Bruce Lee: biography, personal life, sports career, photos, films, interesting facts

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:40

Many of us remember well the films starring the legendary athlete and actor Bruce Lee. This man at one time managed to become an idol for millions of people around the world, instilled in them a burning craving for martial arts. Bruce Lee, whose biography of life and death will be described in the article, is a unique person for many reasons. We will talk in more detail about the fate of this hand-to-hand combat master and actor.

Basic information

The biography of Bruce Lee says that he was born on November 27, 1940 at 7 am. The birthplace of our hero is San Francisco's Chinatown. The real name of the guy is Lee Yun Fan. The boy's parents were quite we althy in material terms at that time. Bruce's dad - Lee Hong Chuen - worked as an actor in Chinese opera. Mom - Grace Lee - was an ardent Catholic by religion and had German roots, and she received her upbringing in the family of a magnate from Hong Kong.

Childhood

Bruce Lee, photo, whose biography is still interesting to the public, in 1941, together withparents moved to Hong Kong. In this city, at the age of six, the boy took part in the filming of a film called "The Origin of Humankind".

Starting from 1952, the guy studied at the rather prestigious La Salle College, but he studied very badly, because of which he often fell from his mother. In addition, it was also important that he was half Chinese, and therefore he regularly had conflicts with classmates on this basis, and he had to fight to protect himself. After he suffered several defeats in street fights, the young man decided to start studying Wing Chun under the guidance of the legendary master Ip Man. The parents positively met this aspiration of their son and fully paid for all his sports training, which, by the way, were very expensive - $ 12 per lesson at that time was a significant amount.

In fairness, we note that Bruce Lee (a brief biography of his colorful life is worth your attention) turned out to be more talented in martial arts than in a regular school. And after a short period of time, he managed to become almost the strongest student of his teacher. In this regard, followers of other areas of martial arts began to regularly challenge the future Hollywood star.

Moving overseas

In 1959, Bruce Lee, whose biography of life for many can serve as an example of the struggle for survival, leaves for San Francisco. At the same time, the young man had only 100 dollars in his pocket. And througha week after arriving in the US, he finds himself at the home of his uncle Ruby Chow, who has agreed to hire him in a private restaurant located in Seattle. There, Bruce lived in a small room directly above the establishment, in the same building, and trained using a dummy created by himself.

Outside of work, Lee devoted a lot of time to philosophy, mathematics, and English. Due to his perseverance and diligence, he managed to enter the Thomas Edison High School, from which he graduated in 1960.

And a year later, Bruce was a student at the University of Washington (Department of Philosophy). In the same period of time, he recruits his first group of students, which made it possible to stop working in the restaurant.

Initially, the newly minted coach gave knowledge to his followers in the city park, and all because he did not have enough money to rent the gym. Trees wrapped in fabric acted as sports equipment for the group.

Marital status

Bruce Lee's biography is not limited to his fanatical increase in martial arts and cinema. The man also had his own family. With his wife named Linda Emerli, who at that time was 17 years old, he met in 1964. After starting a family, the couple had two children: Brandon and Shannon.

Climbing to the top

In the fall of 1963, Bruce Lee (the biography and films of this Chinese do not lose popularity in our time) managed to open his own martial arts institute. The hall in which this institution was based,had a colossal area - 1000 square meters. It is curious that the hero of the article took people as his students, despite their national and religious affiliation, which was strictly prohibited in other schools of Chinese martial arts. Even Ip Man was against Bruce's idea. Therefore, it is not surprising that Lee often received letters with ultimatums to close his school. Otherwise, he was threatened with physical violence.

In 1964, Bruce opens a second kung fu institute in Auckland, headed by his longtime friend Taki Kimuru, himself a student of Lee.

Work in cinematography

The period from 1967 to 1971 in the biography of Bruce Lee is marked by his active work on various film sets. During this time, the talented Chinese managed to act in many films, but never got the main role. Feeling the bitterness of disappointment from this fact, Bruce decides to return to Hong Kong, where the Golden Harvest film studio was opened at that time. Its director eventually succumbed to Lee's persuasion and gave him the lead role in the film Big Boss. As a result, the film was a resounding success. This was followed by work in "Fist of Fury" and "Return of the Dragon." These works lifted Bruce even more to the pedestal of fame.

In addition to acting, he also did stunt work. What is his cinematic duel with Chuck Norris worth! This on-screen fight was able to become a real classic of the genre, and for many years served as a model and role model for karate stars who starred in films.

A characteristic feature of thosethe fights that Bruce filmed on screen was that they were all close-ups. Also, Lee tried not to resort to video editing with a very fast frame change, as this did not allow the viewer to see in detail all the actions of the actor.

Interesting facts

For the first time, the famous fighter and actor got on the set at the age of three months, and the man got his name - Bruce - thanks to the nurse.

Bruce Lee is the author of his own direction in martial arts, which is called Jeet Kune Do. He perfected it until the last day of his life. One private lesson of the master at the peak of his fame cost around $275.

The biography of Bruce Lee is literally saturated with his fanatical desire for self-improvement. Over the years, he kept diaries in which he scrupulously noted all the subtleties of literally every workout. The master constantly sought to improve his kung fu skills, made changes to the tactics and strategy of hand-to-hand combat. Also, this legendary man developed a special nutrition system, delved into general athletic training. Bruce devoted a lot of time to classes and in the gym, which over time allowed him to publish a variety of exercises and techniques.

It is known that Lee periodically subjected his body to overloads for the purpose of experiments and even allowed himself to be tested with electric shocks.

Death

How did Bruce Lee end his life? His biography and death raise some questions in ourtime.

On May 10, 1973, the actor and athlete became ill right at the Golden Harvest film studio. Li lost consciousness and began to choke, his body began to convulse, and his eyes did not react to light. Three minutes later he came to his senses. After this incident, Bruce underwent a medical examination, but the doctors could not find any he alth problems in him.

And already on July 20, 1973, during a meeting with actress Betty Bruce, he complained of a headache and asked for an aspirin. After working on the script for some more time and drinking a few cocktails, the actor went to bed and, as it turned out, for good. The autopsy results showed that Bruce Lee died of cerebral edema. This happened due to the body's allergy to aspirin. There are still rumors that Lee was allegedly killed by some unknown martial artist, but this version has not found evidence in practice.

In 1978, the last film with Lee was released, few people know that the picture was already shot with the actor's understudies, and he managed to work out only 28 minutes of screen time.