Bruce Lee in a karate stance
He was a hard-bodied blur of ferocious fists, swirling nunchucks and spinning kicks who revolutionised Hollywood and the martial arts. However even Bruce Lee’s gravity-defying agility and lightning velocity couldn’t save him from a sudden demise 50 years in the past this week. The legendary martial artist and movie star died shockingly younger aged simply 32, on July 20, 1973. But half a century later, conspiracy theories abound: Was he poisoned? Was it a drug overdose? Did Chinese language Triad gangs have him assassinated? Was he killed by a enterprise companion? Did he fall sufferer to a lethal household curse? Or was he a sufferer of the fabled kung fu “Contact of Demise”? “I by no means grew up believing within the Lee household curse,” says his daughter, former martial arts motion movie star Shannon Lee, 54, and the star’s solely surviving little one. However the jinx concept gained traction after Bruce’s actor son Brandon Lee was unintentionally killed with a prop gun in 1993 whereas filming darkish fantasy film The Crow.
“Brandon’s demise was only a horrible tragedy,” continues Shannon. “However may there be some curse in our ancestral line?” She hesitates: “I actually don’t know.” Bruce Lee’s faster-than-the-eye athleticism and indomitable willpower proceed to encourage new generations of artists and followers. “His affect is felt as we speak in movie and TV, video video games, comedian books, martial arts and as a popular culture icon,” says his daughter. Lee’s Hollywood legacy could be seen within the martial arts in movie franchises like The Matrix and from John Wick to Mortal Kombat. The rising recognition of combined martial arts preventing owes a lot to Lee’s dynamic motion films, combining karate, kung fu and different disciplines. And his affect extends past preventing.
Shannon Lee runs a basis in reminiscence of her father Bruce Lee
“His philosophy of self-actualisation, realizing and cultivating your self endures,” says Shannon, whose American mom was Lee’s faculty sweetheart Linda Emery. “He spoke of being ‘like water’ – discovering a method by or round obstacles, movement or push downstream towards your desires – which has guided folks for half a century. He was one of many first Asian film stars, battled racism in Hong Kong and Hollywood, and fought for larger Asian illustration, which after 50 years we’re solely belatedly starting to see. My father modified Hollywood, and altered motion films. His legacy lives on as we speak.” Certainly, when college students in Hong Kong had been resisting Chinese language oppression in 2019, they adopted Lee’s maxim: “Be water.” Lee, who died the identical day his star-making film Fist Of Fury debuted in British cinemas, like James Dean, discovered his best fame after demise.
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His hits Enter The Dragon and Manner Of The Dragon had been each launched within the UK posthumously, as had been 4 extra films. But 5 a long time later, controversy nonetheless surrounds his demise. The official coroner’s report acknowledged that Lee died from an allergic response to aspirin that prompted his mind to swell by 13 per cent. However Lee had barely been buried earlier than conspiracy theories exploded. He died within the mattress of Taiwanese starlet Betty Ting Pei, sparking whispers of an affair and potential poisoning by a jealous lover. Regardless of Lee’s declare to stay a drug and alcohol-free life, after his demise non-public letters revealed his use of cocaine, LSD and marijuana, inciting hypothesis he died of a drug overdose. Mafia-style Chinese language Triad gangs had been accused of killing him in retaliation for Lee’s refusal to pay safety cash on his Hong Kong movie units; whereas his filmmaking companion Raymond Chow got here underneath scrutiny for cashing in on Lee’s movies posthumously.
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Bruce Lee with Chuck Norris in The Manner of the Dragon
Others claimed Chinese language martial artists had killed him with the delayed-action “Contact of Demise” as punishment for revealing secret preventing strategies to Westerners. Extra lately, a crew of docs analysing Lee’s medical historical past concluded he was killed by heatstroke, whereas others blamed hyponatraemia: the kidneys’ lack of ability to excrete extra water. Regardless of the persevering with hypothesis, Shannon insists: “I don’t consider my father’s demise a lot. Extra profound is how he lived his life.” Born in San Francisco in 1940, the son of a Cantonese opera singer, at 4 months previous Lee moved together with his Chinese language mother and father to British-ruled Hong Kong, the place he educated in martial arts and appeared as a baby actor in quite a few Asian films, earlier than returning to the US in 1959. Combining numerous martial arts disciplines in methods by no means seen earlier than within the West, he developed his hybrid acrobatic type of kung fu: Jeet Kune Do.
He acquired his begin in Hollywood coaching college students together with Steve McQueen, Chuck Norris – who made his on-screen debut in The Manner Of The Dragon – and Roman Polanski’s ill-fated spouse, Sharon Tate; choreographing combat scenes, and profitable the position of sidekick Kato in crime-fighting tv collection The Inexperienced Hornet. “He needed to combat for each line of dialogue,” says Shannon. Lee, whose maternal grandmother was Caucasian, confronted racism on two continents. “As a baby in Hong Kong he skilled racism as a result of he wasn’t 100 per cent Asian, and in America suffered racism as a result of he was Chinese language,” says Shannon. “He was very, very upset when he was not solid because the lead in tv collection Kung Fu, the place the position went as a substitute to Caucasian actor David Carradine. Roles for Asians in these days had been stereotyped, and so they nonetheless are to a big diploma.” Lee grew annoyed with the restrictions he confronted in Hollywood. Realising the US was not prepared for an Asian main man, he returned to Hong Kong to make motion films, with Fist Of Fury and The Manner Of The Dragon, which grew to become large hits.
Bruce Lee with mom and son, Brandon Lee
However Lee was greater than an actor. In addition to his dazzling bodily expertise, his movies had been narratives of resistance. He stood with manufacturing unit staff in opposition to felony corruption in The Huge Boss; whereas Fist Of Fury was a one-man campaign in opposition to colonial oppression in Nineteen Twenties Shanghai. “My father wrote, directed, starred, choreographed and produced The Manner Of The Dragon,” Shannon continues. “He was headed to do the identical on Sport Of Demise. And he was an entrepreneur. He arrange a manufacturing firm to provide Enter The Dragon. And he made combat scenes extra practical. Earlier than, they’d be flying by the air swinging swords, preventing for quarter-hour. My father stated: ‘No person can combat that lengthy.’ He modified Hollywood’s strategy to martial arts and storytelling.” However Lee insisted on doing most of his personal stunts, taking a punishing toll on his physique. Two months earlier than his demise Lee collapsed, struggling cerebral edema.
Martial arts movie star Jackie Chan, who carried out stunts in Lee’s movies earlier than turning into well-known in his personal proper, believes Hollywood drove him relentlessly. “Individuals had been at all times pushing him, pushing him too onerous,” says Chan, 69. “He was underneath a lot stress to be a superhero, and that was not good for him. He influenced me lots, however I knew I may by no means be him.” Shannon was 4 years previous when her father died, and says: “I’ve only some fleeting reminiscences of him, however I keep in mind the sensation of him. I at all times felt liked, at all times protected.” She now runs the Bruce Lee Basis, which helps educate youngsters in Lee’s self-empowerment philosophy, with camps throughout America and in Hong Kong, and offers monetary help to school college students.
