Bruce Lee: general information and biography
Bruce Lee was born on November 27, 1940, when his parents came to San Francisco with a touring Cantonese opera theater. His father was an actor in this Chinese troupe. Mom was half German. The parents put the name Bruce Lee on the birth certificate, but for some time they called their little son Jang Fan, which translates as “return back.” Bruce grew up as a hooligan and pugnacious boy.
To channel his son’s irrepressible energy in the right direction, his father began taking him with him to filming. The boy played his debut episodic role in the film “Born of Man” in 1946. In 1950, little Bruce starred as 10-year-old orphan Cheng in the film “The Kid.” According to the plot, in order to feed himself, he is forced to sell comic book magazines in a poor area; he is looked after by teacher Ho.
At a young age, Lee became interested in the cha-cha-cha dance style and became the winner of the sports dance championship in Hong Kong. In an effort to strengthen his frail body, Bruce became seriously interested in kung fu. Since 1956, he trained in Hong Kong, where he became acquainted with the fighting style of Wing Chun, which he later used more often than others. Combat in this style involves the absence of weapons. Although Bruce Lee also mastered the skills of handling weapons, in particular, he masterfully handled nunchucks.
Bruce Lee mastered the techniques of jiu-jitsu and judo, and even boxed. And later he created his own style, which he called Jeet Kune Do. Mastery of martial arts has become the key to the world of Hong Kong cinema. Lee's popularity as an actor grew rapidly. One day, on the streets of Hong Kong, Bruce dealt with three members of a local gang. Realizing that her son was in serious danger, his mother sent him to the USA to live with distant relatives. Fortunately, young Lee, born in the USA, had American citizenship.
Bruce first lived in San Francisco, then moved to Seattle. Ruby Chow, a friend of my parents', lived there and owned a Chinese restaurant. Lee began working as a waiter for her. Along the way, he studied at Edison Technical School, then at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Washington. During his student years, he met Linda Cadwell, who became the actor's wife in 1964. The marriage produced two children: a son, Brandon, born in 1965, and a daughter, Shannon, born in 1969.
Bruce Lee is the most famous popularizer of Asian martial arts in the West in the mid-20th century. They looked up to him and imitated him. Although Lee did not have the official status of a martial artist, many biographers and colleagues who worked with him called him that in their publications.
Lee's fighting abilities were legendary. It is known that the actor delivered blows so fast that they could not be recorded by a regular movie camera, which provides 24 frames per second. Therefore, sometimes I had to use a 32-frame camera. The actor also caught thrown grains of rice with chopsticks, punched a full Coca-Cola can with his finger, held a 35-kilogram weight in his outstretched hand for several seconds, and did pull-ups on his little fingers.
Biography and personal life of Bruce Lee
The biography and personal life of Bruce Lee began in Chinatown in San Francisco. The future actor was born on November 27, 1940. His name was the nurse who delivered the baby.
By the standards of that time, his family was quite wealthy. Father: Lee Hong Chuen, Chinese opera artist. Mother - Grace Lee, was half German
Bruce Lee began acting in films from early childhood. This first happened when he was 3 months old. In the film The Golden Gate Girl, Bruce Lee got the role of a baby girl.
As a child, Bruce Lee was a rather frail child. At school I was not particularly diligent. In 1954 he began dancing. He later participates and wins dance competitions.
The actor also developed an interest in martial arts as a child. He diligently practiced kung fu, boxing, judo, and jiu-jitsu. Later, Bruce Lee, having collected the best strength exercises and techniques, developed his own style - Jeet Kune Do. In 1961, the actor opened his own school, in which everyone could study, regardless of their age and nationality. Let us note that in those days it was prohibited. The school was closed several times. The famous Bruce Lee demonstrated a 1-inch punch to his students. Many people would still like to know how Bruce Lee makes a one-inch punch. Video of this technique has been preserved only on old videotapes.
All the film actor’s roles were related to martial arts. He has always been a positive hero. It's interesting to know that Bruce Lee was too fast for the cameras. The video did not have time to capture the kick. The directors even asked the actor to slow down.
Bruce Lee's personal life was quite calm and happy. He was married once and had two children - a son and a daughter.
Film career
In the USA, Bruce continued to hone his fighting skills. He was invited to TV series, and the number of fans grew. There were even celebrities who wanted to become his students. Director Er Parker suggested that Lee create several martial arts video tutorials for television broadcast.
Having developed his own fighting style, Bruce Lee opened a kung fu school. An hour of individual lessons with the famous master cost $270. Despite the high cost of training, there were many applicants. Lee became a wealthy man, but he was depressed by the lack of serious roles in his career. Disillusioned with Hollywood, Bruce returned to Hong Kong in 1971 and moved his family there.
In Hong Kong, Bruce Lee convinced the management of a film studio to give him the lead role in The Big Boss. This film turned out to be extremely successful and became the actor’s finest hour. The following films with Lee in the title role were a huge success and collected a decent box office. American screenwriter Stirling Silliphant, Lee's former student, helped the actor write a number of excellent scripts.
Bruce Lee was sensitive to the quality of fight scenes in films, and he himself participated in the productions. Moreover, he was not afraid to experiment, created original strikes and tricks, and did it very talentedly. Many of the fight scenes involving nunchucks were created and choreographed by Lee himself.
The fight with Chuck Norris in the film “Way of the Dragon” became a model for subsequent generations of film fight directors. It is difficult to surpass him in terms of direction and originality.
The peculiarity of Bruce Lee's cinematic fights is long-shot shooting. Thanks to this, it is easier for the viewer to understand what is happening on the screen. The actor was opposed to clip shooting, when close-ups and long shots quickly change, not allowing the viewer to understand the actions of the characters.
All his life Bruce Lee developed and improved his skills. He kept a diary in which he described with extreme detail everything he did during training. Until the end of his life, the actor was refining his Jeet Kune Do style and improving existing fighting techniques. Bruce Lee also ate according to his own program, did not forget about general physical training, and visited the gym.
Bruce Lee brought his body to an excellent state, but constantly strived for an unattainable ideal, for which he even experimented on himself, for example, he gave electric shocks. On set, the actor thought through every move so that it would look flawless in the frame. The books in which Lee revealed his training techniques became bestsellers.
Until 1966, Bruce did not use kicks above the waist on filming. The actor’s stretch was excellent, but Lee was focused on real fights, in which such blows are ineffective. His opinion changed after meeting Chuck Norris. He convinced Bruce that the main thing in cinema is not realism, but entertainment. And there’s hardly anything comparable to the spectacle of kicks to the head in combat scenes. Then, within a few months, Bruce mastered all possible techniques of hitting above the belt, and used them effectively in the TV series “The Green Hornet.”
Film career and adulthood
After returning to China, Bruce Lee's life took a sharp turn. In 1971, he began collaborating with the Hong Kong film company Golden Harvest. The actor informed the producers of his readiness to stage all the action scenes in the company's new film. And as a reward for his services, Lee asked for the leading role. The result of this collaboration was the film “The Big Boss,” which brought Bruce Lee his first fame.
This work was followed by the award-winning film Fist of Fury. This film was a great success not only in China, but also abroad. Bruce Lee began to receive numerous offers to work at the best sites in China and the USA. Together with his friend Raymond Chow, Lee created his own film studio. Bruce Lee's first independent work was the film "Way of the Dragon", in which Chuck Norris was invited to play one of the main roles.
In 1972, while working on his second film, Game of Death, Bruce Lee received an invitation from Warner Brothers. He was supposed to direct the fight scenes in the new movie.
All this time, the actor lived in two countries, actively working in both China and America. In the spring of 1973, he finally moved to the United States. However, here Lee began to experience the first health problems. One day, right at his workplace, he had an attack, accompanied by convulsions and loss of consciousness. The actor underwent a full medical examination, but it did not reveal any abnormalities. Therefore, Lee continued to work on his projects at the same pace.
On July 20, 1973, Bruce Lee was in Hong Kong. The actor worked on the script with Chow and actress Betty Bruce. Suddenly, Lee felt a sharp headache. He took an aspirin tablet, worked some more, and then went to bed. The next morning, Bruce Lee still did not wake up. An autopsy revealed that the 32-year-old actor died from cerebral edema, apparently caused by an allergy to aspirin. The death of Bruce Lee was a great grief not only for his family, but also for thousands of people around the world.
Bruce Lee rests in a Seattle cemetery. Today his grave is a real Mecca for admirers of his talent. The memory of Bruce Lee is still alive. The actor is recognized as one of the most influential celebrities of the 20th century, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame bears his name, and monuments depicting Lee in his film characters were erected in Hong Kong, Los Angeles and Mostar.
What films did he appear in?
Bruce Lee's film career was short but bright. Many films are watched and re-watched by several generations of viewers.
The complete filmography of the Hong Kong actor with the years of film release in order:
- 1946 – “Born of Man” – cameo role of a child;
- 1950 – “Baby” – orphan Cheng;
- 1960 – “Orphan” – noble robber Ah Sum;
- 1966-1967 – TV series “The Green Hornet” – journalist Kato;
- 1966-1968 – series “Batman” – Kato;
- 1969 – “Marlow” – Winslow Wong;
- 1971 – “Big Boss” – factory worker Zhen Chaoan;
- 1971 – TV series “Longstreet” – antiques dealer Li Chun;
- 1972 – “Fist of Fury” – martial artist Chen Zhen;
- 1972 - “The Way of the Dragon” - Tang Lung;
- 1973 - “Enter the Dragon” - Lee;
- 1978 – “Game of Death” – Hoi Tien;
- 1981 – “Tower of Death” – actor with martial arts skills Billy Lo.
The most important roles of the actor
The first feature film in which Bruce played a key character was “The Big Boss,” and the first TV series was “The Green Hornet.” A total of 10 projects were released in which the actor starred. In the Russian segment, the average rating of films with Lee's participation is 6.8 points out of 10.
"Big boss"
The Hong Kong action film is about a simple working guy, honest and decent. His relatives, who work at the factory, are killed because they witnessed the packaging of drugs in the products produced. Bruce Lee's hero faces a difficult fight against drug dealers.
"Bruce Lee, come back"
Bruce Lee is listed in the credits of the film, but this is a different actor - a popular doppelgänger of the real one in Hong Kong, in fact, his name is Chun Tao Ho.
The main character of the film is Stone, a martial artist, a devoted fan of actor Bruce Lee. One day he came across a newspaper article about the death of an idol. Frustrated, Stone got drunk. And in the morning the spirit of the actor appeared before him and asked him to find out the real circumstances of his death, which differed from the official ones.
"Enter the Dragon"
This is the last film to be released before Lee's death. The actor plays a Shaolin monk who arrives on the island where the martial arts school is located, supposedly to participate in the tournament taking place there. In reality, he helps the police investigate the activities of a criminal group that, under the guise of school activities, sells contraband products.
"Green Hornet"
In the popular series, Bruce Lee played a journalist, the son of one of the owners of a large publishing house in San Francisco. The owner's companion was killed, and the young journalist swears to his father that he will find the criminals. Revenge was accomplished, but Bruce Lee's hero did not stop there. At night, he puts on a mask and goes to fight criminals.
"Game of Death"
The powerful and treacherous head of the mafia, Doctor Lang, aims to take over the world's show business. Killers are set on those who resist. Popular actor Billy Lo, who knows martial arts, receives a tempting offer from the mafia, but, having self-esteem, is in no hurry to agree.
"Fist of fury"
In the film, Bruce Lee plays a man seeking revenge for the desecrated honor of a martial arts school. The story takes place in the early 20th century in Shanghai, which is under Japanese occupation. The main character returned to his homeland to see off his mentor, who apparently died of pneumonia. But it soon became clear that the mentor was poisoned and the school was destroyed by the Japanese occupiers.
"Image of Bruce Lee"
In this film, shot in 1978, again, it is not Bruce Lee himself who plays, but one of his doubles, whom Hong Kong filmmakers produced in large numbers at that time. Fans of the great actor had a negative attitude towards such replacements, especially since most of the doubles were not familiar with martial arts, even at a superficial level.
There was a more or less tolerant attitude towards the actor Bruce Lai, who starred in this film. Since he was the only one who had good acting and fighting skills.
In the film, a Bruce Lee lookalike confronts counterfeiters who inadvertently exposed themselves after the jeweler's untimely death. It’s not easy for the main character, because criminals are ready to do anything to avoid losing their income.
"The path of Dragon"
The owner of a restaurant in Rome was attacked by bandits who wanted to squeeze out the business. She sent a letter to her uncle in Hong Kong so that he could help cope with the problem. My uncle has a good friend - kung fu master Tang Long. He decides to help his friend, goes to Italy, and there he immediately begins an operation to save the restaurant.
"Dragon's Fury"
This feature-length film, released in 1966, is a compilation of several episodes of The Green Hornet.
"Orphan"
This is the most remarkable of Lee's early works. The actor got the role of the robber Ah Sum - a kind of Hong Kong Robin Hood.
Goodbye Bruce Lee (1975)
After Bruce Lee's sudden death, another martial artist is hired as a backup to finish his last film. To begin with, the creators of the film decide to demonstrate the already filmed materials that they managed to make before the actor’s death, as well as tell the plot and idea of the film. During this, it turns out that the main character saves the man and agrees to fulfill his request. You just need to deliver the parcel to the address. But the situation is aggravated by the fact that it contains mafia money. Now it is he who will have to face the underworld of his city in order to get out of history alive.
Interesting moments from the set
While filming Enter the Dragon, Bruce was bitten by a cobra. The actor was saved by the fact that on the eve of the shooting day the poison was squeezed out of the snake’s glands.
Fist of Fury was filmed in different areas of Hong Kong. One of the areas was controlled by a gang, which demanded payment from the film crew for being on their territory. The actor tried several times to deal with the villains, but the directors of the film stopped him so as not to aggravate the problem.
When Bruce Lee was filming Enter the Dragon, many of the supporting actors challenged him to a fight between filming. Lee understood that these challenges were an attempt by little-known actors to attract attention. To put his opponents in their place, the actor accepted the challenge and quickly dealt with them without causing injury or pain.
During the filming of Big Boss, Bruce constantly had health problems. First, he caught a fever, then, having quarreled with the director, he cut his hand with fragments of a glass, which, out of anger, he squeezed hard, and in the end injured his leg while performing a stunt.
Enter the Dragon screenwriter Michael Allyn constantly made fun of the actor, and did it in a very impudent and ugly way. He wrote phrases for Bruce in which words were replete with the letter “r”, knowing that this sound is difficult for the Chinese to pronounce.
Bruce Lee: biography of actor and director
Bruce Lee was born back in 1940 in the USA during the American tour of the Chinese opera in which his father worked. According to Chinese tradition, he has a childhood and an adult name, but he is known by the one given to him by an unknown American nurse.
Chinese opera is a synthetic genre that includes music, drama, and acrobatic art. It is not surprising that Bruce developed a craving for combining rhythm and martial arts from childhood. Interestingly, Jackie Chan and Samo Hung, who were extras in Bruce's films and then continued his tradition in Asian cinema, also started out as Peking Opera actors.
Relationships with colleagues
Bruce Lee was an extremely ambitious, picky, demanding person of himself and those around him. He did not tolerate negligence in the filming process and tried to correct the slightest defects. He was a perfectionist when performing stunts and action scenes. If the actor was not happy with something during the filming process, he would get nervous and make trouble.
After falling out with Michael Allyn while working on Enter the Dragon, Bruce took the filming process into his own hands. The same thing happened on the set of “Big Boss” when the actor had a row with the director.
In everyday life, Bruce was a polite, courteous man. He treated colleagues and acquaintances with the utmost respect, regardless of their status. During filming, he did not separate himself from the film crew, ate with everyone, and did not require special conditions for himself.
Last news
The actor was at the peak of his fame when news of his sudden death spread on July 20, 1973. He was found dead in a Hong Kong hotel. An autopsy revealed swelling of the brain, presumably caused by the migraine analgesic she had taken.
Apart from the autopsy, there was no study, which is why the press started a rumor that the pills were not to blame for the actor’s death. Allegedly he was killed by a certain martial artist.
The farewell ceremony was held on July 25 in Hong Kong. It was a day of national mourning. More than 25 thousand fans came to say goodbye to the actor. Then the actor’s body was transported to the city of Seattle, where he began his journey, and was buried there on July 30. Fans still come to Seattle to pay tribute to the talented actor who introduced the world to Asian martial arts.
In 1978, the last film in which Lee starred was released, “Game of Death.” The actor died before filming was completed, so doubles were used to complete the film: Tai Chun Kim for close-ups and Yen Biao for stunts. There was also a sequel to Game of Death called Tower of Death, made up of clips from other films.
In 1993, a star dedicated to Bruce Lee appeared on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Death of Bruce Lee. Wikipedia cause of death
On July 20, 1973, a tragic event occurred - the death of Bruce Lee. Wikipedia named the cause of death as cerebral edema, which was caused by an allergy to aspirin. It is known that the actor took the pill because of a very severe headache. Bruce Lee's death occurred in a dream. Then he lay down to rest during a break between filming a film with the fatal title “Game of Death.”
There were also rumors that the legendary actor was killed by a kung fu master who was Bruce Lee's rival. But this version has not received official confirmation. More than 25,000 people came to Bruce Lee's funeral. He was an incredible man, dedicated to his work.
