Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee is the most influential and iconic fighter in the world of cinema and practice, a leading figure in modern popular culture.

Lee was born in San Francisco's Chinatown, the fourth of five children of Grace Lee and Chinese opera performer, Lee Hoi-chuen. According to the Chinese zodiac, Li was born as the Dragon, both according to the year and hour. He was given the name Zhong-fang, meaning "to return again." The family returned to Hong Kong three months after his birth.

Bruce Lee followed in his father's footsteps into the Hong Kong film industry, making his film debut at a young age with the film "Golden gate girl" (1941). He appeared in about 20 films as a child.

At the age of 13, he enrolled in master Ip Man's Wing Chun kung fu school after participating in street fights and gang activity. In his youth, Lee was not particularly successful academically, and was transferred to St. Francis Xavier's College, where he trained in boxing. In 1957, Lee won the school boxing championship. An avid dancer, Lee also won the title of Hong Kong Cha Cha Champion in 1958. However, his reputation as a street fighter continued to persist. In 1959, after a fight with a notorious Hong Kong gang member, he was sent by his parents to live in San Francisco with his sister Agnes Lee.

In 1959, Bruce Lee moved to Seattle to finish high school and later attended the University of Washington in 1961 to study drama. At the university he met his future wife Linda Emery, also a student. They married in 1964 and had two children: Brandon Lee, in 1965, and Shannon Lee, in 1969.

Although Lee studied drama (along with philosophy and psychology classes), he showed little sign of pursuing a career in film. Instead, he dedicated himself to practicing and teaching martial arts. He opened his first Jun Fan Gong Fu school in Seattle and his second in Oakland, California in 1964. Lee continued to develop his practical understanding of the martial arts to eventually create his own system, Jeet Kune Do (meaning "Way of the Leading Fist"), in 1967. This system is now seen as the forerunner of modern mixed martial arts (MMA) systems, using techniques from various martial arts styles.

Lee's performance at the 1964 Long Beach Karate Championships caught the attention of television producer William Dozier, who asked him to audition. Dozier later cast Lee as Kato in the television adventure series "Green Hornet" for ABC, a camp superhero series from the same producers as "Batman." The series aired for one season, including three episodes shared with "Batman."

Throughout the 1960s, Bruce Lee continued to teach martial arts to many famous names in show business, including screenwriter Stirling Silliphant, actors James Coburn and Steve McQueen, and basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Lee's other television work included starring in the series "Iron side" (1967), "Here come the brides"(1969) and four episodes"Longstreet" (1971), written by Stirling Silliphant. In 1969, Bruce first tried his hand at the film industry with a cameo as a villain in a detective film"Marlowe"with James Garner and also as the film's fight choreographer"Wrecking Crew"with Dean Martin and"Walking in the spring rain"(1970) with Ingrid Bergman.

In 1972, Lee pitched the concept for his own television show set in the Wild West to both Paramount and Warner Brothers, but was allegedly rejected for the lead role due to his ethnicity. The show later reappeared under the title "Kung Fu" from David Carradine starring.

In 1971, Lee returned to Hong Kong to concentrate on his film career. He turned down the standard acting contract offered to him by the Shaw Brothers studio in favor of a new company, Golden Harvest, created by a former Shaw Brothers employee, Raymond Chow. His first film with a leading role was "Big boss" (1971), became the highest-grossing Hong Kong film of all time. This record was broken by his second film for Golden Harvest - "Fist of fury"(1972).

In 1972, Bruce Lee created his own film company Concord Productions along with Raymond Chow, and set to work on the writing, directing, production, fight choreography and acting of his third film"The path of Dragon"(1972). Part of the film was filmed in Rome, and showed a long final fight with an American karate champion - Chuck Norris, whom Lee met in Long Beach in 1964.

Production of his fourth film for Golden Harvest"game of death"(1978) was put on hold when Lee received an offer to star in a co-production between Golden Harvest and Warner Brothers filming"Enter the Dragon" began in February 1973 in Hong Kong. Six days before its premiere, Bruce Lee died at the age of 32 due to an allergic reaction to a painkiller. Enter the Dragon brought in more than $200 million in box office receipts worldwide, and in 2004 the film was added to the US National Film Registry due to its "cultural significance".

Lee's death and the subsequent success of Enter the Dragon sparked a worldwide craze for kung fu, further fueled by the TV show Kung Fu in America. In Asia, producers were desperate to find "new Bruce Lee", employing body doubles and using various similar names such as Bruce Lee, Bruce Le and Dragon Lee. This new subgenre of films is now collectively known as "Bruceploitation"In 1978, Enter the Dragon director Robert Clouse was invited to revive Lee's unmade film."game of death", using new actors, body doubles and original footage of Lee.

Bruce Lee's body was placed in Lakeview Cemetery in Seattle. His pallbearers were George Lazenby, Steve McQueen, James Coburn and Chuck Norris. An open pallbearer ceremony held in Hong Kong on 25 July 1973 attracted 30 visitors. In 000, Bruce Lee was named by Time magazine as one of the 1999 most influential people of the 100th century. In 20, his home in Hong Kong was converted into a tourist attraction.