Kung Fu Kid's Bruce Lee Page

Kung Fu Kid bows to ...

Bruce Lee
Lee Jun Fan
November 27, 1940 - July 20, 1973

Bruce Lee (Lee Jun Fan) is without a doubt the most famous of all screen martial artists. His movies and television appearances were filled with overly wide kicks and punches for general consumption, yet his skill was truely real. Lee was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a mixture of Eastern and Western martial arts styles, which is still taught today.

Lee's life is outlined in the following chronology.

On November 27, 1940 (the Year of the Dragon) in San Francisco, Lee Jun Fan was born at the Jackson St. Hospital in the Chinatown District of San Francisco. He was later named Bruce Lee. His father Lee Hoi Chuen, a Cantonese Opera Company performer, was in America touring at the time.
In 1941, Bruce and his parents return to their home in Kowloon of Hong Kong.
Bruce begins his professional screen debut in the movie "Beginning of a Boy". He appears in 20 more films in Southeast Asia during his later years of childhood, lastly being in the film "The Orphan" at age 18.
In 1953, Bruce was involved in many street fights in Hong Kong. Because of this, he becomes a student of Sifu Yip Man, a master of Wing Chun Kungfu.
In 1958, Bruce, an expert dancer, is the victor of the Crown Colony Cha-Cha Championship in Hong Kong.

In 1959, Bruce is involved in more brawls in the streets resulting in police involvement. Bruce's parents decide that since Bruce has American citizenship, he should return to San Francisco.
After arriving in San Francisco in 1959, Bruce stays with an old friend of his father's working jobs around various Chinese Communities. After a while, Bruce moves to Seattle working for Ruby Chow, another friend of his father's. Bruce is living in a room above her restaurant while being a waiter downstairs. Later on, Bruce enrolls at Edison Technical School to earn his high school diploma. He also begins teaching kungfu is backyards and city parks.

In the springtime of 1961, Bruce enrolls at the University of Washington in Seattle. He majors in Philosophy and continues to teach kungfu to students at school.
Roughly two years later, in the summer of 1963 Bruce returns to Hong Kong after 4 years since his arrival in the U.S.. He goes back to Seattle to continue school at the end of summer.
On October 25 of the same year, Bruce takes out Linda Emery for their first date. The couple have dinner at the Space Needle.
In the memorable year of 1963 in the Fall Season, the Seattle based Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute is relocated into a building near the university campus. The address is 4750 University Way.
In the summer of 1964, Bruce moves to Oakland to open a second school. Taky Kimura, his good friend, takes over the Seattle based school as head instructor.
A day to remember, August 17, 1964, Bruce returns to Seattle to ask for Linda Emery's hand in marriage. After, they reside back in Oakland.

In Oakland, 1964, after several months of teaching students, Bruce is challenged by a leading Gung Fu practitioner in the Chinatown Community. If Bruce were to lose the challenge, he was either to close his school or put an end to his teaching to non-Chinese. At that time, Chinese didn't accept teaching non-Chinese their martial arts. In the 1900's, the Boxer Rebellion were severely beaten by Western Forces. The Boxer Rebellion desired the Westeners to be expelled from China. The Western Forces punished this rebellion and gave beatings to the Chinese Army. Therefore, Chinese are reluctant to teach Westeners their martial arts. Bruce accepts this challenge and wins in only a couple of minutes. But Bruce was upset though on why the fight took longer than usual so he begins to re-evaluate his style. Thus, the early concepts of Jeet Kune Do (JKD) were born.
Bruce demonstrated his famous 1 inch punch. The opponent would be punched as far back as 6 feet! On August 2, 1964 in Long Beach,California, Ed Parker, the founder of American Kenpo invites Bruce for a

demonstration at his first International Karate Championships. It just so happened that in the audience was Jay Sebring, the hair stylist for Batman producer William Dozier who is looking to cast a part in a TV series he was developing. Sebring feels that Bruce has potential in becoming a part of this TV series so a film of Bruce's demonstration was given to Dozier. Dozier is amazed at what Bruce can do so he asks Bruce to fly down to Los Angeles for a screen test.

Continued on page 2

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