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:Alternative meaning: Bruce George Peter Lee|Bruce
Lee, aka The Dragon



Bruce Lee (November 27, 1940 – July 20,
1973) is widely considered to be the greatest and
most influential martial arts figure of the 20th
century. His films, especially his last
performance in Enter the Dragon, elevated
traditional Hong Kong martial arts film to a new
level, paving the way for future artists such as
Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Steven Seagal, and Chuck
Norris.

His family included his wife (and former student),
Linda Emery, with whom he had a daughter, Shannon
Lee|Shannon, and a son, Brandon Lee|Brandon.
Brandon would eventually follow in his father's
footsteps, becoming a martial artist and actor,
until his own untimely death.
==Names==

===Birth name===
Lee Jun-Fan or Li Jun Fan
(李振藩; Hanyu Pinyin: Lǐ
Zhènfán; literally means  invigorate San
Francisco based on the Chinese name of his
birthplace 三藩市) was born when
his father was away from home (he went on a
Chinese opera tour.) While it was his mother that
gave him his birth name
(李炫金), it would be the nurses
at the hospital who bestowed upon him the English
name Bruce.  His Chinese name was changed within a
few months to Lee Jun-Fan when his father
returned, due to a conflict with his grandfather's
name.  In Chinese culture, it is taboo to give a
child a name that is the same as an ancestor's.  

Bruce's brother before him was stillborn, and the
Chinese believed baby boys were often stolen by
demons. Thus, in an attempt to disguise Bruce's
identity, he was given a girl's name throughout
his early childhood, Sai Feng (細鳳 a
typical girl's name), which meant Little Phoenix.
It was given in response to his brother's death,
with the hopes of preventing a similar fate for
Bruce.

===Screen name===
Li Xiaolong or Lee Siu Lung
(李小龍; Gwohngdongwa pengyam:
Ley5 Siw2 Long4; Pinyin: Lǐ
Xiǎolóng; lit. Little-dragon Lee was
first named by director 袁步雲
in the 1950 Cantonese movie
細路祥). It would be this name
that the world would come to identify with Bruce
Lee - Dragon.

==Biography==
Bruce Lee was born in San Francisco, California to
a Chinese father, Lee Hoi-Chuen
(李海泉), and Han
Chinese|Chinese-Germany|German mother Grace
Lee(何金棠).  Because of his
father's fame as a Chinese opera actor, Lee had
the opportunity to appear in several China|Chinese
movies as a child. He studied the Wing Chun style
of Kung Fu and, at a young age, picked up the
dialects/languages of English language|English,
Cantonese (linguistics)|Cantonese, Mandarin
(linguistics)|Mandarin and Japanese
language|Japanese. 

In 1959, Lee went to Seattle, Washington|Seattle,
to complete his high school education. He
thereafter received his diploma from Seattle
Community College District|Edison Technical School
and enrolled at the University of Washington as a
Philosophy major. It was at UW that he met his
wife, Linda Emery, whom he would marry in 1964.

After leaving the University of Washington, Lee
went on to star as Kato (The Green Hornet)|Kato in
the television series The Green Hornet, which ran
from 1966 to 1967.  

In 1971, unable to find acting roles and faced
with stereotypes regarding Asian actors, Lee
returned to Hong Kong with his family.  There, he
starred in martial arts movies, earning $30,000
for his first two feature films and cementing his
fame.

===His martial arts style===
It is requested that references or sources be
provided for the information in this section.

Lee's first formal, organized bout came as a
teenager at his Catholic school in Hong Kong. He
was to fight a young British boy, a reigning
two-time boxing champion. Bruce knocked the boy
out with repeated strikes, using the Wing Chun jik
chung chuy.  While pictures of this time period
are included in some of Lee photo books, the
pictures shown in such books (with Bruce up
against the ropes) are not of Bruce Lee.  While
the photos were taken during the same tournament,
the alleged photos of Lee were of a fellow student
and peer fighting a separate match; the photos of
Lee were lost by the school.

Lee began his formal martial arts training at the
age of 13 in Wing Chun Gung Fu under Hong Kong
master Yip Man. Already a scrappy fighter at the
age of 13, Lee took up the arts out of fear of
gang retaliation. Like most martial arts schools
at that time, Yip Man's classes were often taught
by the highest ranking student. The highest ranked
student under Yip Man was Wong Shun Leung; among
Lee's peers were Hawkins Cheung and William Cheung
(no relation to each other).

It would not be until his arrival in the United
States, however, that Lee would come to see the
limitations of classic Wing Chun.  Lee began the
process of creating his own style, which he would
later teach at the martial arts schools he opened
in Oakland and Los Angeles, California (named the
Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute).  At the time, his
style Tao of Chinese Gung Fu was mostly Wing Chun
Gung Fu blended with techniques from northern and
southern gung fu styles. After studying and
becoming dissatisfied with existing classical
schools of martial arts, he later modified this
style, which consisted mostly or Wing Chun, with
elements of Western Boxing and Western Fencing,
and named it Jun Fan Gung Fu. Lee expanded this
style over time, however, incorporating elements
from Muay Thai, Indo-Malay Silat, Panantukan,
Sikaran, Bando, Catch Wrestling, Judo, Jujitsu,
Aikido, and several other arts. It would only be
much later that he would come to describe his
style as Jeet Kune Do (Way of the Intercepting
Fist) or JKD, a term he eventually came to regret.
Prior to his death, Lee told his then only two
living instructors, Dan Inosanto and Taky Kimura
(James Yimm Lee had passed away in 1972), to
dismantle his schools. He no longer wished to call
his art Jeet Kune Do or have his students
associate what they were learning as Bruce Lee's
style. His last wish was that Inosanto never use
the name JKD or Jeet Kune Do again. Though there
are many who claim to teach JKD around the globe,
Inosanto still refers to the Bruce Lee curriculum
taught at his academy as Jun Fan. 

Today, there is often some discrepancy between Lee
Jun Fan Gung Fu (a.k.a. "original JKD") and JKD
concepts, which explore other styles not
previously incorporated into Jeet Kune Do by Lee.
Depending on the instructor a person trains under,
the name of "the style of JKD" is usually specific
to a time period in Lee's process although many of
the techniques are often the same. Perhaps a
reason why Lee himself later regretted even giving
a name to his philosophy/fighting style (Jeet Kune
Do) thereby making it just another "martial art
style." Lee saw loyalty to a particular martial
arts style as being dogmatic, analogous to the
practice of organized religion or ethnocentrism.
This and Lee's other revolutionary ideas about
martial arts and his teaching of non-Asian
students gave Lee many enemies in the martial arts
community of the 1960s/70s (culminating in many
challenges by other martial artists Lee poignantly
answered). Yet, much of the dispute about JKD
instruction is not so much the names, but the
credibility of the instructors teaching these JKD
fighting systems. 

To re-emphasize: there were only three certified
instructors: Dan Inosanto — receiving the
highest certification in Lee's art (notable
exception is Taky Kimura, senior most instructor
in Jun Fan Gung Fu) — is widely regarded as
the senior most JKD instructor under Bruce Lee.
All other instructors (again except Taky Kimura
and the late James Yimm Lee no relation to Bruce
Lee) are certified under Inosanto, even Bruce's
other original students. Kimura, to date, has
certified only one person in Jun Fan Gung Fu
— his son and heir, Andy Kimura. James Yimm
Lee, a very close and personal friend of Bruce,
never certified anyone before his untimely
passing. Inosanto often serves not only as the
leading instructor and historian of Jeet Kune Do
Concepts; he also teaches and practices other
styles such as Kali, Silat, Muay Thai, and
Brazilian Jujitsu, some of which were already
incorporated into the Jun Fan system. (Note: Many
people are unaware that Lee had a Silat instructor
in Missouri whom he kept in touch with).

What Bruce was seeking was the principles or
concepts inherent in all effective martial
systems. Thus, while his schools taught a specific
curriculum of techniques and drills, Bruce's
personal focus was not on specific techniques but
on the concepts which made the techniques possible
and functional in combat. Today, JKD has come to
be defined as Bruce Lee's personal philosophy of
how martial arts should be effectively practiced
(and according to others also as a self-help
philosophy). But according to Bruce Lee himself,
JKD should not and does not exist.

Lee frequently gave demonstrations of his
two-finger pushups and his famous "one inch
punch", a mastered technique 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. He was an
all-rounder, being well educated both academically
and in the field of martial arts. His studies of
Wing Chun Gung Fu sparked his enthusiasm and
understanding of martial arts. In fact, Wing Chun
was the only martial art Lee formally studied,
under the guidance of Yip Man.  Throughout his
life Lee studied many styles of martial arts
through an extensive literature research and
contacts with other martial artists. Many
contemporary martial arts instructors, in an
effort to promote themselves or their schools,
make dubious claims about learning from or
teaching Bruce Lee. One well known karate
instructor even claims that he taught Bruce Lee
his high kicks, while simultaneously denigrating
Lee as only an movie-martial artist, but then
claiming to have studied and mastered his style.
It was because of these false claims that Bruce
put forth rigid standards to earn certification in
what he taught. 

It is a well known fact that Lee used every known
technique and resource in aiding his fitness
including electric current as an aid to strength
training, because of the alleged leanness the
muscles gained in working against themselves.
However, this muscle stimulator was only one of
many pieces of equipment and exercise routines Lee
used to achieve his on-screen physical appearance.
His obsession with physical fitness is seen in his
personal notes and diary. Lee tracked the
evolution of his training in his diary, which has
been recollected and published in The Bruce Lee
Library by John Little a "martial arts historian"
from Bruce Lee's Estate.

==Death==
It is requested that references or sources be
provided for the information in this section.

Bruce Lee's untimely death shook Hong Kong and
Martial Arts fans all over the world. The end of
his life was considered to be under the strangest
of circumstances, and still draws sensationalism
and controversy, with a number of theories
surrounding his tragic death. Rumours concerning
the cause of his death range from Lee being killed
by triad gangsters because he refused to pay them
protection money, to his being killed by an angry
martial artist's Dim Mak (death touch) strike for
having angered the martial arts community by
revealing ancient secrets to foreigners, to drug
use. Many people also claimed that it was the work
of Oni (Japanese for Demons or evil spirits),
while others believed he was cursed. The theory of
the "Curse of Bruce Lee" carried over to the
equally tragic death of his son, Brandon Lee, who
was shot and killed during the filming of The Crow
(movie)|The Crow in 1993. Yet, even though none of
the mysteries surrounding his death were answered,
his death was officially registered as one caused
by cerebral edema.

The "Little Dragon", as he was known by his
legions of fans, went on to become more famous
than he had been in life.

On July 20, 1973, Lee was due to have dinner with
former James Bond star George Lazenby, with whom
he intended to make a film. According to Lee's
wife, Linda, Bruce met producer Raymond Chow at 2
pm at home to discuss the making of the movie Game
of Death. They worked until 4 pm, and then drove
together to the home of Betty Ting Pei
(丁珮), Taiwanese actress who was to
also have a leading role in the film. The three
went over the script at her home, and then Chow
left to attend a dinner meeting.

A short time later, Lee complained of a headache,
and Ting Pei gave him a tablet of analgesic.  At
around 7:30 pm, he lay down for a nap. After Lee
didn't turn up for the dinner, Chow came to the
apartment but could not wake up Lee. A doctor was
summoned, who spent 10 minutes attempting to
revive him before sending him by ambulance to
Queen Elizabeth Hospital. However, Lee was Dead on
arrival|dead by the time he reached the hospital.
The ensuing autopsy found traces of cannabis.
There was no visible external injury; however, his
brain had swollen considerably, from 1,400 to
1,575 grams.  Lee was 32 years old.

A similar incident had occurred a few months
before.  On May 10, during the final dubbing of
Enter the Dragon, Lee suffered a sudden attack of
seizures and a cerebral edema which was not fatal.
 The neurosurgeon who saved his life in May, Dr.
Peter Wu, said that he removed a considerable
amount of hashish from Lee's stomach. Bruce, whose
entrained paranoia grew with his international
fame, had been chewing hashish to calm himself.  
Dr. Wu, who is supposedly renowned for his
cerebral edema research in Asian males, says that
various neurological problems associated with
hashish had been recorded in Nepalese men. He
thinks Bruce was very vulnerable to the effects of
drugs due to his extremely low body fat.  Dr.
Donald Langford, Lee's physician in Hong Kong,
said that Bruce's body had less than one percent
body fat, that "it was obscene how little body fat
he had." Bruce Lee weighed only around 128 pounds
at the time of his death. 

Lee's death by Cerebral edema was officially
recorded as being the result of an abnormal
reaction to painkillers he took for severe back
pain (and possibly in combination with the
analgesic for a headache), not cannabis. Lee
incurred this back problem when he was younger,
after pinching a nerve in his lower back while
doing good morning exercises using heavy weights
without properly warming up -- a condition that
left him temporarily in a wheelchair. Fortunately,
contrary to his doctor's prognosis that he would
never kick again, Lee regained his athletic
prowess, better than ever. Yet, it left with him a
lifelong severe pain in his back. 

Dr. Donald Langford says, "This man was muscled
like a squirrel, spirited as a horse. I've never
seen anybody as physically fit as Bruce.
analgesic|Analgesic is prescribed in the
million-dose range every day in Asia. Nobody dies
from one tablet of Equagesic. No analgesic killed
Bruce. In my opinion, the cause of Bruce Lee's
death is obvious. Every time I saw him after May
10, he was further and further into his own hype.
I don't think that Bruce thought that there was
anybody in the world who knew what was good for
him except Bruce Lee. That's what killed him. The
same series of events that took place in May
caused Bruce Lee's death in July." Allegedly,
Langford also makes the erroneous claims that,
"Bruce was particularly sensitive to the alkaloids
in cannabis. He died from hypersensitivity to
chemicals in cannabis or a cannabis by-product.
Bruce's was a self-inflicted, though innocent,
fatal illness."  Dr. Wu agrees: "I think that
Bruce was fully convinced that he was invincible,
that he was immortal. This is what brought him
down."

Davis Miller, a Bruce Lee biographer writes,
"Maybe the most resonant Bruce Lee myth is that he
was murdered by his own ambition, by his arrogance
in believing that he could create himself, an
arrogance that, as he aged, he surely would have
outgrown..."

He is interred in Seattle's Lake View Cemetery
(Seattle)|Lake View Cemetery. 

Although he made only a handful of films and
television appearances in his adulthood, Bruce Lee
has become an iconic figure in life, and in
movies, as a personification of a small man who
became the epitome of what some see as mental and
physical perfection. He 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.
His fame also sparked the first major surge of
interest in Chinese martial arts in the West. The
direction and tone of Bruce Lee's movies have
forever changed and influenced action and martial
arts films.

==Philosophy==
Although he is most famously considered a martial
artist and actor, Bruce Lee majored in Philosophy
at the University of Washington, and his books are
well-known both for their philosophical insight
both inside and outside of martial arts circles. 
His philosophy often mirrored his fighting
beliefs, and was phrased through those lens.  Yet
he was quick to point out that the martial arts
was solely a metaphor for such teachings.  His
influences were largely Taoist, Buddhist, and a
conglomeration of contemporary hippie
philosophers, perhaps the most visible of which
was his similarity to the writings of
Jiddu_Krishnamurti|Jiddu Krishnamurti, one of his
favorite contemporary authors and philosophers.

Some memorable adapted quotes/ideas are:

"There is only one type of body, 2 arms, 2 legs,
etc that make up the human body. Therefore, there
can only be one style of fighting. If the other
guy had 4 arms and 2 legs, there might have to be
a different one. Forget the belief that one style
is better than the other, the point of someone
that does not just believe in tradition, but
actually wants to know how to fight is to take
what you need from every martial art and
incorporate it into your own. Make it effective
and very powerful, but don't worry if you are
taking moves from many different arts, that is a
good thing."

"When people talk about fighting schools they say
that kung fu, or karate, or this other style is
the best. That is silly, and the problem becomes
that the fighting style then becomes set in stone
with no growth, and no adaptation, because what
works well with me might not work for you."

"When you fight, if it is a real fight, use every
tool that you have, use your whole body. Use your
fists, your legs, you fingers, your head if you
have to, and hit them in every vunerable spot, the
groin, the eyes etc to win."

"Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build
your own, and let it grow, be like water.
When water gets into a cup, it becomes the cup,
when it goes into a teapot, it becomes the teapot.
It can flow, or it can crash. Be water my friend.
Adapt!"


===Application of these principles===
These teachings can be adapted to all parts of
life if they are studied and boiled down to their
base principles.
1. Take what you need from whatever you are
learning and incorporate it into your life.
2. Use every method you have to win, if you
really must win at any cost.

==Awards and honours==
The film Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is a
fictionalized biography of his life/legend.

In 1958, Lee was the Cha Cha Champion of Hong
Kong.  He worked part time as a Cha Cha instructor
for a short time when he returned to San Francisco
in April 1959.

In September 2004, rumors circulated (e.g.,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3620752.s
tm a BBC story) that the Bosnia|Bosnian city of
Mostar was to honour Bruce Lee with a statue on
the Spanish Square, as a symbol of solidarity.
After many years of war and religious splits,
Lee's figure is to commend his work: to
successfully bridge culture gaps in the world.

Bruce Lee is one of the very few actors ever to
have commercially released computer and console
games named after himself, not after a character
he/she played. These games include a popular 1980s
game on various 8 bit computers, and more recently
less acclaimed SNES, GBA and Xbox titles.

==Fictional characters==

*Lee Bailong (Lee Pai-Long) in Shaman King -
Essentially the manga's version of Bruce, Lee was
killed so that his body could be made into a
Hopping corpse|Jiang Shi in service to the Tao
family.  

*Rock Lee from Naruto (manga)|Naruto - Bears some
similarity to Bruce Lee (as does his teacher Gai).
In the anime and manga, the character is a master
of a purely martial-arts fighting style.

*Several fighting games have characters based off
of Bruce Lee, enough that it's become a archetype
within the genre.  Notable examples include:  
** Fei Long in the Street Fighter series.
** List_of_Tekken_characters#Marshall_Law|Marshall
Law and his son
List_of_Tekken_characters#Forest_Law|Forest in the
Tekken series.
** Kim Dragon in the World Heroes series.
** Liu Kang (Mortal Kombat character)|Liu Kang in
the Mortal Kombat series.  
** Jann Lee in the Dead or Alive series.  
** Maxi in the Soul Calibur series.

*The Pokémon Hitmonlee was also named after him.

==List of people influential to Bruce's career==

*Yip Man
*James Yimm Lee
*Dan Inosanto
*Wally Jay
*Chuck Norris
*His wife Linda Lee Cadwell
*Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
*Stirling Silliphant
*James Coburn
*Charles B. Fitzsimons
*Ed Parker
*Jhoon Rhee
*Raymond Chow of Golden Harvest

==Filmography==

N.B. : The U.S. English titles for the first two
films were swapped by the U.S. distributor. The
title "The Chinese Connection" (a play on the
then-recently-released "The French Connection")
was originally intended for "The Big Boss" due to
the drugs theme of the story.
{| border cellpadding=5
|released||#||Chinese & English title
of
original release||U.S. title||Note
|-
|1971||1||《唐山大兄
》 The Big Boss||Fists of Fury||Fought
against a drug lord in Thailand
|-
|1972||2||《精武門》
Fist of Fury||The Chinese Connection||Fought
against Japanese tyrants in China
|-
|1972||3||《猛龍過江
》 Way of the Dragon||Return of the
Dragon||Fought crime in Rome, Italy
|-
|1973||4||《龍爭虎鬥
》 Enter the Dragon||same||Fought a drug
lord in Hong Kong
|-
|1979||5||《死亡遊戲
》 Game of Death||same||Pieced together with
few fight scenes filmed before his death
|}

== See also ==
* "Bruceploitation"

== Books ==
* The Tao of Jeet Kune Do 
* The Tao of Bruce Lee

==External links==
Wikiquote
* imdb name|id=0000045|name=Bruce Lee
*
http://www.allbrucelee.com/article/mystery_of_bruc
e_lee.htm The Mystery of Bruce Lee's Death by Jake
Seal
*
http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~chenj/brucelee/bruce_
timeline.html The Life of Bruce Lee
*
http://www.bruceleefoundation.com/brochurepages/ar
t.html The Bruce Lee Foundation
* http://www.bruce-lee.ws A Tribute to Bruce Lee
*
http://www.wannalearn.com/Sports_and_Leisure/Sport
s/Martial_Arts/Kung_Fu/0804831106.shtml A Tao of
Gung Fu
* http://www.who2.com/brucelee.html Bruce Lee: A
Who2 Profile
*
http://www.biography.com/search/article.jsp?aid=95
42095&search= Biography.com - Lee, Bruce
* http://www.westlord.com/brucelee Bruce Lee
Website