QUICK FACTS
- born in San Francisco
- went to Seattle Central Community College and University of Washington
- founded his own martial arts schools
- established his own form of martial arts and philosophy called Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do
- trained students such as Joe Lewis and Chuck Norris
- did 32 movies, including Fists of Fury and Way of the Dragon (1972)
- could throw grains of rice into the air and catch them using chopsticks
- is totally world-famous and a pop culture icon
- in Time Magazine's "100 Most Important People of the Century"
baby Bruce with his parents
Bruce Lee was born in 1940 in San Francisco. His parents moved back to Hong Kong when he was a baby and were stuck there during the Japanese occupation. They sent Bruce back to the United States when he was 18 to escape the dangerous environment of HK in the 40s and 50s (he was getting into a lot of street fights) and to go for his higher education.
Bruce Lee was born in 1940 in San Francisco. His parents moved back to Hong Kong when he was a baby and were stuck there during the Japanese occupation. They sent Bruce back to the United States when he was 18 to escape the dangerous environment of HK in the 40s and 50s (he was getting into a lot of street fights) and to go for his higher education.
"All types of knowledge ultimately mean self-knowledge."
-- Bruce Lee, Pierre Berton interview (1971)
While Bruce was studying drama and philosophy at U of Washington, he had already been teaching kung fu for a while. That was when he met his wife Linda, who also became one of his students (and who today runs the Bruce Lee Foundation with their daughter Shannon.)
Bruce with Linda and children Brandon and Shannon
Bruce would eventually leave college to teach and to study martial arts. He founded two martial arts schools, one in Seattle and the other in Oakland, California. (After entering the American movie industry later on, he would also create a school for people in Hollywood.)
It was in Oakland that he had his famed fight with Wong Jack Man, who said that he would have to close his school if he lost the fight. (Some people were not happy with Bruce teaching kung fu to non-Chinese people.) After Bruce lost, he decided that traditional martial arts had too many restrictions, and so he began to carefully develop his own called Jeet Kune Do, drawing from all of the martial arts forms that he had studied.
In 1969 Bruce Lee appeared in his first American film. (His father, an opera singer and actor, had him doing acting from an early age in Hong Kong.) He would also have roles in various television series, including "Kato" in The Green Hornet.
In 1971 he had gone back to Hong Kong and got his first leading role, something that he was not able to get in the United States. (His TV series idea did not go through either.) Already known there for The Green Hornet, The Big Boss made him super famous.
That same year, Pierre Berton interviewed him on his show about martial arts and what it is like to be a star in both Asia and America. Bruce Lee says that he will keep doing his thang in both places because "in the United States there is something about the Oriental, the true Oriental, that should be shown." The interview is available in three parts on Youtube. Part 1 is linked here!
On this topic of being from "two worlds," Bruce Lee said:
Bruce would eventually leave college to teach and to study martial arts. He founded two martial arts schools, one in Seattle and the other in Oakland, California. (After entering the American movie industry later on, he would also create a school for people in Hollywood.)
It was in Oakland that he had his famed fight with Wong Jack Man, who said that he would have to close his school if he lost the fight. (Some people were not happy with Bruce teaching kung fu to non-Chinese people.) After Bruce lost, he decided that traditional martial arts had too many restrictions, and so he began to carefully develop his own called Jeet Kune Do, drawing from all of the martial arts forms that he had studied.
In 1969 Bruce Lee appeared in his first American film. (His father, an opera singer and actor, had him doing acting from an early age in Hong Kong.) He would also have roles in various television series, including "Kato" in The Green Hornet.
In 1971 he had gone back to Hong Kong and got his first leading role, something that he was not able to get in the United States. (His TV series idea did not go through either.) Already known there for The Green Hornet, The Big Boss made him super famous.
That same year, Pierre Berton interviewed him on his show about martial arts and what it is like to be a star in both Asia and America. Bruce Lee says that he will keep doing his thang in both places because "in the United States there is something about the Oriental, the true Oriental, that should be shown." The interview is available in three parts on Youtube. Part 1 is linked here!
On this topic of being from "two worlds," Bruce Lee said:
"I have been criticized for that [for being too Americanized]. When I do the Chinese film, I'll try my best not be as American as I have been, adjust to for the last 12 years in the States, but when I go back to the States, it seems to be the other way around, they try to get me to do too many things for the sake of being exotic.
I think that things of China will be interesting for the next few years. Not that I'm politically inclining toward anything, but...the opening of China will bring more understanding, more things that are different, and maybe in the constrast or comparison some new thing might grow, so therefore it is a very rich period to be in."
And to the question about whether he still feels Chinese or if he feels more American now, he responded:
"I want to think of myself as a human being...Under the sky, under the heaven, there is but one family. It just so happens that people are different."
That is way beautiful, Bruce Lee.
Bruce Lee had an extremely thought-out and detailed diet and fitness regimen that he was also developing himself. Some of his physical abilities, such as his two-finger push-ups, seemed almost super-human and led to his legend status.
In 1973, Bruce Lee was found dead in a friend's apartment. It turned out that he had taken a painkiller to which his body had had a bad reaction, causing him an "acute cerebral edema." He died when he was only 32. But in the short span of his career, he became one of the world's most famous martial artists and brought Chinese martial arts to the world.
From one of his Hong Kong movies, The Way of the Dragon, a fight with real-life student Chuck Norris
Bruce Lee had an extremely thought-out and detailed diet and fitness regimen that he was also developing himself. Some of his physical abilities, such as his two-finger push-ups, seemed almost super-human and led to his legend status.
In 1973, Bruce Lee was found dead in a friend's apartment. It turned out that he had taken a painkiller to which his body had had a bad reaction, causing him an "acute cerebral edema." He died when he was only 32. But in the short span of his career, he became one of the world's most famous martial artists and brought Chinese martial arts to the world.
From one of his Hong Kong movies, The Way of the Dragon, a fight with real-life student Chuck Norris
"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them."
-- Bruce Lee
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| statue in Hong Kong |
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