Bruce Lee

(October 1997) Ranked #100 in Empire magazines "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list.

Father of Brandon Lee and Shannon Lee.

Died of brain edema in Hong Kong at age 32.

He is considered the greatest martial artist of the 20th century.

Developed his martial art style called Jeet Kune Do (Way of the Intercepting Fist) which is more of an idea of being flexible and practical with learning martial arts

Interred at Lake View Cemetery, Seattle, Washington, USA.

While "The Green Hornet" TV series was in production, Bruce made several promotional appearances as Kato but made a point to never do the standard martial art stunts like breaking boards, which he felt had nothing to do with what martial arts are about.

Bruce Lee Jun Fan Yuen Kam (Bruce Lees full birth name) was born in the year of the dragon , at the hour of the dragon (between 6:00AM- 8:00AM).

Was an accomplished dancer and Hong Kong cha cha cha champion.

A noted brawler in Hong Kong, Lee received formal training in wing chun under legendary sifu Yip Man. He later trained in a variety of arts but eventually found classical style limiting and, counter-productive. He developed Jeet Kune Do which, he stressed, is not a style but a way of approaching martial arts beyond style. It is the forerunner to mix martial arts.

Weighed only 128 pounds at the time of his death.

Suffered a serious back injury while attempting a good-morning (involves holding a barbell across the shoulders and bending forward, keeping legs and back straight). During his recuperation he wrote several books on the martial arts.

His students in Jeet Kune Do martial arts included Kareem Abdul-Jabbar , Steve McQueen , and James Coburn.

His father, Lee Hoi-chuen, was Chinese. His mother, Grace Ho, is described as being of mixed Chinese and European (usually stated as German) descent.

His development of Jeet Kune Do came partially out of an incident with his school. A rival martial artist challenged him to a duel over his decision to teach non-Chinese students. Lee accepted the challenge and won the duel but later thought that the fight took too long because his martial art technique was too rigid and formalistic. Thus he decided to develop a better system with an emphasis on practicality and flexibility.

Was constantly challenged by movie extras and other men seeking to gain fame by beating him in a fight.

Left for Seattle in 1958 with $100. Gave cha cha cha lessons to first-class passengers to earn extra money during ship ride to US.

Was sought after for instruction by established martial artists such as Joe Lewis and Chuck Norris.

Faced discrimination from other Chinese kung fu masters when trying to learn other martial arts styles. Would usually go to the number 3 or 4 man in a certain system to learn it in exchange for teaching what he knew.

Demand for his private lessons grew so high that his hourly rate soared to $275 per hour.

His last movie, Game of Death , was his first film to be shot with sound, unlike most of his earlier films which were filmed without sound and later dubbed in by the actors. Some of the lost footage was later shown in Bruce Lee: A Warriors Journey . You can hear his own voice speaking English and Cantonese. Had he not died, his characters name in this movie would have been Hai Tien.

Spoke English, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Japanese.

Was able to name every single karate term and performed them with dead accuracy.

Adopted his legendary nunchaku routine in his movies from the legendary karate master Hidehiko "Hidy" Ochiai. The two met at the Los Angeles YMCA in the mid 1960s.

Earned $30,000 for his first two feature films.

Developed a trick for showing off his speed: a person held a coin and closed his hand and, as he closed it, Lee would take it and could even swap the coin for another.

His death was considered to be under extraordinarily bizarre circumstances by many experts. Many people claimed that it was the work of Oni (Japanese for Demons or evil spirits), while others claimed he was cursed. The theory of the Curse of Bruce Lee carried over to the extremely bizarre death of his son, Brandon Lee , who was shot and killed during the filming of The Crow in 1993.

Before hitting it big as a movie star he often trained with the martial arts worlds biggest stars, many of whom would latter become celebrities in their own right, such as world karate champion Chuck Norris. Despite rumors and reports to the contrary, Lee was never Norriss instructor. They trained together, often trading techniques and ideas, but never had a student-teacher relationship.

One of his martial arts students was James Bond star George Lazenby.

In his first and only meeting with Enter the Dragon composer Lalo Schifrin , Bruce told him that he often trains to the "Mission: Impossible" theme.

Mastered a technique called "The One-Inch Punch", in which he could deliver a devastating blow yet have his fist travel the distance of one mere inch (2.54 cm) before striking an opponent.

His first major U.S. project was the role of Kato in the television series "The Green Hornet" . He joked that he got this role because he was the only Oriental actor who could properly pronounce the lead characters name: "Britt Reid".

Mortal Kombat character "Liu Kang" was inspired by him, complete with the characteristic animal noises.

When Elvis Presley s and Ed Parker s unfinished martial arts film "New Gladiators" was found in 2003, there was 20 minutes of Lees demonstration at a martial arts display in the mid-60s found along with it.

Is often honored in video games. In "Mortal Kombat" games, the character Liu Kang was an obvious tribute to Lee. Then, in Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers , a character named Fei Long was introduced bearing an uncanny resemblance in both looks and fighting style to Lee. A lesser game, World Heroes , also copied Lee as Kim Dragon. Lastly, the "Tekken" games did the tribute to him not once, but twice. First with Marshall Law, then with his son Forrest Law for the third installment of Tekken. Along with this, his fighting style was honored in Virtua Fighter with Jacky Bryant, in Dead or Alive with Jann Lee and in the "Soul Calibur" series as Maxi.

(2004 September) Has a statue placed in the country Bosnia. After many years of war and religious splits, Lees figure is to commend his work, to successfully bridge culture gaps in the world.

His father, Hoi-Chuen Lee (b. February 1901, died February 8, 1965) was a popular stage actor and died 8 days after Brandon Lee was born.

Lee was trained by Yip Man from 1954-1957 & Wong Shun-Leung from 1957-1958.

Defeated British boxer Gary Elms by knockout in the third round in the 1958 Hong Kong amateur boxing championships by using Wing Chun traps and high/low-level straight punches. Before he met Elms in the finals, he knocked out three boxers in the first round. Hawkings Cheung, his fellow Wing Chun street fighter, witnessed the event.

Lee knocked out Wong Jack-Man in Oakland, CA, in a 1965 no-holds-barred challenge match. It was Lees last official fight. It lasted three minutes.

Lee knocked-out Chung, a Choy Li Fut fighter, in Hong Kong in a 1958 Full-Contact match. The match was refereed by Sheun-Leung Wong.

Lee knocked out Uechi in 10 seconds in a 1962 Full-Contact match in Seattle. It was refereed by Jesse Glover.

Had four siblings, two sisters and two brothers: Phoebe Lee (b. 1938), Agnes Lee, older brother and fencing champion Peter Lee, and younger brother and musician Jan-Fai Lee. Some sources claim he also had a brother James who died of Black Lung in 1972 but James Yimm Lee was in fact his training partner and not his brother.

Son of Hoi-Chuen Lee

He was a gang leader in his teenage years. The name of his group was known as "The Tigers of Junction Street".

UFC President Dana White considers Bruce Lee as "the father of Mixed Martial Arts".

Alongside Muhammad Ali , Lee is cited as a major influence by many K-1 and MMA champions: Bas Rutten , Jose "Pele Landi-Jons, Wanderlei Silva , Emilianenko Fedor, Norifumi "Kid Yamamoto, Rob Kaman , Ramon Dekkers, Frank Shamrock , Murilo Rua, Maurcio Shogun , Jerome Le Banner, Carlos Newton, Remy Bonjasky , Jeremy Horn , David Loiseau and Tito Ortiz , among others.

To mark the occasion of what would have been Lees 65th birthday (27 November 2005), a bronze statue of a topless Bruce adopting a martial arts stance was unveiled in Hong Kong, effectively kicking off a week-long Bruce Lee festival.

In the popular Nintendo game series, Pokmon, the fighting type monster Hitmonlee is based on Lee.

According to Hong Kong stuntman Phillip Ko , Lee was challenged by a tiger/crane kung fu stylist, an extra on Enter the Dragon , who claimed Lee was a phony. Lee, who was furious at the claim, accepted the challenge to prove that his martial arts were indeed the real deal. The fight, which took place on the film set, only lasted 30 seconds, with Bruce pummeling his challenger with a series of straight punches to the face, low-line kicks to his shins/knees/thighs and finally ended with the guy being smashed to the wall with his hair pulled and his arms trapped by Bruce. After Lee forced the kung fu stylist to submit, he showed some class by telling him to go back to work instead of firing him. This fight was witnessed by the films producer, Fred Weintraub , and Robert Wall.

There is a character in the anime and manga Shaman King that is very heavily based on him. Also a character inspired by a Lee-like character appeared in the Yugioh manga.

Chosen by Goldsea Asian American Daily as one of the "100 Most Inspiring Asian Americans of All Time". (ranked #2).

Once performed a kick so fast it had be slowed down by editors for fear it would look like it was sped up.

Was capable of doing push ups with a 250-pound man on his back and could do push-ups with only one finger.

Was only 160 pounds at his heaviest.

Bollywood made a song for him as a tribute: "Lets dance for the great guy Bruce Lee", composed by Bappi Lahiri and from the movie Morchha .

Bruce Lee was voted as the Greatest Movie Fighter Ever in 2014 by the Houston Boxing Hall Of Fame. The HBHOF is a combat sports voting body composed exclusively of current and former fighters and Martial Artists.

In 1972, Bruce Lees star was rising faster than anybody could have imagined. In the midst of all this, Little Unicorn , Lees long time friend and confidant was offered a leading role. Lee offered assistance to the man who helped him get back into the Hong Kong film business. The result was Qi lin zhang , the only film outside his own that Bruce Lee would action-direct and help promote. Apart from Unicorn, they are many co-stars from the Lees films also.in this film.

He was originally going to star in The Man from Hong Kong . After his death, the role went to Yu Wang.

He turned down the lead role in Leng mian hu in order to make Meng long guo jiang . His role was given to Jimmy Wu.

Legend has i that he came up with the concept for "Kung Fu" and was going to star in it. However, the network got cold feet about casting an Asian actor in the lead role and it went to David Carradine. But according to the producers, although Lee was consulted and was considered for the role, they created the concept and Carradine was always their first choice. Lee was very upset about this, especially considering that Carradine had no martial arts training.

He co-wrote Circle of Iron with James Coburn with the intent of starring in it. He even met with Roman Polanski in Switzerland in the hopes that hed direct. After his death, his roles were given to David Carradine.

He was originally set to co-star with George Lazenby in Tie jin gang da po zi yang guan before his death. The original marketing and tagline of the film was going to be "Its Lee, Its Lazenby, Its Bruce vs. Bond".

Pallbearers at his funeral on July 25, 1973 included Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Chuck Norris, George Lazenby, Dan Inosanto, Peter Chin, Taky Kimura, and Lees brother Robert.

Jackie Chan has said that being accidentally struck in the face with nun chucks by Lee while filming Enter The Dragon is still one of the most painful injuries hes faced in his career.

Lee felt that many martial artists of his time did not spend enough time on physical conditioning. Lee included all elements of total fitness - muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance, and flexibility - as part of his workout routines. He also employed traditional bodybuilding techniques.

Lee, upon claiming that he invented a new martial art, was pitted against a former karate champion in an attempt to prove his claims. Lee, unfazed, claimed that not only would he defeat the challenger, but he would do so within one minute. He did it in 58 seconds.

Despite his incredible martial arts skills, he was known for possessing a personal collection of firearms for self-defense purposes, and even a couple of his martial arts movies have his character requesting to use a gun. One of the reasons he agreed to star in Enter The Dragon was that he believed hed get to use a gun at one point and he was disappointed at not being able to.

He was a huge Soap Opera fan and it was said that missing an episode of General Hospital could leave him upset for days.

Is a world renown gynecologist and inventor of a new procedure to help women with fibroid tumors. Teaches doctors around the world with his companys new medical device. Won the 2010 Frost and Sullivan Innovation Award for Oncology.

Composed a ballet before going on to compose for films.

Absorb what is useful, Discard what is not, Add what is uniquely your,own.

Simplicity is the last step of art.

A teacher is never a giver of truth - he is a guide, a pointer to the,truth that each student must find for himself. A good teacher is merely,a catalyst.

Empty your mind. Become formless and shapeless like water. When water is,poured into a cup, it becomes the cup. When water is poured into a,teapot, it becomes the teapot. Be water, my friend.

To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person. If,you want to understand the truth in martial arts, to see any opponent,clearly, you must throw away the notion of styles or schools,prejudices, likes and dislikes, and so forth. Then, your mind will,cease all conflict and come to rest. In this silence, you will see,totally and freshly.

I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the,man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.

The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.

A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough.

Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very,pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As,love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals,deep-burning and unquenchable.

Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo,or willow survives by bending with the wind.

Martial art is ultimately an athletic expression of the dynamic human,body. More important yet, is the person who is expressing his own soul.

I have always been a martial artist by choice, an actor by profession,but above all, am actualising myself to be an artist of life.

A goal is not always meant to be reached; it often serves simply as,something to aim at.

The martial arts are ultimately self-knowledge. A punch or a kick is not,to knock the hell out of the guy in front, but to knock the hell out of,your ego, your fear, or your hang-ups.

Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable.

Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.

Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.

Be happy, but never satisfied.

You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.

It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away at the inessentials.

Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.

Bring the mind into sharp focus and make it alert so that it can immediately intuit truth, which is everywhere. The mind must be emancipated from old habits, prejudices, restrictive thought processes and even ordinary thought itself.

Set patterns, incapable of adaptability, of pliability, only offer a better cage. Truth is outside of all patterns.

All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.

I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.

The spirit of the individual is determined by his dominating thought habits.

I am not afraid of a person who knows 10000 kicks. But I am afraid of a person who knows one kick but practices it for 10000 times.

True mastery transcends any particular art. It stems from mastery of oneself--the ability, developed through self-discipline, to be calm, fully aware, and completely in tune with oneself and the surroundings. Then, and only then, can a person know himself.

Effort within the mind further limits the mind, because effort implies struggle towards a goal and when you have a goal, a purpose, an end in view, you have placed a limit on the mind.

Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water. Be water, my friend.

A conditioned mind is never a free mind.

Remember no man is really defeated unless he is discouraged.

Real living is living for others.

The essential quality of living life lies simply in the living.

Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one,Living exists when life lives through us … life is a living now!,Do not pray for an easy life. Pray for a difficult on with the strength to endure it.

Memory: Recognizing the value of an alert mind and an alert memory, I will encourage mine to become alert by taking care to impress it clearly with all thoughts I wish to recall and by associating those thoughts with related subjects which I may call to mind frequently.

It is compassion rather than the principle of justice which can guard us against being unjust to our fellow men.

Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend.

A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.

Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind for they are the weeds that strange confidence.

If you follow the classical pattern, you are understanding the routine, the tradition, the shadow -- you are not understanding yourself.

Relationship is understanding. It is a process of self-revelation. Relationship is the mirror in which you discover yourself -- to be is to be related.

Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.

In Life There are No Limits, Only Plateaus.

Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.

Emotion can be the enemy, if you give into your emotion, you lose yourself. You must be at one with your emotions, because the body always follows the mind.

Not being tense but ready. Not thinking but not dreaming. Not being set but flexible. Liberation from the uneasy sense of confinement. It is being wholly and quietly alive, aware and alert, ready for whatever may come.

Obey the principles without being bound by them.

Learn the principles, abide by the principles, and then dissolve the principles.

Art reaches its greatest peak when devoid of self-conciousness. Freedom discovers man the moment he loses concern over what impression he is making or about to make.

Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.

The best fighter is not a Boxer, Karate or Judo man. The best fighter is someone who can adapt on any style. He kicks too good for a Boxer, throws too good for a Karate man, and punches too good for a Judo man.

Always be yourself and have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and try to duplicate it.

Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successfull personality and duplicate it.

Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame very pretty often hot and fierce but still only light and flickering. As love grows older our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals deep-burning and unquenchable.

To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.

If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.

A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.

The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.

I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.

Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.

Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it. .