|
Here the life Bio of Bruce Lee history.
The legendary kung fu action movies starring Bruce Lee have established the Little Dragon as the worlds greatest Kung Fu star. Bruce Lee could knock down a fully grown man with a punch delivered from the distance of 1 inch, as demonstrated at Long Beach's 1967 International Karate Championships.
Lee Jun Fan (known as Bruce Lee) was born in the Jackson Street Hospital in Sanfrancisco on November 27th, 1940, to Cantonese actors Hi Lo Chun and Grace Li. A year later, the family moved back to Kowloon, their family home in Hong Kong.
At the early age of 6 years old, Bruce appeared in his first film - The Beginning Of A Boy. Bruce took up fighting as a boy on the streets of Hong Kong, and at the age of thirteen, after losing what many people say was the only fight he ever lost, he began training under Siju Yip Man, a master of the Wing Chun system of Gung Fu. But six years later, he returned to San Francisco after his mother had become concerned by his street fighting activities. During 1959, Bruce stayed with a close family friend whilst doing odd jobs around the Chinese communities. Later that year he moved to Seattle to stay with another family friend - Ruby Chow, whilst working as a waiter in her restaurant. He enrolled at Edison Technical School and earned his high school diploma, whilst teaching Gung Fu on the streets and in backyards.
In 1961, Bruce enrolled at the University of Washington studying Philosophy, and teaching Gung Fu to his students.
In 1963, Bruce met his future wife - Linda Emery and moved the Jun Gung Fu Institute into a building near the University Campus. The next year, his good friend Taky Kimura took over the Institute, as Bruce left for Oakland to start a second school.
On August 17th 1964, Bruce returned to Seattle to marry Linda, then returning to Oakland to live together. After several months of teaching in Oakland, Bruce was challenged to a fight by a leading Gung Fu practitioner - Wong Man. If he lost then Bruce would stop his classes, teaching non-Orientals how to fight. Bruce immediately kicked the shit out of him, who then proceeded to leg it. Bruce ran after him but was dragged off by a friend. After the fight, Bruce began to re-evaluate his style, and the early concepts of Jeet Kune Do (The way of the intercepting fist) were produced by Bruce Lee himself and Dan Inosanto (Game of Death). It was to become Lee's unique style of fighting which involved parrying and attacking in one single manoeuvre. Later that year, a demo of Bruce in action at the International Karate Championships was given to William Dozier, the producer for Batman, who was looking to cast a part in a new TV series. Dozier was greatly impressed and Bruce flew to Los Angeles fo a screen test.
During 1967-1971, Bruce landed many parts in various films and TV series, and gave private lessons at $250 per hour to stars such as James Coburn, Steve McQueen, Jim "the afro" Kelly and the baketball giant who later appeared in Game Of Death - Kareem Abdul Jabbar.
In 1971, after huge success in the TV series "The Green Hornet", Bruce was approached by Raymond Chow for the leading role in a new film - "The Big Boss". It instantly became a huge success and grossed more than $3.5 million in less than 3 weeks. This figure was even bettered the next year when Fist Of Fury was released, further establishing Bruce Lee as a Hong Kong superstar. That same year location shots were taken in Rome, Italy for The Way of the Dragon (later known as Return of the Dragon) which Bruce wrote, directed and starred in, and included a final fight scene with Chuck Norris. Work was also began on Game of Death. In 1973, Enter the Dragon was finally completed and on July 20th, 1973, after being told by doctors to rest, he didn't and sadly passed away at the age of 23, due to Cerebral Edema (swelling of the brain). Game of Death was left unfinished, but was later released with a different actor playing Bruce Lee, although the fight scenes had been finished. A funeral ceremony was held on July 25th 1973, where Bruce Lee was dressed in the Chinese outfit he wore in Enter the Dragon, and he was buried at Lake View cemetry in Seattle, on July 30th, 1973.
__________________
GarnetTigerMom 
"The rain may be falling hard outside,
But your smile makes it all alright.
I'm so glad that you're my friend.
I know our friendship will never end."
-- Robert Alan
|