Post by Salem6 on Oct 26, 2003 17:35:36 GMT
1940
November 27--born in San Francisco, CA at the Jackson Street Hospital. Son of Lee Hoi-Chuen and Grace Lee. Named Lee Jun-Fan, meaning "Return again Lee" in hopes he'd return to the United States some day ["Lee" is pronounced "lay" in Cantonese].
1941
Returned with family to Kowloon, Hong Kong.
1952
Entered La Salle College, a Catholic boy's school.
1952-1959
Attended St. Francis Xavier College [this isn't a college as the word is used in the USA, but what we call a high school].
1954-1957
Studied Wing Chun under the instruction of Yip Man. Learned as far as the second hand form and part of the wooden dummy form. Didn't finish the wooden dummy form, learn the third hand form or weapons forms. With Wong Sheun-Leung, William Cheung, and others, made Wing Chun famous in Hong Kong by winning numerous challenge matches against other martial artists.
1957-1958
Continued Wing Chun under the instruction of Wong Shun-Leung.
1957-1959
Continued Wing Chun under the instruction of William Cheung.
1958
Appeared in Movie "The Orphan." Won Crown Colony Cha-Cha Championship.
1959
April--returned to San Francisco, California, USA.
1959-1963
Moved to Seattle, Washington. Finished High School, then majored in Philosophy at the University of Washington. Since he hadn't completed his study of Wing Chun and faced now with larger opponents, he began to examine and incorporate aspects of other martial arts into his fighting style. This eventually led him to create and teach his own personal system.
1963
Wrote "Chinese Gung Fu: the philosophical art of self defense" (Burbank: Ohara, 1963) [this book isn't about Wing Chun].
Trip to Hong Kong.
1963-1964
Returned to Seattle. Moved to Oakland, California.
1964
August--gave first major demonstration at Ed Parker's Long Beach Karate Internationals.
Married Linda C. Emery in Seattle. Lived with James Yimm Lee family in Oakland.
1965
February 1--son Brandon born.
Visited Hong Kong.
September--returned from Hong Kong to Seattle.
1966
March--moved to Los Angeles.
1966-1967
9 September 1966-14 July 1967--appeared as Kato in the television series "The Green Hornet" [what you see in his TV and movie roles is not Wing Chun--instead this is his "movie" style].
1969
Appeared in "Marlowe" with James Garner.
April 19--daughter Shannon born.
1971
October--moved to Hong Kong.
Starred in "The Big Boss" and "Fist of Fury."
1972
Starred in "Way of the Dragon" and "Game of Death" (unfinished).
Assisted in the publication of "Wing Chun Kung Fu" with James Yimm Lee.
December 1--death of Bruce's Wing Chun Sifu Yip Man in Hong Kong. Bruce did not attend the funeral--conflicting reasons have been given.
1973
Starred in "Enter the Dragon."
July 20--died at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Hong Kong. I won't go into the rumors about cause of death; instead read one of his many biographies--I recommend the one by Linda Lee, his widow.
Buried at Lakeview Cemetery, Seattle.
If you with to pay your respects in person, Lake View Cemetery is at 1554 15th Avenue East, just north of Volunteer Park, in the Capitol Hill area east of downtown Seattle. After entering the cemetery, follow the road straight ahead towards the top of the hill. Then turn north from there and within a few feet you should find the gravesite of Bruce and his son Brandon just to your right (east) of the road. Gates are open from 9 A.M. to 6 P.M.
Filmography:-
"The Big Boss"
Released 1971 - Approx. 101 min
Starring Bruce Lee, Maria Yi, James Tien , Nora Maio,
Tony Liu and Han Ying Chieh
Directed by Lo Wei
Featuring: The lightening kicks of Bruce Lee on screen for the first time.
The setting is in Bangkok, Thailand. Before Bruce left China to Thailand, he promised his mom that he won't get in any fights and troubles. Strangely, some workers from the ice factory where Bruce works, vapourized. To find out what's going on, Bruce goes to see the boss; thus, realizing that the boss is involved in this event. Then, Bruce starts a fierce battle with the boss and the gangs.
"Fist of Fury"
Released 1972 - Approx. 107 mins
Starring: Bruce Lee, Nora Miao Ker Hsiu, C H wong, Y C Han, James Tien, Robert Baker
Directed by Lo Wei
Featuring: The 2 scenes that Bruce goes challenge the Jap martial art school
Setting: In the early 1900's, Shanghai, China.
Story: Teacher Fok died in a sudden. Bruce Lee as Chan Chen,
came back to Shanghai for his teacher's funeral. During the funeral, some Japanese came and pissed off Bruce's group as "Sick men of Asia". That's why Bruce challenged the Japanese martial art school. Later on, Bruce found out that his teacher was poisoned to death by a Japanese undercover from the Jap martial art school. Finally, Bruce took his revenge and killed all the god damn Japanese, as a result of devoting his life to preserve the JING WU SCHOOL.
"Way of the Dragon"
Released 1973 - Approx. 88 mins
Starring Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris and Nora Miao Ker Hsiu
Directed by Bruce Lee
Featuring: The final battle in the famous Coliseum
Story: In Rome, Italy, Miao's Chinese restaurant has some troubles, then Tong Lone (Bruce) goes there and help her. Bruce is a good fighter and that's why all the gangs got beat up by him. The last scene is in the famous Coliseum, Bruce VS Chuck.
"Enter the Dragon"
Released 1973 - Approx. 99 mins
Starring: Bruce lee, Shih Kien, John Saxon, Ahna Capri, Bob Wall and Bolo Yeung
Directed by Robert Clouse
Featuring: Bruce, the first time as the main character in Hollywood films
Story: Shaolin student Bruce was asked to cooperate with the FBI to investigate on a drug island controlled by Shih Kein. Unfortuneately, Bruce was captured as he's doing his spying. One thing for sure, Bruce is mightier than Shih. Finally, Bruce and Shih have a great fight at the end of the film and the FBI came to bust up the operation.
"Game of Death"
Released 1978 - Approx. 95 mins
Starring: Bruce Lee, Gig Young, Dan Inosanto, Kareem Abdul Jabaar, Dean Jagger,
Colleen Camp and Hugh O'Brian
Directed by Robert Clouse
Featuring: Bruce VS Dan Inosanto & Kareem Abdul Jabaar
Story: Action Star Billy Lo (Bruce) is forced to sign a movie contract. Billy doesn't give a shit tho; therefore, he gets jumped and is hospitalized. Billy pretends to dead and takes his revenge.
Bruce Lee (Lee Hsiao Lung), was born in San Fransisco in November 1940 the son of a famous Chinese opera singer. Bruce moved to Hong Kong when he soon became a child star in the growing Eastern film industry. His first film was called The birth of Mankind, his last film which was uncompleted at the time of his death in 1973 was called Game of Death.
Bruce was a loner and was constantly getting himself into fights, with this in mind he looked towards Kung Fu as a way of disciplining himself. The famous Yip Men taught Bruce his basic skills, but it was not long before he was mastering the master.
Yip Men was acknowledged to be one of the greatest authorities on the subject of Wing Chun a branch of the Chinese Martial Arts. Bruce mastered this before progressing to his own style of Jeet Kune Do.
At the age of 19 Bruce left Hong Kong to study for a degree in philosophy at the University of Washington in America. It was at this time that he took on a waiter's job and also began to teach some of his skills to students who would pay.
Some of the Japanese schools in the Seattle area tried to force Bruce out, and there was many confrontations and duels fought for Bruce to remain.
He met his wife Linda at the University he was studying. His Martial Arts school flourished and he soon graduated. He gained some small roles in Hollywood films - Marlowe- etc, and some major stars were begging to be students of the Little Dragon.
James Coburn, Steve McQueen and Lee Marvin to name but a few. He regularly gave displays at exhibitions, and it was during one of these exhibitions that he was spotted by a producer and signed up to do The Green Hornet series.
The series was quite successful in the States - but was a huge hit in Hong Kong. Bruce visited Hong Kong in 1968 and he was overwhelmed by the attention he received from the people he had left.
He once said on a radio program if the price was right he would do a movie for the Chinese audiences. He returned to the States and completed some episodes of Longstreet.
He began writing his book on Jeet Kune Do at roughly the same time. Back in Hong Kong producers were desperate to sign Bruce for a Martial Arts film, and it was Raymond Chow the head of Golden Harvest who produced The Big Boss. The rest as they say is history.
