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Quick Facts
- NAME: Bruce Lee
- OCCUPATION: Film Actor, Television Actor, Martial Arts Expert
- BIRTH DATE: November 27, 1940
- DEATH DATE: July 20, 1973
- EDUCATION: University of Washington
- PLACE OF BIRTH: San Francisco, California
- PLACE OF DEATH: Hong Kong, China
- Originally: Lee Yuen Kam
Best Known For
Bruce Lee was an actor, film producer and director, and the martial arts expert who founded the Jeet Kune Doe martial arts system.
Videos see all videos
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Bruce Lee - Mini Biography (4:10)
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Bruce Lee - Mini Biography
A short biography of the rise and tragic fall of Bruce Lee.
Eddie Murphy - Admiration for Bruce Lee
Eddie Murphy describes his admiration for Bruce Lee's ability to reach an audience.
Steve McQueen - Mini Biography
A short biography of Steve McQueen who scored big with his first hit film, "The Magnificent Seven." Considered a rebel from an early age, his outsider persona earned him the nickname "The King of Cool."
Chuck Norris - Fighting with Bruce Lee
Chuck Norris discusses meeting Bruce Lee and working with him in their early films.
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Play NowBruce Lee. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 08:57, May 19, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/bruce-lee-9542095.
Bruce Lee. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/bruce-lee-9542095 [Accessed 19 May 2013].
"Bruce Lee." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 19 2013, 08:57 http://www.biography.com/people/bruce-lee-9542095.
"Bruce Lee," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/bruce-lee-9542095 [accessed May 19, 2013].
"Bruce Lee," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/bruce-lee-9542095 (accessed May 19, 2013).
Bruce Lee [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 19] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/bruce-lee-9542095.
Bruce Lee, http://www.biography.com/people/bruce-lee-9542095 (last visited May 19, 2013).
Bruce Lee. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/bruce-lee-9542095. Accessed May 19, 2013.
Synopsis
Martial arts expert Bruce Lee was born on November 27, 1940, in San Francisco, California. He appeared in roughly 20 films as a child actor back in Hong King, beginning in 1946. Lee gained a measure of U.S. celebrity with his role in the television series The Green Hornet, from 1966 to 1967, then went on to star in countless films until 1973, when he died in Hong Kong at the age of 32.
Quotes
"A fight is not won by one punch or kick. Either learn to endure or hire a bodyguard."
"There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them."
"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times."
"The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering."
Martial Arts Master
Actor, martial arts expert. Born Lee Jun Fan, on November 27, 1940, in San Francisco, California. His father, a Hong Kong opera singer, moved with his wife and three children to the United States in 1939; his fourth child, a son, was born while he was on tour in San Francisco. Lee’s mother called him “Bruce,” which means “strong one” in Gaelic. Young Bruce appeared in his first film at the age of three months, when he served as the stand-in for an American baby in Golden Gate Girl.
In 1941, the Lees moved back to Hong Kong, then occupied by the Japanese. Apparently a natural in front of the camera, Bruce Lee appeared in roughly 20 films as a child actor, beginning in 1946. He also studied dance, once winning a cha-cha competition. As a teenager, he became a member of a Hong Kong street gang, and in 1953 began studying kung-fu to sharpen his fighting skills. In 1959, after Lee got into trouble with the police for fighting, his mother sent him back to the U.S. to live with family friends outside Seattle, Washington.
Lee finished high school in Edison, Washington, and subsequently enrolled as a philosophy major at the University of Washington. He also got a job teaching the Wing Chun style of martial arts that he had learned in Hong Kong to his fellow students and others. Through his teaching, Lee met Linda Emery, whom he married in 1964. By that time, Lee had opened his own martial arts school in Seattle. He and Linda soon moved to California, where Lee opened two more schools in Los Angeles and Oakland. At his schools, Lee taught mostly a style he called Jeet Kune Do.
Action Hero
Lee gained a measure of celebrity with his role in the television series The Green Hornet, which aired from 1966 to 1967. In the show, which was based on a 1930s radio program, the small, wiry Lee displayed his acrobatic and theatrical fighting style as the Hornet’s loyal sidekick, Kato. He went on to make guest appearances in such TV shows as Ironside and Longstreet, while his most notable role came in the 1969 film Marlowe, starring James Garner. Confronted with the dearth of meaty roles and the prevalence of stereotypes regarding actors of Asian heritage, Lee left Los Angeles for Hong Kong in 1971, with his wife and two children (Brandon, born in 1965, and Shannon, born in 1967).
Back in the city where he had grown up, Lee signed a two-film contract. Fists of Fury was released in late 1971, featuring Lee as a vengeful fighter chasing the villains who had killed his kung-fu master.
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