On November 27,
1940 in San Francisco, Lee Jun Fan was born in the Year of the Dragon
at the Jackson St. Hospital in the Chinatown District of San Francisco.
He was later named Bruce Lee. His father, Lee Hoi Chuen, a Cantonese
Opera Company performer was in America touring at the time.
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In 1941, Bruce and his
parents return to their home in Kowloon of Hong Kong. Bruce begins his
professional screen debut in the movie, "Beginning of a Boy". He
appears in 20 more films in Southeast Asia during his later years of
childhood lastly being in the film, "The Orphan" at age 18.
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In 1953, Bruce was
involved in many street fights in Hong Kong. Because of this, he
becomes a student of Sifu Yip Man, a master of Wing Chun Kungfu.
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In 1958, Bruce, an expert
dancer, is the victor of the Crown Colony Cha-Cha Championship in Hong
Kong.
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In 1959, Bruce is involved
in more brawls in the streets resulting in police involvement. Bruce's
parents decide that since Bruce has American citizenship, he should
return to San Francisco.
After arriving in San Francisco in 1959, Bruce stays with an old friend
of
his father's working jobs around various Chinese Communities. After a
while,
Bruce moves to Seattle working for Ruby Chow, another friend of his
father's.
Bruce is living in a room above her restaurant while being a waiter
downstairs.
Later on, Bruce enrolls at Edison Technical School to earn his high
school
diploma. He also begins teaching kungfu is backyards and city parks.
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In the springtime of 1961,
Bruce enrolls at the University of Washington in Seattle. He has a
major in Philosophy and continues to teach kungfu to students at
school.
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Roughly two years later, 1963,
Bruce returns to Hong Kong after 4 years since his arrival in the U.S.
in the summer. He goes back to Seattle to continue school at the end of
summer.
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On October 25 of the same year, Bruce takes out
Linda Emery for their first date. The couple have dinner at the Space
Needle.
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In the memorable year of 1963 in the Fall
Season, the Seattle based Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute is relocated into a
building near
the university campus. The address is 4750 University Way.
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In the summer of
1964, Bruce moves to Oakland to open a second school. Taky Kimura, his
good friend, takes over the Seattle based school as head instructor.
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A day to remember, August 17, 1964, Bruce
returns to Seattle to ask for Linda Emery's hand in marriage. After,
they reside back
in Oakland.
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In Oakland, 1964, after several months of
teaching students, Bruce is challenged by a leading Gung Fu
practinioner in the Chinatown Community. If Bruce were to lose the
challenge, he was either to close his school or put an end to his
teaching to non-Chinese. At that time, Chinese didn't accept teaching
non-Chinese their martial arts. In the 1900's, the Boxer Rebellion were
severely beaten by Western Forces. The Boxer Rebellion desired the
Westeners to be expelled from China. The Western Forces punished this
rebellion and gave beatings to the Chinese Army. Therefore, Chinese are
reluctant to teach Westeners their martial arts. Bruce accepts this
challenge and wins in only a couple of minutes. But Bruce was upset
though on why the fight took longer than usual so he begins to
re-evaluate his style. Thus, the early concepts of Jeet Kune Do (JKD)
were born.
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On August 2, 1964 in Long Beach,California, Ed
Parker, the founder of American Kenpo invites Bruce for a demonstration
at his first International Karate Championships. It just so happened
that in the audience was Jay Sebring, the hair stylist for Batman
producer William Dozier who is
looking to cast a part in a TV series he was developing. Sebring feels
that
Bruce has potential in becoming a part of this TV series so a film of
Bruce's
demonstration was given to Dozier. Dozier is amazed at what Bruce can
do
so he asks Bruce to fly down to Los Angeles for a screen test.
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On February 8,
1965, in Hong Kong, Lee Hoi Chuen, Bruce's father passes away.
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In Los Angeles of 1966,
Bruce and his family move there where he begins working on a new TV
series called "The Green Hornet" playing the role as Kato. Also, Bruce
opens the third branch
of the Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute in the Chinatown district of Los
Angeles.
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From 1967 to 1971 in
Hollywood, Bruce plays bit parts in various films and TV series like
Marlowe and Longstreet. He also gave private lessons to well known
actors and celebrities at that time like Steve McQueen, James Garner,
James Coburn, Roman Polanski, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and Lee Marvin for
$250 an hour!
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On April 19, 1969, Bruce's
daughter Shannon Lee is born in Santa Monica, California.
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In Los Angeles of 1970,
Bruce injured his back while training. While he was injured, he starts
to document his training methods and philosophy of Jeet Kune Do
meaning, "Way of the intercepting
Fist". After his death, "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do" was published by his
wife
Linda Lee.
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In 1971, Bruce returns to
Hong Kong to arrange for his mother to live in the U.S.. Bruce didn't
know though that he had become a superstar in HK since "The Green
Hornet" was one of the
most popular TV shows there. Raymond Chow, owner of the new production
company
Golden Harvest Productions offered a leading role to Bruce in the movie
"The
Big Boss". Bruce accepts while being paid over $100,000.
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In July of 1971 in Thailand, the filming of
"The Big Boss" begins. In the U.S., it was released as "Fists of Fury".
When it premiered in Hong Kong, it broke all Hong Kong box office
records proceeding to gross more than #$3.5 million in less than three
weeks!
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In Hong Kong of
1972, "Fist of Fury", called "The Chinese Connection" in the U.S., is
released and
once again breaks all the box office records in Hong Kong and grosses
more
than "The Big Boss". This further established Bruce as an HK superstar.
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In 1972, filming begins in Rome, Italy of his
third film titled "The Way of the Dragon" and called in the U.S.
"Return of the Dragon". Bruce directed, wrote, and starred in this
film. Chuck Norris is Bruce's adversary in the final fight scene of the
movie. Chuck Norris is a
master of Tang Soo Do, a Korean martial art. This film once again
breaks all
box office records.
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In Hong Kong of the same year, Bruce begins to
work on "Game of Death". Bruce films several of the fight scenes at the
end of the movie. First it's just a fighting match with what looked
like a TKD master. Next was a nunchaku fight. After was the fight with
basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Danny Inosanto was in there too.
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In February of
1973, Hong Kong, the filming of "Enter the Dragon" begins. It was the
first-ever production between the U.S. and Hong Kong film industries.
Before when Bruce made up the idea of a Kungfu TV series, the part was
instead given to David Carradine because Westeners were reluctant to
have an Asian having the lead role. So Bruce went back to Hong Kong, in
a way, disgusted, and then made some pretty big movies so Hollywood
came calling back. "Enter the Dragon" was Bruce's masterpiece and I
personally think so too! Because of this, "Game of Death" is never
finished. Later on though after Bruce's death, they used phony Bruce
Lee imitators for the beginning parts. In the movie "Game of Death",
everbody would be hollering because of the phony Bruce Lee imitators
but
at the end when it was the real Bruce, everyone would cheer.
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In April of 1973, HK, the filming of "Enter the
Dragon" was completed. This was Bruce's final film and his masterpiece.
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On July 20, 1973, HK, Bruce Lee dies of an
apparent cerebral edema (swelling of the brain) because of an allergic
reaction to some headache pills. "Enter the Dragon" premieres a month
later to much success.
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On July 25, 1973, HK, Bruce's funeral ceremony
was held for friends and fans with over 25 000 people attending. Bruce
was in the Chinese outfit he wore in "Enter the Dragon". The funeral
was filmed at
part of the footage was shown as a clip in "Game of Death" when Bruce
was
Billy Lo and pretending to be dead.
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On July 30, 1973, Seattle, a smaller second
ceremony is held. Bruce Lee was buried as Lake View Cemetery. Among the
pallbearers were his students, friends, and brother: Danny Inosanto,
Taky Kimura, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, and brother Robert Lee.
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