Jet Li 李连杰
Jet Li at the premiere of Fearless in 2006.
Chinese name	李連杰 (Traditional)
Chinese name	李连杰 (Simplified)
Pinyin	Lǐ Liánjié (Mandarin)
Jyutping	Lei5 Lin4 Git6 (Cantonese)
Ancestry	Beijing, China
Born	(1963-04-26) April 26, 1963 (age 49) Beijing, China
Other name(s)	Lee Yeung Chung / Li Yangzhong 李陽中 (Traditional) 李阳中 (Simplified) Lǐ Yángzhōng (Mandarin) Lei5 Joeng4 Zung1 (Cantonese) (Chinese producer pseudonym)
Occupation	Actor Martial artist Film producer
Years active	1982–present
Spouse(s)	Huang Qiuyan (1987–1990) Nina Li Chi (1999–present)
Official Website	www.jetli.com
Awards Hong Kong Film Awards Best Actor 2008 The Warlords Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards Best Actor 2006 Fearless Golden Horse Awards Special Award 1995 Other awards Shanghai Film Critics Awards 2008 Best Actor (The Warlords)

This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.

Li Lianjie ([lì ljǎntɕjɛ̌]; born April 26, 1963), better known by his stage name Jet Li, is a Singaporean^[1][1] film actor, film producer, Chinese martial artist, wushu champion, and international star who was born in Beijing.

After three years of intensive training with Wu Bin, Li won his first national championship for the Beijing Wushu Team. After retiring from Wushu at age 19, he went on to win great acclaim in China as an actor making his debut with the film Shaolin Temple (1982). He went on to star in many critically acclaimed martial arts epic films, most notably the Once Upon A Time In China series, in which he portrayed folk hero Wong Fei-hung.

Li's first role in a Hollywood film was as a villain in Lethal Weapon 4 (1998), but his first Hollywood film leading role was in Romeo Must Die (2000). He has gone on to star in many Hollywood action films, including Kiss of the Dragon and Unleashed. He co-starred in The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) with Jackie Chan, The Expendables (2010) with Sylvester Stallone, and as the title character villain in The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor (2008) opposite Brendan Fraser. He also appeared in the Hong Kong film Ocean Heaven (2010), directed and written by Xue Xiaolu.

Early life and martial arts career[link]

Li Lianjie was born in Beijing, People's Republic of China, the youngest of two boys and two girls. His father died when he was two years old, leaving the family struggling.^[2]

Li was eight when his talent for wushu was noticed at a summer course at school, and he began his practice there.^[3] Li participated in the sport of wushu in the non-sparring event. He began his wushu on the Beijing Wushu Team, an athletic group organized to perform martial arts forms during the All China Games. He was coached by renowned wushu coaches Li Junfeng and Wu Bin,^[4] who made extra efforts to help the talented boy develop. Wu Bin even bought food for Li's family because they could not afford to buy meat, which was essential for the good physical condition of an athlete.^[4] As a member of the team, he received wushu training and went on to win fifteen gold medals and one silver medal in Chinese wushu championships, where, despite his young age, he competed against adults.^[5]

According to Li, once, as a child, when the Chinese National Wushu Team went to perform for President Richard Nixon in the United States, he was asked by Nixon to be his personal bodyguard. Li replied, "I don't want to protect any individual. When I grow up, I want to defend my one billion Chinese countrymen!"^[7]

Li is a master of several styles of wushu, especially Changquan (Northern Longfist Style) and Fanziquan (Tumbling fist). He has also studied other arts including Baguazhang (Eight trigram palm), Taijiquan (Supreme ultimate fist), Xingyiquan (Shape intent fist), Zuiquan (Drunken fist), Yingzhaoquan (Eagle claw fist) and Tanglangquan (Praying mantis fist). He did not learn Nanquan (Southern fist), because his training focused only in the Northern Shaolin Styles. He has also studied some of wushu's main weapons, such Sanjiegun (Three section staff), Gun (staff), Dao (Broadsword), Jian (Straight sword) and many more.^[8]

It is Jet Li's authentic martial arts prowess that enabled his rise to domestic and international fame.^[9]

Acting career[link]

Chinese films[link]

Jet Li
Jet Li's hand print and autograph at the Avenue of Stars in Hong Kong.
Traditional Chinese	李連杰
Simplified Chinese	李连杰
Transcriptions Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Lǐ Liánjié - Wade–Giles Li Lien-chieh Cantonese (Yue) - Jyutping Lei5 Lin4 Git6 - IPA [le̬i lɪ̏ŋkìt]
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	李陽中
Simplified Chinese	李阳中
Transcriptions Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Lǐ Yángzhōng - Wade–Giles Li Yang-chung - IPA [lì jɑ̌ŋtʂʊ́ŋ] Cantonese (Yue) - Jyutping Lei5 Joeng4 Zung1 - IPA [le̬i jœ̏ŋtsʊ́ŋ] - Yale Romanization Lee Yeung Chong

The fame gained by his sports winnings led to a career as a martial arts film star, beginning in mainland China and then continuing into Hong Kong. Li acquired his screen name in 1982 in the Philippines when a publicity company thought his real name was too hard to pronounce. They likened his career to an aircraft, which likewise "takes-off" as quickly, so they placed the name Jet Li on the movie posters. Soon everybody was calling him by this new name, which was also based on the nickname, "Jet," given to him as a young student, due to his speed and grace when training with the Beijing Wushu team. He made his debut with the 1982 film Shaolin Temple. Some of his more famous Chinese films include:

• The Shaolin Temple series (1, 2 and 3), which are considered to be the films which sparked the rebirth of the real Shaolin Temple in Dengfeng, China;
• The Once Upon a Time in China series (Chinese title: Wong Fei Hung), about the legendary Chinese folk hero Master Wong Fei Hung.
• Fist of Legend (Chinese title: Jing Wu Ying Xiong), a remake of Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury.
• The Fong Sai Yuk films about another Chinese folk hero.

Li starred in the 1995 film High Risk, where Jet Li plays a Captain who becomes disillusioned after his wife is murdered by crime lords. Along the way, he pairs up with a wacky sell-out actor, Frankie (played by Jacky Cheung), and proceeds to engage in a series of violent battles in a high-rise building. The setting is similar to that of Die Hard and both their Chinese film titles. This movie is notable in that director Wong Jing had such a terrible experience working with Jackie Chan in Jing's previous film City Hunter that he chose to make Cheung's character a biting satire of Chan. Jet Li would later publicly apologize to Chan for taking part in it.

Li has two wuxia feature films scheduled for release in 2011, The Sorcerer and the White Snake and Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, the latter is helmed by Tsui Hark.

In order to promote tai chi, in 2012 Jet Li will star in a film titled Tai Chi and will co-produce the movie with Chen Kuo-Fu. Li will portray Tai Chi master Yang Lu-ch'an.^[10][11]

American films[link]

In 1998, he made his American film debut in Lethal Weapon 4 which also marked the first time he had ever played a villain in a film. He agreed to do Lethal Weapon 4 after the producer Joel Silver promised to give him the leading role in his next film, Romeo Must Die (2000) alongside late singer Aaliyah. The film became a box office hit.

Li turned down Chow Yun-fat's role in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) because he promised his wife that he would not make any films during her pregnancy.^[12] He also turned down the role of Seraph in The Matrix trilogy, based on his belief that the role was not one which required his skills and that the films were iconic and stunning enough without adding his name to the cast list.

In 2001, he appeared in two more Hollywood films: The One which was the first of his films with Jason Statham and Kiss of the Dragon opposite Bridget Fonda which did moderately well at the box office. In July 2001, Li agreed to produce and star in an action film with Jackie Chan which was to be released in 2002 or 2003, but no further news of their collaboration surfaced until 2006. In 2002, the period martial arts epic film Hero was released in the Chinese market. This film was both a commercial and critical success and became the highest-grossing motion picture in Chinese film history at the time.^[13] In 2003 he reunited with producer Joel Silver for the action thriller film Cradle 2 The Grave where he starred alongside rapper DMX and fellow martial artist Mark Dacascos. In 2004, Li lent his likeness, voice and provided motion capture work for the video game Jet Li: Rise to Honor.

Li took on a more serious role in the 2005 film, Unleashed (a.k.a. Danny the Dog), where he portrayed an adult with the mentality of a child who has been raised like an animal. Although his martial arts skills were utilized extensively, it was a somber film with more depth than had been previously seen in Li's films, and co-starred dramatic actors Bob Hoskins and Morgan Freeman.

In 2006, the martial arts film epic Fearless, was released worldwide. Although he will continue to make martial arts films, Fearless is his last wushu epic. In Fearless, he played Huo Yuanjia, the real-life founder of Chin Woo Athletic Association, who reportedly defeated foreign boxers and Japanese martial artists in publicized events at a time when China's power was seen as eroding. Together with the film Fist of Legend, Li has portrayed both Chen Jun, the student and avenger of Huo Yuanjia (aka Fok Yun Gap), as well as Huo Yuanjia himself. Fearless was released on January 26, 2006 in Hong Kong, followed by a September 22, 2006 release in the United States where it reached second place in its first weekend.

I stepped into the martial arts movie market when I was only 16. I think I have proved my ability in this field and it won't make sense for me to continue for another five or 10 years. Huo Yuanjia is a conclusion to my life as a martial arts star.^[14]

Li has stated in an interview with the Shenzhen Daily newspaper that this will be his last martial arts epic, which is also stated in the film's television promotions. However, he plans to continue his film career in other genres. Specifically, he plans to continue acting in action and martial arts films; epic films deal more with religious and philosophical issues.

Li's 2007 Hollywood film, War, was released in August of that year, and re-teamed him with actor Jason Statham, who previously starred with him in The One, and action choreographer Corey Yuen. War raked in a disappointing $23 million at the box office, becoming one of Li's lowest grossers in America; however, it was a hit on video, accumulating nearly $52 million in rental revenue, more than doubling its box office take.^[15] With the exception of Romeo Must Die and the worldwide release of Hero, most of Li's American films have been only modest hits like Kiss Of The Dragon, The One, Unleashed, Cradle 2 the Grave, and the worldwide release of Fearless.

In late 2007, Li returned again to China to participate in the China/Hong Kong co-production of the period war film The Warlords with Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro. This film with its focus on dramatics rather than martial arts netted Li the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor.

Li and fellow martial arts veteran Jackie Chan finally appeared together onscreen for the first time in The Forbidden Kingdom, which began filming in May 2007 and was released to critical and commercial success on April 18, 2008. The film was based on the legend of the Monkey King from the Chinese folk novel Journey to the West.^[17][18] Li also starred as the lead villain in the fantasy action film The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor with actors Brendan Fraser, Isabella Leong and Michelle Yeoh.^[19]

After a one-year hiatus from filmmaking, Jet Li returned to acting in 2009, portraying a mercenary in the film The Expendables, teaming up with action stars Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts, Steve Austin, Terry Crews, and Randy Couture. It was the third time he had teamed up with Statham.

Personal life[link]

Jet Li with Jackie Chan in Hong Kong.

Li is a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism.^[20] His master is Lho Kunsang^[21] of the Drikung Kagyu lineage of the Kagyu school.^[22]

In 1987, Li married Beijing Wushu Team member and Kids from Shaolin co-star Huang Qiuyan,^[23] with whom he has two daughters, Si and Taimi.^[24] They divorced in 1990. Since 1999, he has been married to Nina Li Chi (born Li Zhi), a Shanghai-born, Hong Kong-based actress. He has two daughters with her as well, Jane (born 2000) and Jada (born 2002).^[25]

Li was in the Maldives when a tsunami hit during the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Although it was widely reported at the time that he had died during the disaster,^[26] he only suffered a minor foot injury, caused by a piece of floating furniture, while he was guiding his 4-year-old daughter Jane and the nanny holding his 1-year-old daughter Jada to safety. The four of them were by the pool and slightly above the beach when the wave came ashore.^[27]

In 2009, Li, who previously had American citizenship, after years working in the United States, was thought to have renounced his American citizenship and taken up Singaporean citizenship,^[1][28] although no official confirmation has been provided by Singapore authorities.^[29] On July 28, 2009, the chairman of One Foundation (the Charity fund of Jet Li) announced that Jet Li had indeed become a Singaporean citizen.^[1] He was said to have chosen Singapore for its education system for his two daughters.^[1]

In 2009, Li launched his own fitness program that he named "Wuji".^[30] The programme consists of elements of martial arts, yoga and pilates; Adidas launched a special clothing line for it that bears the initials of "JL".^[31][32]

In his free time he likes to play badminton, table tennis, volleyball, ride his bicycle, read and meditate. He collects rare Tibetan beads. He says he is never bored in his free time.^[33][34]

Views on life and martial arts[link]

Li as a Buddhist believes that the difficulties of everyday life can be overcome with the help of religious philosophies.^[36] He thinks that fame is not something he can control; therefore, he does not care about it.^[37]

According to Li, everything he has ever wanted to tell the world can be found in three of his films: the message of Hero is that the suffering of one person can never be as significant as the suffering of a nation; Unleashed shows that violence is never a solution and Fearless tells that the biggest enemy of a person is himself. Li thinks that the greatest weapon is a smile and the largest power is love.^[38]

About Wushu, Li said that he believes the essence of martial arts is not power or speed but inner harmony and considers it a sad development that today's Wushu championships place greater emphasis on form than on the essence of being a martial artist. He believes Wushu now lacks individuality and competitors move like machines, whereas according to his views Wushu should not be considered a race where the fastest athlete wins. He would like to see Wushu as a form of art, where artists have a distinctive style. Li blames the new competition rules that, according to him, place limitations on martial artists.^[39]

Li believes that Wushu is not primarily for self-defense and instead of trying to play the hero people should think about peaceful resolutions of conflicts and call the police if necessary: "A gun outdoes years of martial arts training in a split second. Like I've said many times before, it is important to differentiate between movies and reality. The hero in movies may be able to knock the gun off his opponent and save the day, but in real life – probably that is not the case."^[40] He has also stated that he has never had to use his martial arts skills in a real life fight and he does not wish to, either.^[35]

Philanthropy[link]

Li has been a "philanthropic ambassador" of the Red Cross Society of China since January 2006. He contributed 500,000 yuan (US$62,500) of box office revenues from his film Fearless to the Red Cross' psychological sunshine project, which promotes mental health.^[41]

In April 2007, touched by his life-shaking experience in the Maldives when he was close to dying during the 2004 tsunami, Li formed his own non-profit foundation called The One Foundation.^[42][43] The One Foundation supports international disaster relief efforts in conjunction with the Red Cross as well as other efforts, including mental health awareness and suicide prevention. Since the starting of the foundation, Li has been involved with recovery efforts in seven disasters, including the 2008 Sichuan earthquake^[27] and Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan.^[44] Wu Jing was a One Foundation volunteer and helped in the effort.^[45]

Li discussed his commitment to philanthropy in an interview with the December 2009 issue of Alliance magazine, stating that "grassroots non-government organizations can help the government in its blind spots. Government relief is not always detail-oriented. Grassroots NGOs can’t be as big as a government effort, but they need to be flexible and independent."^[46]

In September 2010, Jet Li was appointed by the International Red Cross as the first Good Will Ambassador. He posted online saying "Today I signed a deal with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies – IFRC - to become the FIRST goodwill ambassador in the history of this humanitarian organization. I am very honored! At the same time, I will not pause to celebrate, but instead keep pushing forward.. and do my best to help the world! Thank you all once again for your support and belief in me!"^[47]

It was also announced that Jet Li would be meeting Bill Gates and Warren Buffet to talk about charity work. "Three days ago, I received an email from Gates, hoping I could make time because he and Buffett hoped I could go for a 30-minute chat before the dinner about the future we face as human beings, so I will go," Li said.^[48]

Filmography[link]

Considering US box office statistics, the most successful Jet Li film as of August 2010 is Lethal Weapon 4, which grossed over 130 million dollars domestically, while the second is The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor with over 102 million dollars.^[49] Hero is the third most successful foreign language film in the US,^[50] and one of the best critically acclaimed Li movies.^[51] Fearless is the sixth most successful foreign language film of all time in the US.^[50] From a critical point of view, the best acclaimed Li movie is Fist of Legend (Rotten Tomatoes: 100%) and the worst is War (Rotten Tomatoes: 12%).^[51]

See also[link]

• Cinema of China;
• Cinema of Hong Kong.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Ducker, Chris, and Stuart Cutler. The HKS Guide to Jet Li. London: Hong Kong Superstars, 2000.
• Marx, Christy. Jet Li. Martial Arts Masters. Rosen Publishing Group, 2002. ISBN 0823935191.
• Parish, James Robert. Jet Li: A Biography. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2002. ISBN 1560253762.
• Farquhar, M.(2010) ‘Jet Li: "Wushu Master" in Sport and Film’ in Jeffreys, Elaine. & Edwards, Louise (eds.), Celebrity in China, Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong pp. 103–124. ISBN 9622090885

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jet Li

• Official website
• Jet Li at the Internet Movie Database
• Jet Li's Foundation: The One Foundation Project
• Jet Li Biography (HKCinema)
• Jet Li Biography (HKFilm)
• Jet Li discusses The One Foundation
• Interview At FarEastFilms.com

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Its only attribution is to IMDb, which may not be a reliable source for biographical information. Please help by adding additional, reliable sources for verification. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (February 2011)

Chin Siu Ho (born January 26, 1963) is a Hong Kong actor and martial artist, notable for acting with Jet Li in The Tai-Chi Master and Fist of Legend. He is the older brother of actor Chin Kar-lok.

Filmography[link]

• Ten Tigers of Kwangtung (1980)
• Legend of the Fox (1980)
• Two Champions of Shaolin (1981)
• The Rebel Intruders (1980)
• Masked Avengers (1981)
• Mahjong Heroes (1981)
• House of Traps (1982)
• Brave Archer 4 (1982)
• Rolls, Rolls, I Love You (1982)
• Brothers From the Walled City (1982)
• Fast Fingers (1983)
• Ghosts Galore (1983)
• Demon of the Lute (1983)
• I Will Finally Knock You Down, Dad! (1984)
• Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Stars (1985)
• The Man Is Dangerous (1985)
• Mr. Vampire (1985)
• Crazy Shaolin Disciples (1985)
• The Master Strikes Back (1985)
• The Seventh Curse (1986)
• The Story of Doctor Sun Yat-sen (1986)
• Millionaire's Express (1986)
• Love Me Vampire (1986)
• The Final Test (1987)
• New Mr. Vampire (1987)
• Edge of Darkness (1988)
• In the Blood (1988)
• Vampire Vs. Vampire (1989)
• Into the Fire (1989)
• They Came to Rob Hong Kong (1989)
• The Blonde Fury (1989)
• The Nocturnal Demon (1990)
• Goodbye Hero (1990)
• New Kids in Town (1990)
• The Ultimate Vampire (1991)
• Dead Target (1991)
• Mr. Vampire V (1992)
• Come From China (1992)
• All-Mighty Gambler (1992)
• Hero Dream (1993)
• Happy Partner (1993)
• The Beheaded 1000 (1993)
• Tai Chi Master (1993)
• Fist of Legend (1994)
• Don't Give a Damn (1995)
• Stooge, My Love (1996)
• Millennium Dragon (1999)
• Undercover Girls (1999)
• A Battle of Wits (2006)
• Ticket (2008)
• 72 Tenants of Prosperity (2010)
• Vampire Warriors (2010)
• The Lost Bladesman (2011)

External links[link]

• Siu-hou Chin at the Internet Movie Database

This article about a Hong Kong actor or actress is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Michelle Yeoh
Michelle Yeoh at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2011.
Chinese name	楊紫瓊 (Traditional)
Chinese name	杨紫琼 (Simplified)
Pinyin	Yáng Zǐqióng (Mandarin)
Jyutping	Joeng4 Zi2king4 (Cantonese)
Birth name	Yeoh Choo-Kheng (Iûⁿ Chí-khēng)
Born	(1963-08-06) 6 August 1963 (age 48)[1][2] Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia
Occupation	Actress/Dancer
Years active	1984–present
Spouse(s)	Dickson Poon (1988–1992) Jean Todt
Awards MTV Asia Awards Asian Film Award 2004

This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.

Michelle Yeoh or Michelle Yeoh Choo-Kheng (born 6 August 1963^[1]) is a Hong Kong-based Malaysian Chinese actress, well known for performing her own stunts in the action films that brought her to fame in the early 1990s.

Born in Ipoh, Malaysia, she is based in Hong Kong and was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World in 1997.

She is best known in the Western world for her roles in the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, playing Wai Lin, and the multiple Academy Award-winning Chinese-language martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, for which she was nominated the BAFTA for "Best Actress". In 2008, the film critic website Rotten Tomatoes ranked her the greatest action heroine of all time.^[3] In 2009, she was listed by People magazine – as the only Asian actress – as one of the "35 All-Time Screen Beauties".^[4]

She is credited as Michelle Khan in some of her earlier films. This alias was chosen by the D&B studio who thought it might be more marketable to international and western audiences. Yeoh later preferred using her real name.^[1]

Early life and career[link]

Michelle Yeoh Choo Kheng was born to a prominent ethnic Chinese family in Ipoh, Malaysia, on 6 August 1962. Her parents are Janet Yeoh and Yeoh Kian Teik, a lawyer and MCA politician.^[2] She was keen on dance from an early age, beginning ballet at the age of four. At the age of 15, she moved with her parents to England, where she was enrolled in a boarding school. Yeoh later studied at the Royal Academy of Dance in London, majoring in ballet. However, a spinal injury prevented her from becoming a professional ballet dancer, and she transferred her attention to choreography and other arts. She later received a B.A. degree in Creative Arts with a minor in Drama.

In 1983, at the age of 21, Yeoh won the Miss Malaysia beauty pageant.^[1] She was also Malaysia's representative at the 1983 Miss World pageant in London. From there, she appeared in a television commercial with Jackie Chan which caught the attention of a fledgling Hong Kong film production company, D&B Films. Yeoh started her film career acting in action and martial arts films such as Yes, Madam in 1985, after which she did most of her own stunts.^[5]

The D&B Group in Hong Kong was run by Dickson Poon. Yeoh married Poon in 1987 and retired from acting. After the couple divorced in 1992, Yeoh returned to acting.^[1]

Wider fame[link]

Yeoh's performance in Police Story 3: Super Cop sealed her comeback. She acted in The Heroic Trio in 1993, and the Yuen Woo-ping films Tai Chi Master and Wing Chun in 1994.

Yeoh learned English and Malay before Cantonese, and cannot read Chinese characters; consequently she learned the lines for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon phonetically.

She starred in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies as Wai Lin (1997). Natasha Henstridge was rumored to be cast in the lead Bond girl role but eventually Yeoh was confirmed.^[6] Brosnan was impressed, describing her as a "wonderful actress" who was "serious and committed about her work".^[7] He referred to her as a "female James Bond" in reference to her combat abilities. She wanted again to perform her own stunts but was prevented because director Roger Spottiswoode considered it too dangerous. Still she performed all of her fighting scenes.^[8][9] Thereafter, she was offered the role of Seraph in the two sequels to The Matrix, but she could not accept due to a scheduling conflict (the Matrix writers then changed Seraph into a male character and cast Collin Chou in the role).^[10] In 2002, she produced her first English film, The Touch through her own production company, Mythical Films.

In 2005, Yeoh starred as the graceful Mameha in the film adaptation of Memoirs of a Geisha, and she continued her English-language work in 2007 with Sunshine. In 2008, Michelle Yeoh also starred in fantasy action film The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor with Brendan Fraser and Jet Li.^[11]

In 2010, she starred in Reign of Assassins.

In October 2011, she has been chosen by Guerlain to be its new skincare ambassador.^[12] Yeoh will play a role in strengthening the French cosmetics company's relationship with Asia.^[13]

Apart from action films, she is famous for playing nationalists in two biopics. In 1997, she played Soong Ai-ling in the award winning The Soong Sisters. In 2011, she portrayed Aung San Suu Kyi in Luc Besson's The Lady.

Controversy[link]

On 22 June 2011, Yeoh was deported from Burma, allegedly over a new film The Lady, in which Yeoh portrays Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese Prodemocracy leader.^[14]

Personal life[link]

Yeoh was married to Hong Kong entrepreneur Dickson Poon, who owns businesses such as Harvey Nichols and Charles Jourdan.^[15] She is a Buddhist.^[16]

In March 2008, she visited Vietnam to film a documentary for the Asian Injury Prevention Foundation (AIPF).^{[citation needed]} On 31 July 2008, she confirmed news that she was engaged to Jean Todt, a leading figure in motor racing, during an interview with Craig Ferguson on CBS's The Late Late Show.

Pierrefort, France, 2009 : Jean Todt with Michelle Yeoh and Pierrefort's mayor in front of house number 15 in Jean Todt Street

Yeoh is also a patron of the Save China's Tigers project committed to protect the endangered South China Tiger.^[17]

Awards, honours and styles[link]

Michelle Yeoh on the "Avenue of Stars" in Hong Kong

In 1999, she was a member of the jury at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival.^[18]

On 19 April 2001, Yeoh was awarded the Darjah Datuk Paduka Mahkota Perak (DPMP), which carries the title Dato' by Sultan Azlan Shah, the Sultan of Perak, her home state, in recognition of the fame she brought to the state.^[19]

On 25 November 2002, she was honoured as The Outstanding Young Persons of the World (TOYP) (Cultural Achievement) by JCI (Junior Chamber International).^{[citation needed]}

On 23 April 2007, the then French President Jacques Chirac awarded her Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur. The decoration was presented to her in a ceremony in Kuala Lumpur on 3 October 2007.^[20]

In 2011, she received a special award for her contribution to Malaysian cinema at Malaysian Film Festival (FFM 24).

On 14 March 2012, French President Nicolas Sarkozy awarded her the officer of Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur. The decoration was presented to her at a ceremony held at the president's official residence, the Elysee Palace on that day.^[21]

Nominations[link]

Hong Kong Film Award 1998 The Soong Sisters - Nominated as best supporting actress

BAFTA Film Award 2001 – Best Actress (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Michelle Yeoh

• Michelle Yeoh at the Internet Movie Database
• Michelle Yeoh Web Theatre
• Supercop as Woman Warrior at Salon magazine.
• Sunday Times feature (Subscription required)

v t e Cinema of Hong Kong Actors Directors Cinematographers Ocean Shores Producers Shaw Brothers Studio Films A–Z Action films Writers Films by year: 1909–1929 1930s 1940s 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

v t e Cinema of China Awards Festivals Production companies Studios Filmmakers Actors Cinematographers Directors Producers Screenwriters Films 3D films Silent films Short films Television films Films by director Films by genre Action Animation Comedy Documentary Drama Fantasy Horror Romance Science fiction Thriller Films by decade 1905–1919 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010 2011 2012

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Bruce Lee (born Lee Jun-fan; 27 November 1940 – 20 July 1973) was a Chinese American^[3] Hong Kong actor,^[4] martial arts instructor,^[5] philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement. He is widely considered by many commentators, critics, media and other martial artists to be the most influential martial artist of the 20th century, and one of the biggest pop culture icons.^[6][7][8] He is often credited with changing the way Asians were presented in American films.^[6]

Lee was born in San Francisco to parents of Hong Kong heritage but was raised in Hong Kong until his late teens. Lee returned to the United States at the age of 18 to claim his U.S. citizenship and receive his higher education.^[9] It was during this time that he began teaching martial arts, which soon led to film and television roles.

His Hong Kong and Hollywood-produced films elevated the traditional Hong Kong martial arts film to a new level of popularity and acclaim, and sparked a major surge of interest in Chinese martial arts in the West in the 1970s. The direction and tone of his films changed and influenced martial arts and martial arts films in Hong Kong and the rest of the world, as well.^[10] He is noted for his roles in five feature-length films: Lo Wei's The Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972); Way of the Dragon (1972), directed and written by Lee; Warner Brothers' Enter the Dragon (1973) and The Game of Death (1978), both directed by Robert Clouse.^[11]

Lee became an iconic figure known throughout the world, particularly among the Chinese, as he portrayed Chinese nationalism in his films.^[12] He initially trained in Wing Chun, but he later rejected well-defined martial art styles, favouring instead the use of techniques from various sources, in the spirit of his personal martial arts philosophy, which he dubbed Jeet Kune Do (The Way of the Intercepting Fist).

Early life[link]

Part of the series on Chinese martial arts
List of Chinese martial arts
Terms
Kung fu (功夫) Wushu (武術) Qigong (氣功)
Historical places
Shaolin Monastery (少林寺) Wudang Mountains (武當山) Mount Hua (華山) Mount Emei (峨嵋山) Kunlun Mountains (崑崙山)
Historical people
Yue Fei (岳飛) Yim Wing-chun (嚴詠春) Hung Hei-gun (洪熙官) Fong Sai-yuk (方世玉) Dong Haichuan (董海川) Yang Lu-ch'an (楊露禪) Wu Quanyou (吳全佑) Ten Tigers of Canton (廣東十虎) Chen Fake (陳發科) Chan Heung (陳享) Wong Fei-hung (黃飛鴻) Sun Lu-t'ang (孫祿堂) Huo Yuanjia (霍元甲) Yip Man (葉問) Wang Zi-Ping (王子平)
Famous modern actors
Bruce Lee (李小龍) Jackie Chan (成龍) Sammo Hung (洪金寶) Yuen Biao (元彪) Jet Li (李連杰) Donnie Yen (甄子丹) Man-Cheuk Chiu（赵文卓） Jing Wu（吴京）
Legendary figures
Bodhidharma (菩提達摩) Zhang Sanfeng (張三丰) Eight immortals (八仙) Five Elders (五祖)
Related
Hong Kong action cinema Wushu (sport) Wuxia (武俠)
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Bruce Lee was born on 27 November 1940 at the Chinese Hospital in Chinatown, San Francisco. According to the Chinese zodiac Lee was born in both the hour and the year of the Dragon which in this cultural tradition is considered a strong and fortuitous omen.^[13] His father, Lee Hoi-chuen, was fully Chinese, and his mother, Grace Ho (何愛瑜), was half Chinese and half Caucasian.^[14] Grace was the daughter of Ho Kom-tong and the niece of Sir Robert Ho-tung, both notable Honk Kong businessmen and philanthropists.^[15] Lee was the fourth child of five children: Agnes, Phoebe, Peter, and Robert. Lee and his parents returned to Hong Kong when he was three months old.^[16]

Names[link]

Lee's Cantonese birth name was Lee Jun-fan (李振藩).^[17] The name homophonically means "return again"; it was given to Lee by his mother, who felt he would return to the United States once he came of age.^[18] Because of his mother's superstitious nature, she originally named him Sai-fon (細鳳), which is a feminine name meaning "small phoenix".^[19] The English name "Bruce" was thought to be given by the hospital attending physician, Dr. Mary Glover.^[20]

Lee had three other Chinese names: Li Yuanxin (李源鑫), a family/clan name; Li Yuanjian (李元鑒), as a student name while he was attending La Salle College, and his Chinese screen name Li Xiaolong (李小龍; Xiaolong means "little dragon"). Lee's given name Jun-fan was originally written in Chinese as 震藩, however, the Jun (震) Chinese character was identical to part of his grandfather's name, Lee Jun-biu (李震彪). Hence, the Chinese character for Jun in Lee's name was changed to the homonym 振 instead, to avoid naming taboo in Chinese tradition.

Family[link]

Lee's father, Lee Hoi-chuen, was one of the leading Cantonese opera and film actors at the time, and was embarking on a year-long Cantonese opera tour with his family on the eve of the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong. Lee Hoi-chuen had been touring the United States for many years and performing at numerous Chinese communities there.

Although a number of his peers decided to stay in the United States, Lee Hoi-chuen decided to go back to Hong Kong after his wife gave birth to Bruce Lee. Within months, Hong Kong was invaded and the Lees lived for three years and eight months under Japanese occupation. After the war ended, Lee Hoi-chuen resumed his acting career and became a more popular actor during Hong Kong's rebuilding years.

Lee's mother, Grace Ho, was from one of the wealthiest and most powerful clans in Hong Kong, the Ho-tungs. She was the niece of Sir Robert Ho-tung,^[15][21] of Eurasian descent and patriarch of the clan. As such, the young Bruce Lee grew up in an affluent and privileged environment. Despite this advantage of his family's status, the Hong Kong neighborhood Lee grew up in became over-crowded, dangerous, and full of gang rivalries because of the mass number of people fleeing communist China to Hong Kong, :^[19]

Post-war Hong Kong was a tough place to grow up. Gangs ruled the city streets and Lee was often forced to fight them. But Bruce liked a challenge and faced his adversaries head on. To his parents dismay, Bruce's street fighting continued and the violent nature of his confrontations was escalating.

After being involved in several street fights, Lee's parents decided that he needed to be trained in the martial arts. Lee's first introduction to martial arts was through his father. He learned the fundamentals of Wu-style t'ai chi ch'uan from his father.^[22]

Wing Chun[link]

The largest influence on Lee's martial arts development was his study of Wing Chun. Lee began training in Wing Chun at the age of 13 under the Wing Chun teacher Yip Man in 1954, after losing a fight with rival gang members. Yip's regular classes generally consisted of the forms practice, chi sao (sticking hands) drills, wooden dummy techniques, and free-sparring.^[23] There was no set pattern to the classes.^[23] Yip tried to keep his students from fighting in the street gangs of Hong Kong by encouraging them to fight in organized competitions.^[24]

After a year into his Wing Chun training, most of Yip Man's other students refused to train with Lee after they learnt of his ancestry (his mother was half Chinese and half Caucasian) as the Chinese generally were against teaching their martial arts techniques to non-Asians.^[25][26] Lee's sparring partner, Hawkins Cheung states, "Probably fewer than six people in the whole Wing Chun clan were personally taught, or even partly taught, by Yip Man".^[27] However, Lee showed a keen interest in Wing Chun, and continued to train privately with Yip Man and Wong Shun Leung in 1955.^[28]

Leaving Hong Kong[link]

After attending Tak Sun School (德信學校) (a couple of blocks from his home at 218 Nathan Road, Kowloon), Lee entered the primary school division of La Salle College in 1950 or 1952 (at the age of 12). In around 1956, due to poor academic performance (or possibly poor conduct as well), he was transferred to St. Francis Xavier's College (high school) where he would be mentored by Brother Edward, a teacher and coach of the school boxing team.

In the spring of 1959, Lee got into yet another street fight and the police were called.^[29] From all the way to his late teens, Lee's street fights became more frequent and included beating up the son of a feared triad family. Eventually, Lee's father decided for him to leave Hong Kong to pursue a safer and healthier avenue in the United States. His parents confirmed the police's fear that this time Lee's opponent had an organised crime background, and there was the possibility that a contract was out for his life.

The police detective came and he says "Excuse me Mr. Lee, your son is really fighting bad in school. If he gets into just one more fight I might have to put him in jail".

—Robert Lee^[19]

In April 1959, Lee's parents decided to send him to the United States to stay with his older sister, Agnes Lee (李秋鳳), who was already living with family friends in San Francisco.

New life in America[link]

At the age of 18, Lee returned to the United States with $100 in his pocket and the titles of 1957 High School Boxing Champion and 1958 Crown colony Cha Cha Champion of Hong Kong.^[13] After living in San Francisco for several months, he moved to Seattle in 1959, to continue his high school education, where he also worked for Ruby Chow as a live-in waiter at her restaurant.

Chow's husband was a co-worker and friend of Lee's father. Lee's elder brother Peter Lee (李忠琛) would also join him in Seattle for a short stay before moving on to Minnesota to attend college. In December 1960, Lee completed his high school education and received his diploma from Edison Technical School (now Seattle Central Community College, located on Capitol Hill, Seattle).

In March 1961, Lee enrolled at the University of Washington, majoring in drama according to the university's alumni association information,^[30] not in philosophy as claimed by Lee himself and many others. Lee also studied philosophy, psychology, and various other subjects.^[31][32] It was at the University of Washington that he met his future wife Linda Emery, a fellow student studying to become a teacher, whom he married in August 1964.

Lee had two children with Linda Emery, Brandon Lee (1965–93) and Shannon Lee (b. 1969).

Jun Fan Gung Fu[link]

Lee began teaching martial arts in the United States in 1959. He called what he taught Jun Fan Gung Fu (literally Bruce Lee's Kung Fu). It was basically his approach to Wing Chun.^[33] Lee taught friends he met in Seattle, starting with Judo practitioner Jesse Glover, who later became his first assistant instructor. Lee opened his first martial arts school, named the Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute, in Seattle.

Lee dropped out of college in the spring of 1964 and moved to Oakland to live with James Yimm Lee (嚴鏡海). James Lee was twenty years senior to Bruce Lee and a well known Chinese martial artist in the area. Together, they founded the second Jun Fan martial art studio in Oakland. James Lee was also responsible for introducing Bruce Lee to Ed Parker, royalty of the U.S. martial arts world and organizer of the Long Beach International Karate Championships at which Bruce Lee was later "discovered" by Hollywood.

Jeet Kune Do[link]

The Jeet Kune Do emblem is a registered trademark held by the Bruce Lee Estate. The Chinese characters around the Taijitu symbol read: "Using no way as way" and "Having no limitation as limitation" The arrows represent the endless interaction between yang and yin.^[34]

Jeet Kune Do originated in 1967. After filming one season of The Green Hornet, Lee found himself out of work and opened The Jun Fan Institute of Gung Fu. A controversial match with Wong Jack Man influenced Lee's philosophy about martial arts. Lee concluded that the fight had lasted too long and that he had failed to live up to his potential using his Wing Chun techniques. He took the view that traditional martial arts techniques were too rigid and formalistic to be practical in scenarios of chaotic street fighting. Lee decided to develop a system with an emphasis on "practicality, flexibility, speed, and efficiency". He started to use different methods of training such as weight training for strength, running for endurance, stretching for flexibility, and many others which he constantly adapted, including fencing and basic boxing techniques.

Lee emphasised what he called "the style of no style". This consisted of getting rid of the formalised approach which Lee claimed was indicative of traditional styles. Lee felt the system he now called Jun Fan Gung Fu was even too restrictive, and eventually evolved into a philosophy and martial art he would come to call Jeet Kune Do or the Way of the Intercepting Fist. It is a term he would later regret, because Jeet Kune Do implied specific parameters that styles connote; whereas the idea of his martial art was to exist outside of parameters and limitations.^[35]

Long Beach International Karate Championships[link]

At the invitation of Ed Parker, Lee appeared in the 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championships^[36] and performed repetitions of two-finger push-ups (using the thumb and the index finger of one hand) with feet at approximately a shoulder-width apart. In the same Long Beach event he also performed the "One inch punch",^[37] the description of which is as follows: Lee stood upright, his right foot forward with knees bent slightly, in front of a standing, stationary partner. Lee's right arm was partly extended and his right fist approximately an inch away from the partner's chest. Without retracting his right arm, Lee then forcibly delivered the punch to his partner while largely maintaining his posture, sending the partner backwards and falling into a chair said to be placed behind the partner to prevent injury, though his partner's momentum soon caused him to fall to the floor. His volunteer was Bob Baker of Stockton, California. "I told Bruce not to do this type of demonstration again", Baker recalled. "When he punched me that last time, I had to stay home from work because the pain in my chest was unbearable".^[38]

It was at the 1964 championships where Lee first met Taekwondo master Jhoon Goo Rhee. The two developed a friendship – a relationship from which they benefited as martial artists. Rhee taught Lee the side kick in detail, and Lee taught Rhee the "non-telegraphic" punch.^[39]

Lee appeared at the 1967 Long Beach International Karate Championships and performed various demonstrations, including the famous "unstoppable punch" against USKA world Karate champion Vic Moore.^[36] Lee told Moore that he was going to throw a straight punch to the face, and all he had to do was to try to block it. Lee took several steps back and asked if Moore was ready, when Moore nodded in affirmation, Lee glided towards him until he was within striking range. He then threw a straight punch directly at Moore's face, and stopped before impact. In eight attempts, Moore failed to block any of the punches.^[40][41]

Fight history[link]

Lee defeated three-time champion British boxer Gary Elms by way of knockout in the third round in the 1958 Hong Kong Inter-School amateur Boxing Championships by using Wing Chun traps and high/low-level straight punches.^[42]

The following year, Lee became a member of the "Tigers of Junction Street," and was involved in numerous gang-related street fights. "In one of his last encounters, while removing his jacket the fellow he was squaring off against sucker punched him and blackened his eye. Bruce flew into a rage and went after him, knocking him out, breaking his opponent's arm. The police were called as a result".^[43] The incident took place on a Hong Kong rooftop at 10 pm on Wednesday, 29 April 1959.^[44]

In 1962, Lee was challenged by a man who had been holding a grudge against Lee while the two were practicing at a YMCA in Seattle.^[45] The man was described by Jesse Glover as a karate man who also had a blackbelt in judo, though Glover, who was a brown belt in judo at the time, claimed to be better than the man in judo.^[45] After weeks^[46] or months^[47] of provocation by the man, Lee agreed to fight the man for three two-minute rounds, with the winner being the one who knocked the opponent down or out in two out of three rounds.^[48] The match took place at YMCA's handball court, with Glover as the referee and Ed Hart as the time keeper.^[48] Lee wore street clothes and used a Wing Chun stance while his opponent wore a gi and used a karate stance.^[48] According to Glover, Lee used his right forearm to deflect an initial kick from the man and simultaneously landed a left punch to the face.^[48] Lee deflected more punches using the forearm, controlling the center line and landed more punches to the man's face until he was against the wall.^[48] The man attempted to grab Lee's arms, which Lee responded by a double fist punch to the face and chest, followed by a kick to the nose, which produced a nosebleed and a knockout, at which time Glover stopped the fight.^[48] Taki Kamura said the fight lasted 10 seconds.^[49] Ed Hart stated "the fight lasted exactly 11 seconds – I know because I was the time keeper – and Bruce had hit the guy something like 15 times and kicked him once. I thought he'd killed him".^[46]

In Oakland, California in 1964 at Chinatown, Lee had a controversial private match with Wong Jack Man, a direct student of Ma Kin Fung known for his mastery of Xingyiquan, Northern Shaolin, and T'ai chi ch'uan. According to Lee, the Chinese community issued an ultimatum to him to stop teaching non-Chinese. When he refused to comply, he was challenged to a combat match with Wong. The arrangement was that if Lee lost, he would have to shut down his school; while if he won, then Lee would be free to teach Caucasians or anyone else.^[43] Wong denied this, stating that he requested to fight Lee after Lee issued an open challenge during one of Lee's demonstrations at a Chinatown theatre, and that Wong himself did not discriminate against Caucasians or other non-Chinese.^[50] Lee commented, "That paper had all the names of the sifu from Chinatown, but they don't scare me".^[51]

Individuals known to have witnessed the match included Cadwell, James Lee (Bruce Lee's associate, no relation), and William Chen, a teacher of T'ai chi ch'uan. Wong and witness William Chen stated that the fight lasted an unusually long 20–25 minutes.^[50] According to Bruce Lee, Linda Lee Cadwell, and James Yimm Lee, the fight lasted 3 minutes with a decisive victory for Lee. "The fight ensued, it was a no-holds-barred fight, it took three minutes. Bruce got this guy down to the ground and said 'do you give up?' and the man said he gave up" – Linda Lee Cadwell.^[43]

Wong Jack Man published his own account of the battle in the Chinese Pacific Weekly, a Chinese-language newspaper in San Francisco, which contained another challenge to Lee for a public rematch.^[50] Lee had no reciprocation to Wong's article, nor were there any further public announcements by either, but Lee had continued to teach Caucasians.

Lee's eventual celebrity put him in the path of a number of men who sought to make a name for themselves by causing a confrontation with Lee. A challenger had invaded Lee's private home in Hong Kong by trespassing into the backyard to incite Lee in combat. Lee finished the challenger violently with a kick, infuriated over the home invasion. Describing the incident, Herb Jackson states,

One time one fellow got over that wall, got into his yard and challenged him and he says 'how good are you?' And Bruce was poppin mad. He [Bruce] says 'he gets the idea, this guy, to come and invade my home, my own private home, invade it and challenge me.' He said he got so mad that he gave the hardest kick he ever gave anyone in his life.^[52]

Bob Wall, USPK karate champion and Lee's co-star in Enter the Dragon, recalled one encounter that transpired after a film extra kept taunting Lee. The extra yelled that Lee was "a movie star, not a martial artist," that he "wasn't much of a fighter". Lee answered his taunts by asking him to jump down from the wall he was sitting on. Wall described Lee's opponent as "a gang-banger type of guy from Hong Kong," a "damned good martial artist," and observed that he was fast, strong, and bigger than Bruce.^[53]

This kid was good. He was strong and fast, and he was really trying to punch Bruce's brains in. But Bruce just methodically took him apart.^[54] Bruce kept moving so well, this kid couldn't touch him...then all of a sudden, Bruce got him and rammed his ass with the wall and swept him up, proceeding to drop him and plant his knee into his opponent's chest, locked his arm out straight, and nailed him in the face repeatedly". – Bob Wall^[55]

Acting career[link]

Bruce Lee in The Kid.

Lee's father Lee Hoi-chuen was a famous Cantonese opera star. Because of this, Lee was introduced into films at a very young age and appeared in several films as a child. Lee had his first role as a baby who was carried onto the stage in the film Golden Gate Girl. By the time he was 18, he had appeared in twenty films.^[13]

While in the United States from 1959 to 1964, Lee abandoned thoughts of a film career in favour of pursuing martial arts. However, a martial arts exhibition on Long Beach in 1964 eventually led to the invitation by William Dozier for an audition for a part in the pilot for "Number One Son". The show never aired, but Lee was invited for the role of Kato alongside Van Williams in the TV series The Green Hornet. The show lasted just one season, from 1966 to 1967. Lee also played Kato in three crossover episodes of Batman. This was followed by guest appearances in three television series: Ironside (1967), Here Come the Brides (1969), and Blondie (1969).

At the time, two of Lee's martial arts students were Hollywood script writer Stirling Silliphant and actor James Coburn. In 1969 the three worked on a script for a film called The Silent Flute, and went together on a location hunt to India. The project was not realised at the time; but the 1978 film Circle of Iron, starring David Carradine, was based on the same plot. In 2010, producer Paul Maslansky was reported to plan and receive fundings for a film based on the original script for The Silent Flute.^[56] In 1969, Lee made a brief appearance in the Silliphant-penned film Marlowe where he played a henchman hired to intimidate private detective Philip Marlowe, (played by James Garner), by smashing up his office with leaping kicks and flashing punches, only to later accidentally jump off a tall building while trying to kick Marlowe off. The same year he also choreographed fight scenes for The Wrecking Crew starring Dean Martin, Sharon Tate, and featuring Chuck Norris in his first role. In 1970, he was responsible for fight choreography for A Walk in the Spring Rain starring Ingrid Bergman and Anthony Quinn, again written by Silliphant. In 1971, Lee appeared in four episodes of the television series Longstreet, written by Silliphant. Lee played the martial arts instructor of the title character Mike Longstreet (played by James Franciscus), and important aspects of his martial arts philosophy were written into the script.

According to statements made by Lee, and also by Linda Lee Cadwell after Lee's death, in 1971 Lee pitched a television series of his own tentatively titled The Warrior, discussions which were also confirmed by Warner Bros. In a 9 December 1971 television interview on The Pierre Berton Show, Lee stated that both Paramount and Warner Brothers wanted him "to be in a modernized type of a thing, and that they think the Western idea is out, whereas I want to do the Western".^[57] According to Cadwell, however, Lee's concept was retooled and renamed Kung Fu, but Warner Bros. gave Lee no credit.^[58] Warner Brothers states that they had for some time been developing an identical concept,^[59] created by two writers and producers, Ed Spielman and Howard Friedlander. According to these sources, the reason Lee was not cast was in part because of his ethnicity, but more so because he had a thick accent.^[60] The role of the Shaolin monk in the Wild West, was eventually awarded to then-non-martial-artist David Carradine. In The Pierre Berton Show interview, Lee stated he understood Warner Brothers' attitudes towards casting in the series: "They think that business wise it is a risk. I don't blame them. If the situation were reversed, and an American star were to come to Hong Kong, and I was the man with the money, I would have my own concerns as to whether the acceptance would be there".^[61]

Producer Fred Weintraub had advised Lee to return to Hong Kong and make a feature film which he could showcase to executives in Hollywood.^[62] Not happy with his supporting roles in the United States, Lee returned to Hong Kong. Unaware that The Green Hornet had been played to success in Hong Kong and was unofficially referred to as "The Kato Show", he was surprised to be recognised on the street as the star of the show. After negotiating with both Shaw Brothers Studio and Golden Harvest, Lee signed a film contract to star in two films produced by Golden Harvest. Lee played his first leading role in The Big Boss (1971) which proved to be an enormous box office success across Asia and catapulted him to stardom. He soon followed up with Fist of Fury (1972) which broke the box office records set previously by The Big Boss. Having finished his initial two-year contract, Lee negotiated a new deal with Golden Harvest. Lee later formed his own company, Concord Productions Inc. (協和電影公司), with Chow. For his third film, Way of the Dragon (1972), he was given complete control of the film's production as the writer, director, star, and choreographer of the fight scenes. In 1964, at a demonstration in Long Beach, California, Lee had met Karate champion Chuck Norris. In Way of the Dragon Lee introduced Norris to movie-goers as his opponent in the final death fight at the Colosseum in Rome, today considered one of Lee's most legendary fight scenes and one of the most memorable fight scenes in martial arts film history.^[63] The role was originally offered to American Karate champion Joe Lewis.^[64]

Bruce Lee's star at the Avenue of Stars, Hong Kong.

In late 1972, Lee began work on his fourth Golden Harvest Film, Game of Death. He began filming some scenes including his fight sequence with 7'2" American Basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a former student. Production was stopped when Warner Brothers offered Lee the opportunity to star in Enter the Dragon, the first film to be produced jointly by Golden Harvest and Warner Bros. Filming commenced in Hong Kong in February 1973. One month into the filming, another production company, Starseas Motion Pictures, promoted Bruce Lee as a leading actor in Fist of Unicorn, although he had merely agreed to choreograph the fight sequences in the film as a favour to his long-time friend Unicorn Chan. Lee planned to sue the production company, but retained his friendship with Chan.^[65] However, only a few months after the completion of Enter the Dragon, and six days before its 26 July 1973 release,^[66] Lee died. Enter the Dragon would go on to become one of the year's highest grossing films and cement Lee as a martial arts legend. It was made for US$850,000 in 1973 (equivalent to $4 million adjusted for inflation as of 2007).^[67] To date, Enter the Dragon has grossed over $200 million worldwide.^[68] The film sparked a brief fad in martial arts, epitomised in songs such as "Kung Fu Fighting" and TV shows like Kung Fu.

Robert Clouse, the director of Enter the Dragon and Golden Harvest revived Lee's unfinished film Game of Death. Lee had shot over 100 minutes of footage, including out-takes, for Game of Death before shooting was stopped to allow him to work on Enter the Dragon. In addition to Abdul-Jabbar, George Lazenby, Hapkido master Ji Han-Jae and another of Lee's students, Dan Inosanto, were also to appear in the film, which was to culminate in Lee's character, Hai Tien (clad in the now-famous yellow track suit) taking on a series of different challengers on each floor as they make their way through a five-level pagoda. In a controversial move, Robert Clouse finished the film using a look-alike and archive footage of Lee from his other films with a new storyline and cast, which was released in 1978. However, the cobbled-together film contained only fifteen minutes of actual footage of Lee (he had printed many unsuccessful takes)^[69] while the rest had a Lee look-alike, Kim Tai Chung, and Yuen Biao as stunt double. The unused footage Lee had filmed was recovered 22 years later and included in the documentary Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey.^[70]

Apart from Game of Death, other future film projects were planned to feature Lee at the time. In 1972, after the success of The Big Boss and Fist of Fury, a third film was planned by Raymond Chow at Golden Harvest to be directed by Lo Wei, titled Yellow-Faced Tiger. However, at the time, Lee decided to direct and produce his own script for Way of the Dragon instead. Although Lee had formed a production company with Raymond Chow, a period film was also planned from September–November 1973 with the competing Shaw Brothers Studio, to be directed by either Chor Yuen or Cheng Kang, and written by Yi Kang and Chang Cheh, titled The Seven Sons of the Jade Dragon.^[71] Lee had also worked on several scripts himself. A tape containing a recording of Lee narrating the basic storyline to a film tentatively titled Southern Fist/Northern Leg exists, showing some similarities with the canned script for The Silent Flute (Circle of Iron).^[72] Another script had the title Green Bamboo Warrior, set in San Francisco, planned to co-star Bolo Yeung and to be produced by Andrew Vajna who later went on to produce First Blood.^[65] Photo shoot costume tests were also organized for some of these planned film projects.

Physical fitness and nutrition[link]

Physical fitness[link]

Lee was renowned for his physical fitness and vigorous, dedicated fitness regimen to become as strong as he possibly could.

After his match with Wong Jack Man in 1965, Lee changed his approach toward martial arts training. Lee felt that many martial artists of his time did not spend enough time on physical conditioning. Lee included all elements of total fitness—muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance, and flexibility. He tried traditional bodybuilding techniques to build bulky muscles or mass. However, Lee was careful to admonish that mental and spiritual preparation was fundamental to the success of physical training in martial arts skills. In Tao of Jeet Kune Do, he wrote

Training is one of the most neglected phases of athletics. Too much time is given to the development of skill and too little to the development of the individual for participation. ... JKD, ultimately is not a matter of petty techniques but of highly developed spirituality and physique.^[73]

The weight training program that Lee used during a stay in Hong Kong in 1965 placed heavy emphasis on his arms. At that time he could perform single biceps curls at a weight of 70 to 80 lb (about 32 to 36 kg) for three sets of eight repetitions, along with other forms of exercises, such as squats, push-ups, reverse curls, concentration curls, French presses, and both wrist curls and reverse wrist curls.^[74] The repetitions he performed were 6 to 12 reps (at the time). While this method of training targeted his fast and slow twitch muscles, it later resulted in weight gain or muscle mass, placing Lee a little over 160 lb (about 72 kg). Lee was documented as having well over 2,500 books in his own personal library, and eventually concluded that "A stronger muscle, is a bigger muscle", a conclusion he later disputed.^[75] Bruce forever experimented with his training routines to maximise his physical abilities and push the human body to its limits. He employed many different routines and exercises including skipping rope, which served his training and bodybuilding purposes effectively.^[76]

Lee believed that the abdominal muscles were one of the most important muscle groups for a martial artist, since virtually every movement requires some degree of abdominal work. Mito Uyehara recalled that "Bruce always felt that if your stomach was not developed, then you had no business doing any hard sparring". According to Linda Lee Cadwell, even when not training, Lee would frequently perform sit ups and other abdominal exercises in domestic living throughout the day, such as during watching TV. She said of Lee, "Bruce was a fanatic about ab training. He was always doing sit-ups, crunches, Roman chair movements, leg raises and V-ups".^[77]

Lee trained from 7 am to 9 am, including stomach, flexibility, and running, and from 11 am to 12 pm he would weight train and cycle. A typical exercise for Lee would be to run a distance of two to six miles in 15 to 45 minutes, in which he would vary speed in 3–5 minute intervals. Lee would ride the equivalent of 10 miles (about 16 kilometres) in 45 minutes on a stationary bike.^[78][79]

Lee would sometimes exercise with the jump rope and put in 800 jumps after cycling. Lee would also do exercises to toughen the skin on his fists, including thrusting his hands into buckets of harsh rocks and gravel. He would do over 500 repetitions of this on a given day.^[80] An article of the S. China Post writes "When a doctor warned him not to inflict too much violence on his body, Bruce dismissed his words. 'the human brain can subjugate anything, even real pain' —Bruce Lee".^[81]

Physical feats[link]

Lee's phenomenal fitness allowed him to perform numerous exceptional physical feats:^[82][83]

• Lee's speed in terms of reacting + punching from a distance of three feet away was determined to be around five hundredths of a second (0.05 second); from five feet away it was around eight hundredths of a second (0.08 second).^[84][85][86]
• Lee could take in one arm a 75 lb barbell from a standing position with the barbell held flush against his chest and slowly stick his arms out locking them, holding the barbell there for several seconds.^[87]
• In a speed demonstration, Lee could snatch a dime off a person's open palm before they could close it, and leave a penny behind.^[88]
• Lee performed one-hand push-ups using only the thumb and index finger.^[83][89]
• Lee performed 50 reps of one-arm chin-ups.^[90]
• Lee could cause a 300-lb (136.08 kg) bag to fly towards and thump the ceiling with a sidekick.^[83]
• Lee held an elevated v-sit position for 30 minutes or longer.^[82]

Nutrition[link]

According to Linda Lee Cadwell, soon after he moved to the United States, Lee started to take nutrition seriously and developed an interest in health foods, high-protein drinks and vitamin and mineral supplements. He later concluded that in order to achieve a high-performance body, one could not fuel it with a diet of junk food, and with "the wrong fuel" one's body would perform sluggishly or sloppily.^[91] Lee also avoided baked goods and refined flour, describing them as providing calories which did nothing for his body.^[92]

Lee consumed green vegetables and fruit every day. He always preferred to eat Chinese or other Asian food because he loved the variety that it had. Some of Lee's favorite Chinese dishes were beef in oyster sauce, tofu and steak and liver.^[93] He also became a heavy advocate of dietary supplements, including Vitamin C, Lecithin granules, bee pollen, Shilajit, Vitamin E, rose hips (liquid form), wheat germ oil, Acerola – C and B-Folia.^[94]

Lee disliked dairy food although he felt that for building muscle he must consume milk. As a result he only ate dairy as part of cereals and protein drinks, usually using powdered milk instead of fresh milk. Lee's diet included protein drinks; he always tried to consume one or two daily, but discontinued drinking them later on in his life. They typically included non-instant powdered milk which is reported to have a higher concentration of calcium than other forms of powdered milk, eggs, wheat germ, peanut butter, banana, brewers yeast for its B vitamins, and Inositol and Lecithin supplements.^[95] Linda Lee recalls Bruce Lee's waist fluctuated between 26 and 28 inches (66 to 71 centimetres). "He also drank his own juice concoctions made from vegetables and fruits, apples, celery, carrots and so on, prepared in an electric blender", she said.^{[citation needed]}

According to Lee, the size of portions and number of meals were just as important. He would usually consume four or five smaller meals a day rather than a couple of large meals, and would boost his metabolism by eating small healthy snacks such as fruits throughout the day.^[95] Fruit and vegetables provided him with the richest source of carbohydrates; he was particularly keen on carrots which would make up one half of the contents of the drink, with the remaining being split between the other fruits and vegetables. The reason why Lee was so keen on juicing vegetables and fruits is that he believed it allowed the body to assimilate many nutrients more easily. The enzymes in the juiced vegetables acting as organic catalysts which increase the metabolism and absorption of nutrients. Given that most of these enzymes are destroyed when vegetables are cooked, Lee would try to consume them raw.^[96]

Lee often consumed a drink of royal jelly and ginseng as they contain B-complex vitamins, including a high concentration of vitamin B₅ (pantothenic acid) and vitamin B₆ (pyridoxine), acetylcholine, hormones, and eighteen amino acids which allow for a quick energy boost.^[96] In traditional Chinese medicine, ginseng is also said to improve circulation, increase blood supply, allow quicker recovery times after exhaustion and stimulating the body.^[97] In addition, Lee regularly drank black tea, often with honey or with milk and sugar.^[98]

Philosophy[link]

Lee is best known as a martial artist, but he also studied drama and philosophy while a student at the University of Washington. He was well-read and had an extensive library. His own books on martial arts and fighting philosophy are known for their philosophical assertions, both inside and outside of martial arts circles. His eclectic philosophy often mirrored his fighting beliefs, though he was quick to claim that his martial arts were solely a metaphor for such teachings. He believed that any knowledge ultimately led to self-knowledge, and said that his chosen method of self-expression was martial arts.^[99] His influences include Taoism, Jiddu Krishnamurti, and Buddhism.^[100] On the other hand, Lee's philosophy was very much in opposition to the conservative world view advocated by Confucianism.^[101] John Little states that Lee was an atheist. When asked in 1972 about his religious affiliation, he replied, "none whatsoever".^[102] Also in 1972, he was asked if he believed in God, and he responded, "To be perfectly frank, I really do not".^[99]

The following quotations reflect his fighting philosophy.

• "Be formless... shapeless, like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You pour water into a bottle; it becomes the bottle. You put water into a teapot; it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow, or creep or drip or crash! Be water, my friend..."^[103]
• "All types of knowledge, ultimately leads to self knowledge"^[104]
• "Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it".^[105]
• "Do not deny the classical approach, simply as a reaction, or you will have created another pattern and trapped yourself there".^[106]
• "Quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough".^[107]
• "I always learn something, and that is: to always be yourself. And to express yourself, to have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate him".^[108]
• "It's not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential".^[109]

Death[link]

Bruce Lee is buried next to his son Brandon in Lakeview Cemetery, Seattle.

On 10 May 1973, Lee collapsed in Golden Harvest studios while doing dubbing work for the movie Enter the Dragon. Suffering from seizures and headaches, he was immediately rushed to Hong Kong Baptist Hospital where doctors diagnosed cerebral edema. They were able to reduce the swelling through the administration of mannitol. These same symptoms that occurred in his first collapse were later repeated on the day of his death.^[110]

On 20 July 1973, Lee was in Hong Kong, to have dinner with former James Bond star George Lazenby, with whom he intended to make a film. According to Lee's wife Linda, Lee met producer Raymond Chow at 2 pm at home to discuss the making of the film Game of Death. They worked until 4 pm and then drove together to the home of Lee's colleague Betty Ting Pei, a Taiwanese actress. The three went over the script at Ting's home, and then Chow left to attend a dinner meeting.^[111][112]

Later Lee complained of a headache, and Ting gave him an analgesic (painkiller), Equagesic, which contained both aspirin and the muscle relaxant meprobamate. Around 7:30 pm, he went to lie down for a nap. When Lee did not turn up for dinner, Chow came to the apartment but could not wake Lee up. A doctor was summoned, who spent ten minutes attempting to revive him before sending him by ambulance to Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Lee was dead by the time he reached the hospital.^[113]

There was no visible external injury; however, according to autopsy reports, his brain had swollen considerably, from 1,400 to 1,575 grams (a 13% increase). Lee was 32 years old. The only substance found during the autopsy was Equagesic. On 15 October 2005, Chow stated in an interview that Lee died from an allergic reaction to the muscle relaxant (meprobamate) in Equagesic, which he described as a common ingredient in painkillers. When the doctors announced Lee's death officially, it was ruled a "death by misadventure".^[114][115]

Don Langford, Lee's personal physician in Hong Kong, had treated Lee during his first collapse. Controversy erupted when he stated, "Equagesic was not at all involved in Bruce's first collapse".^[116]

Donald Teare, a forensic scientist recommended by Scotland Yard who had overseen over 1,000 autopsies, was assigned to the Lee case. His conclusion was "death by misadventure" caused by an acute cerebral edema due to a reaction to compounds present in the combination medication Equagesic.^[117]

The preliminary opinion of Peter Wu, the neurosurgeon who saved Lee's life during his first seizure, was that the cause of death should have been attributed to either a reaction to cannabis or Equagesic. However, Wu later backed off from this position, stating that:

"Professor Teare was a forensic scientist recommended by Scotland Yard; he was brought in as an expert on cannabis and we can't contradict his testimony. The dosage of cannabis is neither precise nor predictable, but I've never known of anyone dying simply from taking it."^[116]

Lee's wife Linda returned to her hometown of Seattle, and had him buried at lot 276 of Lakeview Cemetery.^[118] Pallbearers at his funeral on 31 July 1973 included Taky Kimura, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Chuck Norris, George Lazenby, Dan Inosanto, Peter Chin, and Lee's brother Robert.

Lee's iconic status and untimely demise fed many theories about his death, including murder involving the triads and a supposed curse on him and his family.^[119] Black Belt magazine in 1985 carried the speculation that the death of Bruce Lee in 1973 may have been caused by "a delayed reaction to a Dim Mak strike he received several weeks prior to his collapse".

Legacy[link]

Certified instructors[link]

Bruce Lee personally certified only three instructors. Taky Kimura, James Yimm Lee, and Dan Inosanto. Inosanto holds the 3rd rank (Instructor) directly from Bruce Lee in Jeet Kune Do, Jun Fan Gung Fu, and Bruce Lee's Tao of Chinese Gung Fu. Taky Kimura holds a 5th rank in Jun Fan Gung Fu. James Yimm Lee held a 3rd rank in Jun Fan Gung Fu. Ted Wong holds 2nd rank in Jeet Kune Do certified directly by Bruce Lee and was later promoted to Instructor under Dan Inosanto; feeling that Bruce would have wanted to promote him. Other Jeet Kune Do instructors since Lee's death have been certified directly by Dan Inosanto, some with remaining Bruce Lee signed certificates.

James Yimm Lee, a close friend of Lee, died without certifying additional students apart from Gary Dill who studied Jeet Kune Do under James and received permission via a personal letter from him in 1972 to pass on his learning of JKD to others. Taky Kimura, to date, has certified only one person in Jun Fan Gung Fu: his son Andy Kimura. Dan Inosanto continued to teach and certify select students in Jeet Kune Do for over 30 years, making it possible for thousands of martial arts practitioners to trace their training lineage back to Bruce Lee. Prior to his death, Lee told his then only two living instructors Kimura and Inosanto (James Yimm Lee had died in 1972) to dismantle his schools.

Both Taky Kimura and Dan Inosanto were allowed to teach small classes thereafter, under the guideline "keep the numbers low, but the quality high". Bruce also instructed several World Karate Champions including Chuck Norris, Joe Lewis, and Mike Stone. Between the three of them, during their training with Bruce they won every karate championship in the United States.^[120]

In Japan, Junichi Okada is a certified Japanese instructor in Jeet Kune Do.^[121]

Hong Kong legacy[link]

Sculpture of Bruce Lee at the Avenue of Stars, Hong Kong

There are a number of stories (perhaps apocryphal) surrounding Lee that are still repeated in Hong Kong culture. One is that his early 70s interview on the TVB show Enjoy Yourself Tonight cleared the busy streets of Hong Kong as everyone was watching the interview at home.

On 6 January 2009, it was announced that Bruce's Hong Kong home (41 Cumberland Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong) will be preserved and transformed into a tourist site by philanthropist Yu Pang-lin.^[122][123]

Awards and honours[link]

Bruce Lee was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.^[6]

Martial arts lineage[link]

Lee was trained in Wu Tai Chi Chuan (also known as Ng-ga) and Jing Mo Tam Tui for the twelve sets. Lee was trained in the martial arts Choy Li Fut, Western Boxing, Épée fencing, Judo, Praying Mantis Kung-fu, Hsing-I, and Jujitsu.

When Bruce arrived in the US he (already) had training in Wu Style Tai Chi, sometimes in Hong Kong called Ng-ga. And he had of course training in western boxing. He had training in fencing from his brother, that's Epee, that goes from toe to head. He had training obviously in Wing Chun. And the other area was the training he had received in Buk Pie, or Tam Toi, he was twelve sets in Tam Toi. And I believe he had traded with a Choy Li Fut man.

—Danny Inosanto^[124]

Media[link]

Books authored[link]

• Chinese Gung-Fu: The Philosophical Art of Self Defense (Bruce Lee's first book) – 1963
• Tao of Jeet Kune Do (Published posthumously) – 1973
• Bruce Lee's Fighting Method (Published posthumously) – 1978

Selected filmography[link]

For a complete list of Bruce Lee's filmography see

Films[link]

Television[link]