Bruce Lee
Bruce began his acting career at the age of six, when he was noticed by the director of the opera his father was in. Bruce was given a part in his father's opera, starting his HK cinema career. Chinese opera was and still is a physically demanding art. Especially in it's Beijing form, Chinese opera can sorta be compared to a painful yoga... in my opinion anyways=). Meanwhile in this period of his life, Bruce Lee was beaten in a street fight in HK. This served as the impetus in which he embarked on his martial arts career.
Bruce Lee became a student of the famous Master Yip who specialized in a form of Kung Fu called Wing Chun, or loosely translated; beautiful springtime. Under Yip, Bruce's martial arts skills greatly improved. Wait, strike that, tremedously improved. As Bruce was a very energetic and eager student, Master Yip taught him secret techniques in Wing Chun Kung Fu. Bruce Lee became a feared street fighter and an expert in Wing Chun. On a side note, one time in Taiwan, my father bought me to the final resting place of his Tai Chi Tsuan master when he was a teenager. After paying the due respects, my father and the Master's wife recalled the long hours of training they went through for the sake of Tai Chi Tsuan. I know lots of you ppl have said to have fully mastered a character in like Street Fighter of Mortal Kombat or wutever... however, the descriptions of the training forced me to come to appreciate seriousness in any martial arts. Practice makes perfect, obviously... that's why you try do Guile's combos or Sub-Zero's moves with every damn quarter in yer possesion... soon u r THE master of the game. Only ppl who have more quarters or are truly fanatical about the game could beat u. However, this "training" is nothing close to wut a martial artist encounters. "In a shack under the Taiwan heat, we did the same move with the Master thousands of times a day." The same move! Thousands of times! ... mind boggling... just simply mind boggling. If you're still having trouble visualizing this scenario, try making yer bed perfectly a thousand times when the blanket weighs 20 pounds. Tomorrow, assuming u've fully mastered bed-making, u might move on to the next move.
Anyways, back to Bruce Lee, the dancer?? Yes, Bruce was an accomplished dancer as one can easily see the similarities of dancing and martial arts, esp. in footwork. Bruce Lee was so good, he was the Hong Kong Cha Cha champion. Bruce devoted hours at a time to dance, mastering extremely complex routines.
In 1959, w/Bruce getting into one too many street fights than his parents liked, they moved him to the US. In Seattle, Bruce Lee started teaching Fung Fu, finished his BS in philosophy and married a pretty cheerleader named Linda Emery who was in his Kung Fu class in 1964.
Not everyone approved of Bruce and Linda's actions at the time. Vocal opponents included Linda's parents and the leader of the most powerful dojo in Seattle. In fact, the dojo leader, along w/other Chinese, esp. did not like the fact that Bruce was teaching martial arts to Westerners. The master of the rival dojo challenged Bruce to a fight, w/the agreement that if Bruce lost, he would stop teaching martial arts to Westerners. They fought on a beach in Seattle. The fight only lasted a couple minutes, but it was the most intense and high level fight anyone had ever seen. As described by Linda, Bruce beat his opponent, but only after a few minutes. Bruce had been perfecting himself up to a pt. where he could defeat anyone completely within 10 or 12 seconds. This was a major blow to Bruce's self-esteem, and prompted him to train even harder than ever before.
After this epic fight, Bruce Lee went on to teach as before. His students included such celebrities as Steve McQueen, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Coburn and Dan Inosanto. Bruce only wanted to teach serious ppl. From Wing Chun, Bruce Lee developed a new style of Kung Fu, Jeet Kune Do, 'the way of the intercepting fist'.
Jeet Kune Do was not only a new style, it's main purpose was a philosophical form of extremely efficient martial arts. Often criticizing karate for it's wasteful and excessive movements, Jeet Kune Do emphasized interrupts, power coupled with speed and efficiency. Bruce even wrote a book on his techniques... though one would have to be rather serious to consider implementing his training and routines. Jeet Kune Do took the best of all the martial arts encountered by Bruce and left out all the negatives...
In 1973, after some martial arts films, all filmed traditionally overseas on location in HK; Bruce Lee was set to make a return to Hollywood with "Enter The Dragon", a film he directed and starred in. Tragically, Bruce Lee would never see the film's impact on the martial arts world stage. Bruce died of a brain aneurysm in the vicinity of a cerebral edema. This medical fact was uncovered in May 1973. Whether this was already present at birth or caused by too many blows to the head, or perhaps the stress Bruce Lee endured aggravated this... we may never know. The wild rumors circulating around his death range from an affair with another actress, to drug OD, to a gang fight and even the angry touch of another master martial artist.
There is no doubt that Bruce Lee is many things... during the filming of 'Enter the Dragon', an extra wanted to challenge Bruce in a fight. (this wasn't uncommon during Bruce's filmings...) After Bruce figured out that the extra not only did have some skills, but was intentionally trying to hurt him, Bruce unleashed his full abilities, and in a few seconds, sent the extra flying into a wall... Bruce then told him to get up, and assume his position in the film. Bruce Lee had an iron determination; his first pair of glasses was crafted by himself with wire... Bruce made a vow that when he had money, he would never forget his situation that made him craft his own glasses. Bruce Lee was funny; in the Lipton Brisk commercial, Bru- o wait... wrong time period. In a documentary, Linda C. Lee recalled how Bruce asked her out to a date at the Space Needle. She had thought he was asking the entire martial arts class! It turned out Bruce meant just "him and her" =) It's also pretty interesting to see Bruce Lee playing w/his son in a family video when one keeps in mind what he is most known for.
Bruce Lee has had enormous impact. Just look at all the Bruce Lee imitations we've all seen thru the years. We don't see any imitations of Jet Li or Jackie Chan... y? Though they do possess some true martial arts capabilities, they do not even approach the unique character and abilities of Bruce Lee. til this day, i have never seen anyone come close to the level of kicking exhibited by Bruce Lee, fast and powerful w/definative form... so fast were Bruce's moves on camera, he had to slow them down so the frame rate could pick them up. Fei-Long, Liu Kang... perhaps the closest imitator in terms of appearance is Forest Law in Tekken Tag Tournament... and any1 is welcome to take my Law and Yoshi on anytime in TTT =P *ahem* Bruce Lee started the whole martial arts phenomenon in the US... before the 1970s, there were very few Asian actors in Hollywood, and even they were limited to minor stereotypical roles. Some say that was why the "Green Hornet" series ended after one season, that Bruce Lee, the sidekick, was becoming more popular than the main character. In any event, Bruce Lee isn't going away anytime soon.
Well, that's about all i can remember about Bruce Lee right now =T ... I'll b updating this section some more so check back some time... more pix, more info... um, jus in case u guys r wondering, the vast amount of this information is from books i've read, documentaries i've seen and stories i've heard. I have a fair amount of confidence in the accuracy of the text above... and u guys r welcome to confirm or tell me otherwise =)
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