BIOGRAPHY

Born on February 1st, 1965 in Oakland California, Lee spend his early years in Hong Kong, where he learned Cantonese and studied the martial art of Jeet Kun Do. He was only eight when his father died suddenly of a brain edema, and his mother moved Lee and his younger sister Shannon back to the States. They settled first in Seattle and then in Rolling Hills, CA, where Lee acquired the reputation of a troubled, wild child. He dropped out of high school twice, and was expelled from the private Chadwick School in Palos Verdes only months before graduation. After finally receiving his diploma from Miraleste High School, he studied drama at Boston's Emerson College and commuted to New York for private acting lessons at the Lee Stransberg Institute.      In 1985, after getting his feet wet in several off-Broadway plays, Lee moved to Hollywood. He worked as a script reader before landing a role in the television film Kung Fu: The Movie in 1986 with David Carradine. Lee then returned to Hong Kong the following year  to appear in the Cantonese film Legacy of Rage. Starring roles opposite Ernest Borgnine in Laser Mission (1990) and Dolph Lundgren in Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991) soon followed. His next U.S. vehicle, 1992's Rapid Fire, had audiences on their feet with its nonstop fighting sequences (which Lee choreographed himself).

Thus, the actor was poised for true stardom when he landed the lead in director Alex Proyas' The Crow. It was his dream project: an adaptation of James O'Barr's graphic novel. The film promised to combine Lee's captivating stunts with a brooding gothic atmosphere and a tight revenge-driven story line. He was shooting his character's death scene on location in Wilmington, NC, when an improperly cleaned prop gun fired a dummy tip into his mid-section. The tip tore through Lee's abdomen and lodged in his spine. After loosing a considerable amount of blood, he died on the operating table at New Hanover Regional Medical Center at 1:04pm on March 31st, 1993.      Lee, who had planned to marry his longtime girlfriend that April, was laid to rest next to his father at Lakeview Cemetary in Seattle. His friend Polly Bergen held a memorial service for Lee at her California home. Over 400 people showed up to pay their respects to the young actor, including Kiefer Sutherland, Steven Seagal, David Carradine and David Hasselhoff. After much deliberation, Proyas and his production team finished The Crow as a tribute to its star. Distributed by Miramax, the film opened in 1994 and sold out theaters across the nation. It amassed quite a following, inspiring a television series and several sequels and transforming Lee into a cult hero.

(A majority of this biography was taken from Yahoo! Movies)

FILMOGRAPHY

TRIVIA

THE CROW (1994) RAPID FIRE (1992) SHOWDOWN IN LITTLE TOKYO (1991) LASER MISSION (1990) KUNG FU: THE NEXT GENERATION (1987) LEGACY OF RAGE (1986) KUNG FU: THE MOVIE (1986)

HEIGHT: 5'11" - Son of Bruce Lee and Linda Lee Cadwell. - Was to be married to Eliza Hutton in New Mexico on April 17th, 1993. - Was originally cast as Johnny Cage in the first Mortal Kombat movie (1995). - Dedication at the end of Lee's last film, The Crow, reads "For Brandon and Eliza". - Was in talks with filmmakers about making Rapid Fire 2. - Was first asked to play the role of Bruce Lee in his father's biopic. The role was later given to Jason Scott Lee. - Had blonde hair as a baby. SALARIES: $300,000 for The Crow; $270,000 for Rapid Fire; $250,000 for Showdown in Little Tokyo; $200,000 for Legacy of Rage.