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Bruce was born in San Francisco, during which his parents were on a tour of Chinese theaters in the US. His father, Lee Hoi Chuen, was a famous Hong Kong actor. Bruce's family moved back to Hong Kong where he stayed until for about twenty. As a youth in Hong Kong, Lee was a good student and a well-known child actor who appeared in numerous films. That was the good side. On the bad side, he liked to fight. He got into many street brawls especially after he began learning wing chung kung fu from the great Master Yip Man. Lee journeyed back the the US to further his education. When he arrived, all that he had in his pocket was $100, five years of wing chun kung fu training, and the title of Hong Kong Cha-Cha Dance Champion of 1958. Settling in Seattle, Washington, Lee worked as a dish washer at a Chinese restaurant while studying philosophy at the University of Washington. He also opened his first kung fu school. After finishing school, Lee married Linda Emery and the couple moved to Oakland, California, where he opened the second of his schools. That didn't go over well with the local Chinese martial artists who felt that Lee should not be teaching non-Chinese students. Their anger led them to send kung fu teacher Won Jak Man to challenge Lee. If Lee prevailed he could continue teaching to the general public, but if he failed he would be forced to close his school. It was no contest. Lee hammered Won Jak Man into the ground. But fighting Won Jak Man in the traditional wing chun style exhausted Lee. As he recovered from the fight, he felt he'd had a hard time landing clean shots on his opponent and that wing chun was limited and inefficient. The Won Jak Man fight prompted Lee to investigate new training and fighting methods, seeking to become a more versatile martial artists. He decided traditional kung fu was overly complicated and had drifted away from the essence of combat. Lee sought to create a more instinctive and effective martial art, one he eventuall came to call jeet kune do (way of the intercepting fist). One of Lee's greatest triumphys occured at Ed Parker's Long Beach International Karte Championships in 1964. For a complete unknown like Bruce Lee to be invited to the tournament to show his talents was a great honor. Lee rose to the occasion and gave a spectacular demonstration of his skills, including his pile driver-like "one-inch punch." That tournament was the beginning of the legend of Bruce Lee. It brought him to the attention of Hollywood producers, and he soon landed a role as Hato on The Green Hornet TV series. Lee became popular in Asia that The Green Hornet was known as The Kato Show. While working on The Green Hornet, Lee continued full balst with his martial arts training and teaching. His students included such famous people as full-contact karate champ Joe Lewis, Hall of Fame NBA center Kareen Abdul-Jabbar, and acotrs Steve McQueen and James Coburn-just to name a few. Aside from fulfilling his personal ambition, Lee saw his Hollywood success as a chance to prove that Asian actores could be heroes and not just sidekicks or sinister villains. He came up with the concept for Kung Fu TV series and was set to star in it when the part was given to David Carradine. It seemed that Hollywood executives weren't ready to accept the idea of an Asian Leading man. Disgusted, Lee moved back to Hong Kong. Lee left Hollywood, but he did't leave the movies. In Hong Kong, he made three films for Raymond Chow's Golden Harvest Studios, breaking all Asian box-office records. That made Hollywood take notice. The American studio executives soon came calling, and Bruce Lee became an American star. Hollywood money made it possible for Lee to produce his masterpiece, Enter the Dragon in 1973. Tragically, he died just days before it premiered, apparently from an allergic reaction to a common headache pill. Despite his premature death, Lee remains the single largest influence on the world of martial arts. His top student, Daniel Insano, still teaches the concepts of jeet kune do, and several of Lee's other students, such as Taky Kimura, Jesse Glover, and Ted Wong, continue to share their own individual interpretations of Lee's martial arts legacy. These and many other martial artists live by Lee's famous motto, "Absorb what is useful; reject what is useless." Bruce Lee has fascinated his fans all over the world with his charisma. Bruce Lee continues to amaze people with his talents. |
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Last updated on July 25, 1998. Accessed times since June 7, 1998.