A Short Biography of Bruce Lee (Lee Jun Fan) Bruce Lee's father, Lee Hoi Chuen, was an actor. In November, 1940, Hoi Chuen was traveling with his acting troop and pregnant wife in the United States. While they were in San Francisco Jun Fan (Bruce) was born. It was several months before the Lee family returned to Hong Kong. When Bruce was growing up he had a lot of energy. This energy was focused into areas of a child acting career, dancing, and occasional street fights. During his teenage years Bruce was introduced to Wing Chun Master Yip Man. It was thought that if Bruce focused some of his efforts into Wing Chun Gung Fu that he may be in less fights and bad situations. Over the next several years Bruce spent long hours perfecting his Wing Chun and developing his natural God-given talents as a martial artist. After arriving in America Bruce lived in Seattle, WA. He attended Edison Technical School during the day to earn his high school diploma. At night he worked and lived at Ruby Chow's restaurant. Bruce then attended the University of Washington where he majored in philosophy. During his time at WU Bruce was teaching Gung Fu to a few people and he actually opened up a small school, the Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute. It was through his school that he would meet two important people in his life: Linda Emery, his future wife, and life-long friend Taky Kimura. Also, in 1966, Bruce landed an acting role on the TV show "The Green Hornet." He played Kato. He received this role after screen testing for William Dozier. Bruce's luck was short-lived because the show only ran for six months during the 1966-67 season. The show did not catch on as much as TV executives would have liked. Shortly after Bruce was contacted by Warner Brothers to help develop a television series based on the martial arts. Bruce worked with the studio to develop the show that eventually would be called "Kung Fu." However, Bruce was not asked to star in the production. The TV executives first choice for a Chinese Master of Kung Fu was David Carradine. Warner Brothers and ABC-TV both thought that Bruce was too small, too Chinese, too inexperienced, and that he was not a big enough name. At this time Bruce was fed up with television. Friend James Coburn suggested that Bruce should not waste his time on television and that he should set his sights on Asia and build up his name and experience in Asia. In 1969 Linda gave birth to their second child, a daughter they named Shannon. When Bruce left for Hong Kong he made his Assistant Instructor, Dan Inosanto, the Head Instructor for the Los Angeles school. This would make Dan Inosanto the third and final person to ever be certified by Bruce Lee to teach. Dan Inosanto was also the only person to receive instructor's rank in all three of the following arts that Bruce taught over the years: Tao of Chinese Gung Fu, Jun Fan Gung Fu, and Jeet Kune Do. During the summer of 1971 Bruce signed a two picture deal with Golden Harvest's Raymond Chow. He flew to Thailand to make his first major motion picture, "The Big Boss" (a.k.a. "Fist of Fury"). "The Big Boss" opened as a huge success and broke box office records. Bruce's second picture, "Fist of Fury" (a.k.a. "The Chinese Connection") was even a bigger success and broke box office records. Bruce then started on his next movie project, "Game of Death". Bruce first filmed the movie's finale. It took place in a pagoda where, on each floor, Bruce met a new opponent. The first opponent was played by good friend and protégé, Dan Inosanto. They went at it with sticks and nunchaku. The second level had pitted Bruce against a Korean martial artist. The third and final level Bruce fought against his friend and student Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. After those few scenes were completed, the film was put on hold for another movie project. During the summer of 1971 Bruce signed a two picture deal with Golden Harvest's Raymond Chow. He flew to Thailand to make his first major motion picture, "The Big Boss" (a.k.a. "Fist of Fury"). "The Big Boss" opened as a huge success and broke box office records. Bruce's second picture, "Fist of Fury" (a.k.a. "The Chinese Connection") was even a bigger success and broke box office records. Bruce never got to see his film on the big screen. On July 20, 1973 Bruce was meeting producer Raymond Chow and actress Betty Ting-pei about script ideas for "Game of Death." After several hours Bruce developed a headache and took an Equagesic, super aspirin, and took a nap. He went into a coma. Bruce had an allergic reaction from the Equagesic and his brain swelled. He passed away shortly there after. There was a service held in Hong Kong and one in Seattle, Washington where he was buried. Source: http://www.jkdnorway.com/artikler/a_short_biography_of_bruce_lee.htm Music: Nu Flute by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

• published: 29 Oct 2013
• views: 59