Trivia

Birth name: Lee Jun Fan 

Date of birth: 27 November 1940

Place of Birth: San Francisco, California, USA

Date of death: 20 July 1973 

Place of death: Hong Kong. (cerebral edema)

Height: 5' 7½" (1.71 m) 

Credited As: Little Dragon Lee, Siu-Lung Lee, Yam Lee,  Xiaolong Li, Lee Siu Lung, Bruce Lee Siu-Lung.

Spouse: Linda Lee Cadwell (17 August 1964 - 20 July 1973) (his death)

Ranked #100 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]

Father of Brandon Lee.

Died of brain edema in Hong Kong at age 32.

He is considered the greatest martial artist of the 20th century.

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

Father of Shannon Lee

Interred at Lake View Cemetery, Seattle, Washington, USA.

While the "The Green Hornet" TV series was in production, Bruce made several promotional appearances as Kato, but made a point to never do the standard martial art stunts like breaking boards which he felt had nothing to do with what the martial arts are about.

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).

Was an accomplished dancer and Hong Kong cha cha cha champion.

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.

Weighed only 128 pounds at the time of his death.

Suffered a serious back injury while attempting a good-morning. During his recuperation, he wrote several books on the martial arts.

His students in Jeet Kune Do martial arts included 'Kareem Abdul- Jabbar' , Steve McQueen and James Coburn.

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 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. Bruce Lee accepted the challenge and won the duel, but he 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 flexibilty.

Was constantly challenged by movie extras and other men seeking to gain fame by beating him in a fight.

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.

Was sought after for instruction by established martial artists such as Joe Lewis and Chuck Norris.

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.

Demand for his private lessons grew so high, his hourly rate soared to $275 per hour.

His last movie, "Game of Death", was the first film to be filmed with sound, unlike most of his earlier films which were filmed without sound and were later dubbed in by the actors. Some of the lost footage was later shown in "Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey." You can hear Bruce's own voice speaking English and Cantonese. Had he not died, his character's name in this movie would have been Hai Tien.

Spoke English, Cantonese, Mandarin and Japanese.

Was able to name every single karate term and performed them with dead accuracy.

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.

Earned $30,000 for his first two feature films.

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 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' in 1993.

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 several misreported stories, Bruce was never Chuck's instructor. They trained together, often trading techniques and ideas, but never had a student-teacher relationship.

One of his martial arts students was James Bond star George Lazenby.

In his first and only meeting with Enter the Dragon composer Lalo Schifrin, Bruce told him that he often trains to the "Mission Impossible" theme.

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.

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 name "Britt Reid."

Mortal Kombat character "Liu Kang" was inspired by him, complete with the characteristic animal noises.

When Elvis Presley's and Ed Parkers' unfinished martial arts film New Gladiators, was found in 2003, there was 20 minutes of Bruce Lee's demonstration at a martial arts display in the mid-60s found along with it.

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, a character named Fei Long was introduced, also bearing incredible resemblance in both looks and fighting style to Bruce Lee. A lesser game, World Heroes, also copied Lee as Kim Dragon. And 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 with Jacky Bryant, in Dead Or Alive with Jann Lee, and in the Soul Calibur series as Maxi.

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).

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.

Lee was trained by Yip Man from 1954-1957 & Wong Shun-Leung from 1957-58.

Defeated British boxer Gary Elms by knockout in the 3rd round in the 1958 Hong Kong amateur boxing championships. 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.

Bruce Lee knocked out Wong Jack-Man in Oakland, California 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 Wong Shun-Leung.

Lee knocked-out Uechi in 10 seconds in a 1963 Full-Contact match in Seattle. It was refereed by Jesse Glover.

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.

Son of Hoi-Chuen Lee

He was a gang leader in his teenage years. The name of his group was known as "The Tigers of Junction Street".

UFC President Dana White considers Bruce Lee as "the father of Mixed Martial Arts".

Alongside Muhammad Ali, he is cited as a major influence by many MMA champions: Pat Miletich, Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz, Wanderlei Silva and Chuck Liddell among others.

To mark the occasion of what would have been Lee's 65th birthday (27 November 1940), 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

Buried in Lake View Cemetery in Seattle.

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