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Bruce Lee Facts
| Sign | Sagittarius |
| Born |
Nov 27, 1940 San Francisco, CA |
| Died |
Jul 20, 1973 Kowloon, Hong Kong |
| Age | Died at 32 |
| Total Facts | 56 |
A noted brawler in Hong Kong, Lee received formal training in wing chun under legendary sifu Yip Man. He later trained in a variety of arts before creating his Jeet Kune Do style.
According to Hong Kong stuntman Phillip Ko, Lee was challenged by a tiger/crane kung fu stylist, an extra on Enter the Dragon (1973), who claimed Lee was a phony. Lee, who was furious at the claim, accepted the challenge to prove that his martial arts were indeed the real deal. The fight, which took place on the film set, only lasted 30 seconds, with Bruce pummeling his challenger with a series of straight punches to the face, low-line kicks to his shins/knees/thighs and finally ended with the guy being smashed to the wall with his hair pulled and his arms trapped by Bruce. After Lee forced the kung fu stylist to submit, he showed some class by telling him to go back to work instead of firing him. This fight was witnessed by the film's producer, Fred Weintraub, and Robert Wall.
Adopted his legendary nunchaku routine in his movies from the legendary karate master Hidehiko "Hidy" Ochiai. The two met at the Los Angeles YMCA in the mid 1960s.
Alongside Muhammad Ali, Lee is cited as a major influence by many K-1 and MMA champions: Bas Rutten, Jose "Pele' Landi-Jons, Wanderlei Silva, 'Emilianenko Fedor', Norifumi "Kid' Yamamoto, Rob Kaman, Ramon Dekkers, Frank Shamrock, Murilo Rua, Mauricio Rua, 'Jerome Le Banner', 'Carlos Newton', Remy Bonjasky, Jeremy Horn, David Loiseau and Tito Ortiz, among others.
Before hitting it big as a movie star, he often trained with the martial arts world's biggest stars, many of whom would latter become celebrities in their own right, such as world karate champion 'Chuck Norris'. Despite rumors and reports to the contrary, Lee was never Norris' instructor. They trained together, often trading techniques and ideas, but never had a student-teacher relationship.
Bruce Lee Jun Fan Yuen Kam (Bruce Lee's full birth name) was born in the year of the dragon (1940), at the hour of the dragon (between 6:00AM- 8:00AM).
Chosen by Goldsea Asian American Daily as one of the "100 Most Inspiring Asian Americans of All Time". (ranked #2).
Defeated British boxer Gary Elms by knockout in the third round in the 1958 Hong Kong amateur boxing championships by using Wing Chun traps and high/low-level straight punches. Before he met Elms in the finals, he knocked out three boxers in the first round. Hawkings Cheung, his fellow Wing Chun street fighter, witnessed the event.
Demand for his private lessons grew so high, his hourly rate soared to $275 per hour.
Developed a trick for showing off his speed: a person held a coin and closed his hand, and as he closed it, Lee would take it and could even swap the coin for another.
Developed his martial art style called Jeet Kune Do (Way of the Intercepting Fist) which is more of an idea of being flexible and practical with learning martial arts
Died of brain edema in Hong Kong at age 32.
Earned $30,000 for his first two feature films.
Faced discrimination from other Chinese kung fu masters when trying to learn other martial arts styles. Would usually go to the number 3 or 4 man in a certain system to learn it in exchange for teaching what he knew.
Father of Brandon Lee and Shannon Lee.
Had four siblings, two sisters and two brothers: Phoebe Lee (b. 1938), Agnes Lee, older brother and fencing champion Peter Lee, and younger brother and musician Robert Lee. Some sources claim he also had a brother James who died of Black Lung in 1972, but James Yimm Lee was in fact his training partner, and not his brother.
Has a statue placed in the country Bosnia. After many years of war and religious splits, Lee's figure is to commend his work, to successfully bridge culture gaps in the world (2004 September).
He is considered the greatest martial artist of the 20th century.
He was a gang leader in his teenage years. The name of his group was known as "The Tigers of Junction Street".
His ancestry is German and Chinese. His father is a full-blooded Chinese, while his mother is of German-Chinese decent (her father is German; her mother is Chinese).
His death was considered to be under 'extraordinarily bizarre' circumstances by many experts. Many people claimed that it was the work of 'Oni' (Japanese for Demons or evil spirits), while others claimed he was cursed. The theory of the 'Curse of Bruce Lee' carried over to the extremely bizarre death of his son, Brandon Lee, who was shot and killed during the filming of The Crow (1994) in 1993.
His development of Jeet Kune Do came partially out of an incident with his school. A rival martial artist challenged him to a duel over his decision to teach non-Chinese students. Lee accepted the challenge and won the duel, but later thought that the fight took too long because his martial art technique was too rigid and formalistic. Thus he decided to develop a better system with an emphasis on practicality and flexibility.
His father, Lee Hoi Chuen (b. February 1901, died 8 February 1965) was a popular stage actor, and died 8 days after Brandon Lee was born.
His first major U.S. project was the role of Kato in the television series "The Green Hornet" (1966). He joked that he got this role because he was the only Oriental actor who could properly pronounce the lead character's name: "Britt Reid.".
His last movie, The Game of Death (1978), was his first film to be shot with sound, unlike most of his earlier films which were filmed without sound and later dubbed in by the actors. Some of the lost footage was later shown in Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey (2000) (V). You can hear his own voice speaking English and Cantonese. Had he not died, his character's name in this movie would have been Hai Tien.
His students in Jeet Kune Do martial arts included Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Steve McQueen and James Coburn.
In an interview he gave a few years before his death, he revealed that he was an atheist.
In his first and only meeting with Enter the Dragon (1973) composer Lalo Schifrin, Bruce told him that he often trains to the "Mission: Impossible" (1966) theme.
In the popular Nintendo game series, Pokémon, the fighting type monster Hitmonlee is based on Lee.
Interred at Lake View Cemetery, Seattle, Washington, USA.
Is often honored in video games. In "Mortal Kombat" games, the character Liu Kang was an obvious tribute to Lee. Then, in Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (1993) (VG), a character named Fei Long was introduced, bearing an uncanny resemblance in both looks and fighting style to Lee. A lesser game, World Heroes (1993) (VG), also copied Lee as Kim Dragon. Lastly, the "Tekken" games did the tribute to him not once, but twice. First with Marshall Law, then with his son Forrest Law for the third installment of Tekken. Along with this, his fighting style was honored in Virtua Fighter Remix (1993) (VG) with Jacky Bryant, in Dead or Alive (1997) (VG) with Jann Lee and in the "Soul Calibur" series as Maxi.
Lee knocked out Uechi in 10 seconds in a 1962 Full-Contact match in Seattle. It was refereed by Jesse Glover.
Lee knocked out Wong Jack-Man in Oakland, CA, in a 1965 no-holds-barred challenge match. It was Lee's last official fight. It lasted three minutes.
Lee knocked-out Chung, a Choy Li Fut fighter, in Hong Kong in a 1958 Full-Contact match. The match was refereed by Sheun-Leung Wong.
Lee was trained by Yip Man from 1954-1957 & Wong Shun-Leung from 1957-58.
Left for Seattle in 1958 with $100. Gave cha cha cha lessons to first-class passengers to earn extra money during ship ride to US.
Mastered a technique called "The One Inch Punch", in which he could deliver a devastating blow yet have his fist travel a mere one inch (2.54 cm) in distance before striking an opponent.
Mortal Kombat character "Liu Kang" was inspired by him, complete with the characteristic animal noises.
Once performed a kick so fast it had be slowed down by editors for fear it would look like it was sped up.
One of his martial arts students was James Bond star George Lazenby.
Ranked #100 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]
Son of Hoi-Chuen Lee
Spoke English, Cantonese, Mandarin and Japanese.
Suffered a serious back injury while attempting a good-morning. During his recuperation, he wrote several books on the martial arts.
There is a character in the anime and manga Shaman King that is very heavily based on him. Also a character inspired by a Lee like character appeared in the Yugioh manga.
To mark the occasion of what would have been Lee's 65th birthday (27 November 2005), a bronze statue of a topless Bruce adopting a martial arts stance was unveiled in Hong Kong, effectively kicking off a week-long Bruce Lee festival.
UFC President Dana White considers Bruce Lee as "the father of Mixed Martial Arts".
Was able to name every single karate term and performed them with dead accuracy.
Was an accomplished dancer and Hong Kong cha cha cha champion.
Was capable of doing push ups with a 250 pound man on his back and could do push-ups with only one finger.