Bruce Lee

This man right here would fight you and kill you in a heartbeat. He can break your neck and hit you so fast that you didn't see his hand or foot coming towards you. Before Bruce Lee was one of the top martial arts fighters in the world, he was born Lee Jun Fan on November 27, 1940 in San Francisco, California. His father was Hong Kong opera singer Lee Hoi Chuen and his mother was Grace Ho. Bruce Lee received the name "Bruce" from a nurse from the hospital. While he was in school, his parents never used the name.

Bruce Lee starred in his first movie called Golden Gate Girl when he was three months old. When his family packed and moved back to Hong Kong, he starred in 20 movies as a child. He starred in Ironside and Longstreet. Bruce Lee studied dancing, where he won some cha-cha competitions. He also did poetry on the side as well. When he became a teenager, he had problems going on, so he joined a gang. In 1953, Bruce Lee decided to start doing kung fu. His trainer was the famous Master Yip Man. Bruce decided to move back to the United States and lived with family friends and worked as a dance instructor. Bruce Lee finished high school in Washington. Then he enrolled into University of Washington and majored in Philosophy. He got a job teaching a type of martial arts called Wing Chun style that he learned in Hong Kong.

While teaching, that is where he met his wife Linda Emery, who he later married in 1964. After they married, Bruce Lee opened his own martial arts studio in Seattle. Bruce and Linda Lee moved to California, so Bruce Lee opened two more schools in Oakland and Los Angeles. There is where he taught mostly Jeet Kune Do. Bruce Lee loved teaching his students so much. Then Bruce and Linda decided to expand their family and had two wonderful kids named Brandon and Shannon. Bruce Lee started with being on TV shows like The Green Hornet for 26 episodes. He played the famous sidekick Kato. His break came in 1971 with a movie called The Big BossAKA Fists of Fury. After a poor review of the movie, he made another movie called Fist of Fury AKA The Chinese Connection. He decided to make his own movies. Then he released his first feature, Return of the Dragon. The movie was really popular in movie theaters and everywhere, even in the United States. It is also one of my most favorite movies with him in it.

Bruce Lee loved doing his own movies. So he started to work on his movie called Enter The Dragon. But, sadly, Bruce Lee wouldn't live to see the movie premiere. On July 20, 1973, Bruce Lee passed away in Hong Kong, China from an unexpected brain edema from taking pain killers for when he hurt his back. He was only 32-years-old. There have been rumors going around still till this day that he has been murdered. The same happened with Bruce Lee's son Brandon Lee. Brandon was filming the movie The Crow and he was shot while doing a scene. Bruce Lee's legacy will live on. Even though he passed away, Enter The Dragon made $200 million. I know his daughter Shannon is keeping her father's and, most definitely, her brother's legacies alive. He will always be a HUGE inspiration to martial arts fighters like Jet Li and Jackie Chan. You will be greatly missed. Rest in peace Bruce Lee! We love you Bruce and Brandon Lee.