Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee (Chinese: 李小龍; born Lee Jun-fan, 李振藩; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973)The martial artist, actor, philosopher, and writer Lee Jun-Fan, widely known by the name of Bruce Lee, was born on November 27, 1940, in the city of San Francisco, California, United States, and died on July 20, 1973, in the district of Kowloon, Hong Kong. He is recognized primarily for being an iconic figure in the cinema, demonstrating in most of the films in which he participated in his skills as an excellent martial mastery. Because he devoted most of his life to the development of his body, he practiced various types of combat and his own philosophical quest was able to develop his own style of fight that would initially give the name of Jun Fan Gun-Fu, subsequently named Jeet Kune Do. He is considered one of the main spreaders and instaurator of the popularity of martial arts practice in the West.

He was born in the Chinese hospital located in the Chinatown neighborhood because they were in the year the dragon was presaged with good fortune. He was the fourth child of five in total to have the opera singer and actor Lee Hoy-Chuen with Grace Ho, who accompanied him in his singing work. Due to the possible problems that could be generated in his birth certificate he was registered at the same time with a Chinese name (Lee Jun-Fan) and an American name (Bruce Lee). With only a short time of birth his family moved to Hong Kong, where they were originally from, but due to the consequences of the Second World War and the Japanese invasion in the territory, they were forced to face many adverse situations.

His entrance to the world of acting began with only two months of been born participating in the film Golden Gate Girl. He received his school education at Tak Sun Elementary and later at La Salle College, where he was expelled for being a problematic student. He would know the world of martial arts after a gang beat him and his father decided to teach him the basic movements of Tai Chi Chuan so that he learned to defend himself and have discipline, but due to the complexity of using this martial art, he decided to find another one that was more effective. Thanks to a friend he met the fighting style of Wing Chun, training in the dojo of Ip Man, who through his teachings corrected his conflicting behavior.

When enrolling in a new school he took part in the fencing, boxing and dancing events, becoming the champion of the latter in the cha-cha-cha modality. Due to the struggles between dojos and street fights in which he was involved his parents made the decision to send him, in April 1959, with his older sister who was in the city of San Francisco. Soon after, he got American citizenship and moved to the city of Seattle where he would be in charge of an old friend of his family. In this place he finished his studies, graduating in 1960 and enrolling immediately in the University of Washington, where he would specialize in psychology, drama, and philosophy.

During his time as a university student, he worked as a waiter or newspaper delivery man, but his most stable job was to give Wing Chun lessons. The number of people attending his classes gradually increased and, in addition to the recent development of his own martial art, he felt the need to create the Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute, where he would teach his own fighting style to the public. Throughout the year 1964, after performing a demonstration of his skills in the Long beach karate tournament, he received support and numerous requests for combats, these contributed to the improvement of his martial art, which would be renamed to Jeet Kune Do.

For the year of 1965 his son Brandon Lee was born, a few days later his father died and later receives a call from William Dozier to participate in the series The Number One Son, which he would accept. Although the project was suspended he would be offered to participate again in a television series the following year, this would be The Green Hornet. Due to the style of innovative fight that exhibited quickly, it gained popularity in television, which was worth a great amount to him of offering for different films and televising series that involved or had of thematic the martial arts.

In 1973, he began to present drastic health complications with regard to brain swelling, which eventually led to headaches, fainting and finally left him in a coma that would not wake, dying on July 20 of that year in Kowloon. Later his remains were moved to the United States where they would be buried in the Lake View Cemetery in Seattle.