Bruce Lee (1940–1973), born Lee Jun-fan on 27 November 1940 in San Francisco, was the son of the Cantonese opera star Lee Hoi-chuen and grew up in Hong Kong. He learned Wing Chun under Ip Man as a boy and also studied Tai Chi and Hung Kuen, and appeared as a child actor in Cantonese films such as The Kid. In 1959 he moved to the United States at eighteen, studying at Edison Technical School and the University of Washington, majoring in drama with a minor in philosophy. In 1962 he opened his Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute in Seattle; his demonstration at the 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championships brought him wide notice, and in 1967 he named his own martial-arts system Jeet Kune Do, a pragmatic style drawing on many disciplines. In 1966 he played Kato in the American television series The Green Hornet, making his name known to US audiences. He returned to Hong Kong in 1970 to discuss film work with Golden Harvest and in 1971 starred in The Big Boss, which broke Hong Kong box-office records with over HK$3 million, followed by Fist of Fury and The Way of the Dragon, each setting new records. Fist of Fury had won him Golden Horse honours for Best Mandarin Film and a Special Jury Award in 1972. His 1973 Hollywood collaboration Enter the Dragon grossed more than US$200 million worldwide and became a global hit. He died suddenly in Hong Kong on 20 July 1973, aged 32, of cerebral oedema; Game of Death, the film he was making at the time, was completed with stand-ins and released in 1978. In 1994 the 13th Hong Kong Film Awards posthumously gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award, in 1999 Time named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century, and in 2005 a bronze statue of him was erected on the Tsim Sha Tsui Avenue of Stars. He was married to Linda Lee and had a son, Brandon, and a daughter, Shannon; he turned Wing Chun's close-range fighting into a screen-ready combat style and made such heavy use of the nunchaku that both became models for later action films. In 1958 he won Hong Kong's interschool boxing championship and its cha-cha championship, and after a street fight his parents sent him to the United States in 1959. He married his University of Washington classmate Linda Emery in August 1964 and later opened a second school in Oakland. Game of Death, unfinished at his death, was completed with stand-ins and released in 1978; he is buried in Seattle, and his blend of Wing Chun and mixed-martial-arts ideas influenced later martial-arts competition.
Bruce Lee founded Jeet Kune Do, fused real combat with cinema and turned the martial-arts film into a global genre, opening the way for Hong Kong action cinema into Hollywood and world markets. The Big Boss, Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon each set new records, and his fierce, realistic fight design overturned Western stereotypes of Chinese actors. His Jeet Kune Do and the nunchaku became stock vocabulary for later action films, and his influence endures.
Achievements
- 1971 · Returned to Hong Kong and starred in The Big Boss, which broke Hong Kong box-office records.
- 1972 · Starred in Fist of Fury, honoured at the Golden Horse Awards for Best Mandarin Film and a Special Jury Award.
- 1994 · Posthumously received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 13th Hong Kong Film Awards.