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Chinese name 李小龍 (Traditional)
Chinese name 李小龙 (Simplified)
Birth name Lee Jun-Fan (李振藩)
Born November 27, 1940(1940-11-27)
San Francisco, California, USA
Chinese zodiac sighn:



Died July 20, 1973 (aged 32) Hong Kong
Spouse(s)Linda Emery (1964-1973)
Children Brandon Lee (1965-1993) Shannon Lee (b.1969)


Bruce Lee (traditional Chinese: 李小龍; simplified Chinese: 李小龙; pinyin: Lǐ Xiǎolóng; Cantonese Yale: Léih Síulùhng; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was an American-born martial artist, philosopher, instructor, martial arts actor and the founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts system, widely regarded as the most influential martial artist of the 20th century and a cultural icon. He was the father of actor Brandon Lee and of actress Shannon Lee.

Lee was born in San Francisco, California and raised in Hong Kong. His Hong Kong and Hollywood-produced films elevated the traditional Hong Kong martial arts film to a new level of popularity and acclaim, and sparked the first major surge of interest in Chinese martial arts in the West. The direction and tone of his films changed and influenced martial arts and martial arts films in Hong Kong and the rest of the world as well. Lee became an iconic figure particularly to the Chinese, as he portrayed Chinese national pride and Chinese nationalism in his movies. Many see Lee as a model blueprint for acquiring a strong and efficient body and the highest possible level of physical fitness, as well as developing a mastery of martial arts and hand to hand combat skills.

Early life
Lee Jun Fan was born in the hour of the dragon, between 6-8 a.m., in the Year of the Dragon according to the Chinese zodiac calendar, November 27, 1940 at the Chinese Hospital in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the United States. His father, Lee Hoi-Chuen (李海泉), was Chinese, and his Catholic mother, Grace (何愛瑜), was of Chinese and German ancestry.
Lee and his parents returned to Hong Kong when he was three months old. He was a citizen of the United States by birth and did not hold any other citizenships.

Education and family
At age 12, Lee entered La Salle College and later he attended St. Francis Xavier's College. In 1959, at the age of 18, Lee got into a fight and badly beat his opponent, getting into trouble with the police. His father became concerned about young Bruce's safety, and as a result, he and his wife decided to send Bruce to the United States to live with an old friend of his father's. Lee left with $100 in his pocket and the titles of 1958 Boxing Champion and the Crown Colony Cha Cha Champion of Hong Kong. After living in San Francisco, he moved to Seattle to work for Ruby Chow, another friend of his father's. In 1959, Lee completed his high school education in Seattle and received his diploma from Edison Technical School. He enrolled at the University of Washington as a drama major and took some philosophy classes. It was at the University of Washington that he met his future wife Linda Emery, whom he would marry in 1964.

He had two children with Linda, Brandon Lee (1965-1993) and Shannon Lee (1969-).
Brandon, who also became an actor like his father, died in an accident during the filming of The Crow in 1993. Shannon Lee also became an actress and appeared in some low-budget films starting in the mid 1990s, but has since quit acting.

Names
Lee's Cantonese given name was Jun Fan (振藩; Mandarin Pinyin: Zhènfán). At his birth, he additionally was given the English name of "Bruce" by a Dr. Mary Glover. Though Mrs. Lee had not initially planned on an English name for the child, she deemed it appropriate and would concur with Dr. Glover's addition. However, his American name was never used within his family until he enrolled in La Salle College (a Hong Kong high school) at the age of 12, and again at another high school (St. Francis Xavier's College in Kowloon), where Lee would come to represent the boxing team in inter-school events.

Lee initially had the birth name Li Yuen Kam(李炫金) ;Mandarin (Pinyin: Lǐ Xuànjīn) given to him by his mother, as at the time, Lee's father was away on a Chinese opera tour. This name would later be abandoned because of a conflict with the name of Bruce's grandfather, causing him to be renamed Jun Fan upon his father's return. Also of note is that Lee was given a feminine name, Sai Fung (細鳳, literally "small phoenix"), which was used throughout his early childhood in keeping with a Chinese custom, traditionally thought to hide a child from evil spirits.

Lee's screen names were respectively Lee Siu Lung (in Cantonese), and Li Xiao Long (in Mandarin) (李小龍); Cantonese pengyam: Ley5 Siu Long; Mandarin Pinyin: Lǐ Xiǎolóng) which literally translate to "Lee the Little Dragon" in English. These names were first used by director 袁步雲 of the 1950 Cantonese movie 細路祥, in which Lee would perform. It is possible that the name "Lee Little Dragon" was based on his childhood name of "small dragon", as, in Chinese tradition, the dragon and phoenix come in pairs to represent the male and female genders respectively. The more likely explanation is that he came to be called "Little Dragon" because, according to the Chinese zodiac, he was born in the Year of the Dragon.

Acting career

Bruce Lee in Enter The Dragon

Lee's father Hoi-Chuen was a famous Cantonese Opera star. Thus, through his father, Bruce was introduced into films at a very young age and appeared in several short black-and-white films as a child. Lee had his first role as a baby who was carried onto the stage. By the time he was 18, he had appeared in twenty films.

While in the United States from 1958-1964, Lee abandoned thoughts of a film career in favor of pursuing martial arts.
However, after Lee's high-profile martial arts demonstration at the 1964 Long Beach Karate Tournament, he was seen by some of the nation's most proficient martial artists--as well as the hairdresser of Batman producer William Dozier. Dozier soon invited Lee for an audition, where Lee so impressed the producers with his lightning-fast moves that he earned the role of Kato alongside Van Williams in the TV series The Green Hornet. The show lasted just one season, from 1966 to 1967. Lee would also play Kato in three episodes of the series Batman, produced by the same company as The Green Hornet. This was followed by guest appearances in a host of television series, including Ironside (1967) and Here Come the Brides (1969).

In 1969, Lee made his first major film appearance in Marlowe. In the film, Lee's henchman character is hired to intimidate private detective Philip Marlowe (played by James Garner) by smashing up his office with leaping kicks and flashing punches, only to later accidentally jump off a tall building while trying to kick Marlowe off. In 1971, Lee appeared in four episodes of the television series Longstreet as the martial arts instructor of the title character Mike Longstreet (played by James Franciscus). Bruce would later pitch a television series of his own tentatively titled The Warrior. Allegedly, Lee's concept was retooled and renamed Kung Fu, but if so, Warner Bros. gave Lee no credit. The role of the Shaolin monk in the Wild West, known to have been coveted by Bruce, was awarded to non-martial artist David Carradine, purportedly because of the studio's belief that a Chinese leading man would not be embraced by the American public.

Not happy with his supporting roles in the U.S., Lee returned to Hong Kong and was offered a film contract by legendary director Raymond Chow and his production company Golden Harvest. Lee played his first leading role in The Big Boss (1971) which proved an enormous box office success across Asia and catapulted him to stardom. He soon followed up his success with two more huge box office successes: Fist of Fury (1972) and Way of the Dragon (1972). For Way of the Dragon, he took complete control of the film's production as the writer, director, star, and choreographer of the fight scenes. In 1964, at a demonstration in Long Beach, California, Lee had met karate champion Chuck Norris. In Way of the Dragon Lee introduced Norris to moviegoers as his opponent in the final death fight at the Colosseum in Rome, today considered one of Lee's most legendary fight scenes.

In 1973, Lee played the lead role in Enter the Dragon (1973), his first film to be produced jointly by Golden Harvest and Warner Bros. This film would skyrocket Lee to fame in the U.S. and Europe. However, only a few months after the film's completion and three weeks before its release, the supremely fit Lee mysteriously died. Enter the Dragon would go on to become one of the year's highest grossing films and cemented Lee as a martial arts legend. It was made for US$850,000 in 1973 (equivalent to $4 million adjusted for inflation as of 2007). To date, Enter the Dragon has grossed over $200 million worldwide. The movie sparked a brief fad in the martial-arts epitomized in songs like "Kung Fu Fighting" and TV shows like Kung Fu.

Robert Clouse, the director of Enter the Dragon, attempted to finish Lee's incomplete film Game of Death which Lee was to also write and direct. Lee had shot over forty minutes of footage for Game of Death before shooting was stopped to allow him to work on Enter the Dragon. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a student of Lee, also appeared in the film, which culminates in Lee's character, Billy Lo (clad in the now-famous yellow track suit) taking on the 7'2" basketball player in a climactic fight scene. In a controversial move, Robert Clouse finished the film using a look-alike and archive footage of Lee from his other films and released it in 1978 with a new storyline and cast. However, the cobbled-together film contained only 15 minutes of actual footage of Lee while the rest had a Lee lookalike, Tai Chung Kim, and Yuen Biao as stunt doubles. The unused footage Lee had filmed was recovered 22 years later and included in the documentary Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey.

Challengers on the set
Lee's celebrity and martial arts prowess often put him on a collision course with a number of street thugs, stunt men and martial arts extras, all hoping to make a name for themselves. Lee typically defused such challenges without fighting, but felt forced to respond to several persistent individuals.

Bob Wall, USPK karate champion and co-star in Enter the Dragon, recalled a particularly serious encounter that transpired after a film extra kept taunting Lee. The extra yelled that Lee was "a movie star, not a martial artist," that he "wasn't much of a fighter." Lee answered his taunts by asking him to jump down from the wall he was sitting on. Bob Wall described Lee's opponent as "a gang-banger type of guy from Hong Kong," a "damned good martial artist," and observed that he was fast, strong, and bigger than Bruce.

Wall recalled the confrontation in detail:
"This kid was good. He was strong and fast, and he was really trying to punch Bruce's brains in. But Bruce just methodically took him apart."
"Bruce kept moving so well, this kid couldn't touch him...Then all of a sudden, Bruce got him and rammed his ass into the wall and swept him, he proceeded to drop his knee into his opponent's chest, locked his arm out straight, and nailed him in the face repeatedly."
After his victory, Lee gave his opponent lessons on how to improve his fighting skills. His opponent, now impressed, would later say to Lee, "You really are a master of the martial arts."

Hong Kong legacy
There are a number of legacies surrounding Lee that still exist in Hong Kong culture today. One is that his early 70s interview on the TVB show Enjoy Yourself Tonight cleared the busy streets of Hong Kong as everyone was watching the interview at home.

Another topic is that his moment of birth is often used as a modern cultural proof of the existence of the Four Pillars of Destiny concept, having been born in the year of the dragon and hour of the dragon along with other astrological alignment.

Martial arts training and development
Lee's first introduction to martial arts was through his father, Lee Hoi Cheun. He learned the fundamentals of Wu style Tai Chi Chuan from his father. Lee's sifu, Wing Chun master Yip Man, was also a colleague and friend of Hong Kong's Wu style Tai Chi Chuan teacher Wu Ta-ch'i.

Lee trained in Wing Chun Gung Fu from age 13-18 under Hong Kong Wing Chun Sifu Yip Man. Lee was introduced to Yip Man in early 1954 by William Cheung, then a live-in student of Yip Man. Like most Chinese martial arts schools at that time, Sifu Yip Man's classes were often taught by the highest ranking students. One of the highest ranking students under Yip Man at the time was Wong Shun-Leung. Wong is thought to have had the largest influence on Bruce's training. Yip Man trained Lee privately after some students refused to train with Lee due to his ancestry.

Bruce was also trained in Western boxing and won the 1958 Boxing Championship match against 3-time champion Gary Elms by knockout in the 3rd round. Before arriving to the finals against Elms, Lee had knocked out 3 straight boxers in the first round. In addition, Bruce learned western fencing techniques from his brother Peter Lee, who was a champion fencer at the time.
This multi-faceted exposure to different fighting arts would later play an influence in the creation of the eclectic martial art Jeet Kune Do.

Jun Fan Gung Fu
Lee began teaching martial arts after his arrival in the United States in 1959. Originally trained in Wing Chun Gung Fu, Lee called what he taught Jun Fan Gung Fu. Jun Fan Gung Fu (literally Bruce's Gung Fu), is basically a slightly modified approach to Wing Chun Gung Fu. Lee taught friends he met in Seattle, starting with Judo practitioner Jesse Glover as his first student and who later became his first assistant instructor. Before moving to California, Lee opened his first martial arts school, named the Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute, in Seattle.

Lee also improvised his own kicking method, involving the directness of Wing Chun and the power of Northern Shaolin kung fu. Lee's kicks were delivered very quickly to the target, without "chambering" the leg.

Jeet Kune Do



The Jeet Kune Do Emblem.
The Chinese characters around the Taijitu symbol indicate: "Using no way as way" & "Having no limitation as limitation" The arrows represent the endless interaction between yang and yin.

Jeet Kune Do originated in 1965. A match with Wong Jack Man influenced Lee's philosophy on fighting. Lee believed that the fight had lasted too long and that he had failed to live up to his potential using Wing Chun techniques. He took the view that traditional martial arts techniques were too rigid and formalistic to be practical in scenarios of chaotic street fighting. Lee decided to develop a system with an emphasis on "practicality, flexibility, speed, and efficiency". He started to use different methods of training such as weight training for strength, running for endurance, stretching for flexibility, and many others which he constantly adapted.

Lee emphasized what he called "the style of no style". This consisted of getting rid of a formalized approach which Lee claimed was indicative of traditional styles. Because Lee felt the system he now called Jun Fan Gung Fu was too restrictive, it was developed into a philosophy and martial art he would come to call (after the name was suggested by Dan Inosanto) Jeet Kune Do or the Way of the Intercepting Fist. It is a term he would later regret because Jeet Kune Do implied specific parameters that styles connote whereas the idea of his martial art was to exist outside of parameters and limitations.

Lee directly certified only 4 instructors. Taky Kimura, James Yimm Lee (no relation to Bruce Lee), Dan Inosanto, and Ted Wong are the only instructors certified by Lee. Inosanto holds the 3rd rank (Instructor) directly from Bruce Lee in Jeet Kune Do, Jun Fan Gung Fu, and Bruce Lee's Tao of Chinese Gung Fu. Taky Kimura holds a 5th rank in Jun Fan Gung Fu. James Yimm Lee (now deceased) held a 3rd rank in Jun Fan Gung Fu. Ted Wong holds 2nd rank in Lee's Jeet Kune Do. Dan Inosanto and Ted Wong are the only 2 living instructors who hold ranks in Lee's Jeet Kune Do. James Yimm Lee and Taky Kimura hold ranks in Jun Fan Gung Fu, not Jeet Kune Do; Taky received his 5th rank in Jun Fan Gung Fu after the term Jeet Kune Do existed. Also Bruce gave Dan all three diplomas on the same day, suggesting perhaps that Bruce wanted Dan to be his protege. All Jeet Kune Do instructors since Lee's death have been certified directly by Dan Inosanto.

James Yimm Lee, a close friend of Lee, died without certifying additional students. Taky Kimura, to date, has certified one person in Jun Fan Gung Fu: his son and heir Andy Kimura. Dan Inosanto continues to teach and certify select students. Prior to his death, Lee told his then only two living instructors Inosanto and Kimura (James Yimm Lee had died in 1972) to dismantle his schools. Both Taky Kimura and Dan Inosanto were allowed to teach small classes thereafter, under the guideline "keep the numbers low, but the quality high". Bruce also instructed several World Karate Champions including Chuck Norris, Joe Lewis, and Mike Stone. Between all 3 of them, during their training with Bruce they won every Karate Championship in the United States.

As a result of a lawsuit between the Lee's estate and the Inosanto Academy, the name "Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do" was legally trademarked, and the rights were given solely to the Lee estate. The name is made up of two parts: 'Jun Fan' (Lee's Chinese given name) and 'Jeet Kune Do' (the Way of the Intercepting Fist). The Inosanto Academy now refers to the system as "The Legacy of the Intercepting Fist".

Biographical films
In 1993 a biopic of Lee's life titled Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story was released in which Lee was portrayed by Jason Scott Lee (no relation).

Jason Scott Lee

In April, 2007, Chinese state media announced that its national broadcaster had started filming a 40-part TV series on Lee titled The Legend of Bruce Lee to promote Chinese culture for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. Lee will be portrayed by Chan Guo Kun in the series. China only...

Chen Guo Kun as Bruce Lee
He was the goalie in Shaolin Soccer and the dancing leader of the Axe Gang in Kung Fu Hustle.
And in terms of facial expressions and gestures, he’s one of the few who can really capture the essence of Bruce Lee.

On August 22, 2007 Fruit Chan announced that he will make a film on Bruce Lee's early years, in Chinese, entitled Kowloon City, produced by John Woo's producer Terence Chang, and set in 1950s Hong Kong.

Stanley Kwan stated that he was talking with Lee's family to make a biographical film on Lee. Kwan says that his film will look at how Bruce Lee was affected by the absence of his father and how he brought up his own son, Brandon Lee.


Bruce Lee documentaries:
-The Intercepting Fist (2001)
-Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey (2000)
-Bruce Lee: The Path of the Dragon (1998)
-The Immortal Dragon (A&E) (1996)
-Curse of the Dragon (1993)
-Death by Misadventure (1993)
-Martial Arts Master (1993)
-The Unbeatable Bruce Lee
-The Man And The Legend

Selected filmography
Bruce Lee filmography
The Big Boss (1971) (US title:Fists of Fury)
Fist of Fury (1972) (US title:The Chinese Connection)
Way of the Dragon (1972) (US titles:Return of the Dragon, Revenge of the Dragon)
Enter the Dragon (1973)
Game of Death (1978)

Television appearances
The Green Hornet (26 episodes, 1966–1967) .... Kato
Batman (Episodes: "Spell of Tut" 26 September 1966, "A Piece of the Action" 1 March 1966, "Batman's Satisfaction" 2 March 1966) .... Kato
Ironside (Episode: "Tagged for Murder" 26 October 1967) .... Leon Soo
Blondie (Episode: "Pick on Someone Your Own Size", 1968)
Here Come the Brides (Episode: "Marriage Chinese Style" 9 April 1969) .... Lin
Longstreet (4 episodes, 1971) .... Li Tsung
The Pierre Berton Show (1971) .... Himself

Other media
Bruce Lee – a video game published by Datasoft Inc under license in 1984:



Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon - a XBox video game published by Universal Interactive Inc. in 2002:

The game features an epic story line in which Bruce battles multiple enemies to avenge his murdered father and retrieve the mystical Golden Relic, keeper of ancient martial arts secrets.



Lee and popular culture
There are a large number of references to Bruce Lee in film, anime, manga, video games and other popular culture.


Fei Long from the video game Street Fighter series is based on him.



The anime character Rock Lee in Naruto is modeled after him, and was given his birthday.




The character Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop uses Lee's Jeet Kune Do fighting style.



The anime character Inosato Dan in Tenjou Tenge is modeled after him, he is a practicioner of Jun Fan Gung Fu
and the chief of the jun fan kung fu club, sitting 3rd rank in the newly created club that he and the other chiefs have made to become the enforcers. He also wears an inverse version of Bruce's yellow/black jumpsuit (Dan's is black with yellow stripes along the edges, Bruce's was opposite of that). He only shows in episode 22 of Tenjou/Tenjho Tenge...




The video game character Marshall Law in the Tekken series is also modeled after Lee. His appearance, mannerisms and fighting style are inspired by him.



Pokémon character Hitmonlee is named after him.


Mortal Kombat character Liu Kang is modeled after Lee.


Kim Dragon from the World Heroes series of video games is based on him.
(Hard to prove :/ )


Jann Lee from the Dead or Alive video game series is also based after him. WOOT!!! XD





Lee Bailong"The White Dragon" from the anime Shaman King. Lee Bailong was a kung fu movie star who was murdered by the Tao clan to be Jun's Jiang-si bodyguard. He is a thinly-veiled reference to Bruce Lee, who died under suspicious circumstances. Technically, he is not a spirit, but a living corpse reanimated using Tao Jun's "ofuda". However, he can be considered to be serving a similar purpose, since he serves Tao Jun and hangs around her perpetually. He is known as Lee Pai-Long in the English anime.





For more info:
http://asiajeetkunedo.com/about_aaijf.php
http://www.bruceleefoundation.com/
http://www.jkd.gr/brucelee.html


Father:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Hoi-Chuen
Wife:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Lee_Cadwell
Son:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Lee
Daughter:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon_Lee

Bruce Lee:





Media related:






Group goals:
-1 Be the first Bruce Lee group on CR ever!
-2 Get 500 members!
-3 Upload as many new videos on CR as possible!
-4 Upload as many new pics as possible!
-5 Hit the 5000 mark of CR points!
-6 Post as many possible on the wall and forum!

Achieved goals:
-1 Big check! Woot!!! XD

Work in progress:
-2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 We need our members help for these!