one of Yip’s top students, Wong Shun-Leung. Wong therefore had a major impact on his training. Lee studied under Yip Man until he was 18 years of age. It is said that Yip Man sometimes trained Lee privately because some students refused to work with him because of his mixed ancestry.
Most don’t realize how eclectic Lee’s martial arts background was. Beyond kung fu, Lee also trained in western boxing where he won the 1958 boxing championship against Gary Elms by knockout in the third round. Lee also learned fencing techniques from his brother, Peter Lee (a champion in the sport). This varied background led to personal modifications to Wing Chun Gung Fu, calling his newer version of the style, Jun Fan Gung Fu. In fact, Lee opened his first martial arts school in Seattle under the moniker, Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute.
After a match against Wong Jack Man, Lee decided that he had failed to live up to his potential because of the rigidity of Wing Chun practices. Thus, he began to formulate a martial arts style that was practical for street fighting and existed outside of the parameters and limitations of other martial arts styles. In other words, what worked stayed and what didn’t went. This is how Jeet Kune Do was born in 1965. Lee opened two more schools after moving to California, only certifying three instructors in the art himself: Taky Kimura, James Yimm Lee, and Dan Inosanto.
Bruce Lee appeared his first film at three months of age, acting as a stand in for an American baby in Golden Gate Girl. All told, he made about 20 appearances in films as a child actor. In 1959, Lee got into trouble with the police for fighting. His mother, deciding that the area they were living in was too dangerous for him, sent him back to the United State to live with some friends. There he graduated high school in Edison, Washington before enrolling at the University of Washington to study philosophy. He began teaching martial arts there as well, and that’s how he met his future wife, Linda Emery.
Bruce Lee made some American headlines as an actor in the television series, The Green Hornet, which aired from 1966-67. He served as the Hornet’s sidekick, Kato, where he showed off his film-friendly fighting style. Even with further appearances, the acting stereotypes were great barriers, prompting him to return to Hong Kong in 1971. There Lee became a huge film star, starring in movies like Fists of Fury, The Chinese Connection, and Way of the Dragon.
On July 20, 1973, Bruce Lee died in Hong Kong at the age of 32. The official cause of his death was a brain edema, which had been caused by a reaction to a prescription painkiller he was taking for a back injury. Controversy swelled regarding his passing, as Lee had been obsessed with the idea that he might die early, leaving many wondering if he'd been murdered.
One month after Lee’s death in the United States Enter the Dragon came out in the U.S., eventually grossing over $200 million.
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