BruceLee
Bruce Jun Fan Lee (1940 - 1973) was a Chinese American martial artist and actor widely regarded as the most influential, famous and celebrated martial artist of the 20th century. Lee's films, especially his performance in the Hollywood-produced Enter the Dragon, elevated the traditional Hong Kong martial arts film to a new level. His pioneering efforts paved the way for future martial artists and martial arts actors such as Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Chuck Norris.
Lee's movies sparked the first major surge of interest in Chinese martial arts in the West. The direction and tone of his films changed and influenced martial arts and martial arts films in Hong Kong, China, and the rest of the world. Lee became an iconic figure particularly to Chinese, as he portrayed Chinese national pride and Chinese nationalism in his movies.
Many see Lee as a model blueprint for acquiring a strong and efficient body as well as developing a mastery of martial arts and hand to hand combat skills. Lee began the process of creating his own fighting system known as Jeet Kune Do. Bruce Lee's evaluation of traditional martial arts doctrines is nowadays seen as one of the first steps into popularising the modern style of mixed martial arts.
Education and family
At age 14, Bruce Lee entered La Salle College, a high school, under the wing of Brother Henry. Then, he attended St Francis Xavier's College from 1957-1959.
In 1959, Bruce got into a fight with a feared Triad gang member's son. His father became concerned about his safety and Bruce was sent to the United States to live with an old friend of his father's. All he had was $100 and the title of 1958 Crown Colony Cha Cha Champion of Hong Kong. After living in San Francisco, he moved to Seattle to work for Ruby Chow, another friend of his father's. In 1959, Lee completed his high school education in Seattle and received his diploma from Edison Technical School. He enrolled at the University of Washington as a philosophy major. There he met his future wife Linda Emery.
Bruce and Linda married in 1964 and had two children together, Brandon Lee (born 1965) and Shannon Lee (born 1969). Brandon, an actor like his father, died on a movie set while filming The Crow on March 31, 1993.
Early acting career
A few credits short of graduation, Lee headed to San Francisco and then to Hollywood.
In 1964 at a demonstration in Long Beach, California, the soon-to-be-famous Bruce Lee met karate black belt champion Chuck Norris. In 1972, Lee later induced Norris to portray one of his opponents in Return of the Dragon, also known as Way of the Dragon, in a famous Colosseum fight scene regarded by many as one of the best martial arts fights ever filmed.
Lee went on to star as Kato in the TV series The Green Hornet, which ran from 1966 to 1967, and afterward opened up his own Jeet Kune Do school. Later, Lee used filmmaking to demonstrate his martial arts fighting techniques and theories.
He had created the character idea for the role of Kwai-Chang-Caine for the TV Series Kung Fu, but the role eventually went to David Carradine instead.
He also appeared in the film Marlowe in 1969 and a few episodes of the TV series Longstreet in 1971.
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