Lee Jun-fan — known in the West as Bruce Lee — was born on November 27, 1940, in the Chinese Hospital in San Francisco's Chinatown, during his Hong Kong-based parents' visit to the United States. His father, Lee Hoi-chuen, was a Cantonese opera singer and actor; his mother, Grace Ho, was of Eurasian descent. Bruce was taken back to Hong Kong as an infant and raised there, acquiring US citizenship by birth. He grew up in Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation and its aftermath, and his father introduced him to the film industry: he appeared as a child actor in more than 20 Hong Kong films before age 18. He studied Wing Chun kung fu under Yip Man from age 13, began competing in boxing, and developed the beginnings of the martial arts philosophy that would eventually produce Jeet Kune Do.
Bruce Lee moved to the United States in 1959 at age 18, settling in Seattle, Washington, where he taught martial arts and attended the University of Washington, studying philosophy. He opened his first martial arts school in Seattle in 1959, and subsequently opened schools in Oakland and Los Angeles. His appearance at the 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championships — where he demonstrated his one-inch punch and two-finger push-ups and fought in an exhibition that left knowledgeable observers astonished — is widely regarded as the moment that introduced him to the mainstream American martial arts world. He was cast as Kato in the television series The Green Hornet (1966-67), which gave him American television exposure, but the series was cancelled after one season and Hollywood failed to capitalize on the obvious star quality he had demonstrated.
Frustrated by Hollywood's unwillingness to cast him as a leading man in American productions — the lead role of the martial arts television series Kung Fu, which he had helped develop, was given to Caucasian actor David Carradine — Bruce Lee returned to Hong Kong in 1971 and signed with Golden Harvest Productions. The Big Boss (1971) broke Hong Kong box office records. Fist of Fury (1972) broke those records. The Way of the Dragon (1972), which he wrote and directed, broke those records again. Enter the Dragon (1973) — the first co-production between a Hong Kong company and a major Hollywood studio (Warner Bros.) — was completed just before his death and became a global phenomenon, introducing his work to Western audiences at the scale his Hong Kong work had introduced him to Asian audiences.
Bruce Lee died on July 20, 1973, in Hong Kong, at age 32, from cerebral edema — swelling of the brain, attributed in the official autopsy to an allergic reaction to a pain medication he had been prescribed. The circumstances of his death have generated decades of speculation that have not produced alternative explanations that withstand scrutiny. He left behind a body of work — four and a half major films, extensive philosophical writing on martial arts and self-actualization collected in The Tao of Jeet Kune Do (1975, published posthumously), and a teaching legacy through students including Chuck Norris, James Coburn, and Steve McQueen — that has made him one of the most influential figures in 20th century popular culture, credited with transforming both Western understanding of Asian martial arts and the representation of Asian actors in Western entertainment.
