Too Fast for the Camera
When Bruce Lee played Kato in the TV series The Green Hornet, there was a strange problem. At first he moved so fast that his movements could not be caught on film, so he had to slow himself down.
The show ran for one season of 26 episodes, from September 1966 to March 1967. The director wanted Lee to fight in the typical American style, with fists and punches. Lee refused and insisted on using the style he actually knew. The Green Hornet became the first popular American show to present Asian-style martial arts, and the American martial arts community saw Lee as its first mainstream star.
The show had a surprise second life. When Lee returned to Hong Kong in 1971, he did not know it had been a success there, where people unofficially called it 'The Kato Show'. He was surprised to be recognized as its star. He then signed with the studio Golden Harvest to star in two films.
A Child Star With a Cha-Cha Title
Lee was born in San Francisco in 1940, while his father, a Cantonese opera star, was on tour. The family returned to Hong Kong when he was four months old. His first film role came as a baby carried onto the stage in Golden Gate Girl. By 18 he had appeared in 20 films. His Chinese stage name means 'Lee the Little Dragon'.
He began tai chi with his father at age seven and later trained in Wing Chun under the teacher Ip Man. At first he was turned away because of his European background on his mother's side, until his friend William Cheung spoke up for him. In 1958 he won the Hong Kong schools boxing tournament. That same year, he also won Hong Kong's Crown Colony Cha-Cha Championship.
In 1959 he moved to the United States. He finished high school in Seattle while working as a live-in waiter. At the University of Washington, his official major was drama, not philosophy as many people claimed.
Inventing the Style of No Style
At the 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championships, Lee did push-ups using only the thumb and index finger of one hand. Then he showed his one-inch punch. With his fist about 2.5 centimeters from a volunteer's chest, he struck without pulling his arm back and sent the man backward into a chair. The volunteer, Bob Baker, later told Lee not to do that demonstration again.
A private match that Lee felt had lasted far too long convinced him that traditional techniques were too rigid for chaotic street fights. In 1967 he created Jeet Kune Do, 'the way of the intercepting fist'. It took footwork from boxing, kicks from kung fu and technique from fencing. He called it 'the style of no style', and later regretted naming it at all, since a name implied limits.
He trained hard too, lifting weights for strength, running for endurance and stretching for flexibility. He even compared his body to a high-performance car that could not run on low-grade fuel, so he avoided junk food and refined flour.
Four Films That Shook the World
Back in Hong Kong, his first lead role, The Big Boss (1971), was a huge box-office success across Asia and made him an instant star. Fist of Fury (1972) then broke the records The Big Boss had set. For The Way of the Dragon (1972), he was the writer, director and star, and he created the fight choreography. He also introduced karate champion Chuck Norris to moviegoers as his opponent, in a showdown called one of the best fight scenes in film history.
Next came Enter the Dragon, the first film made jointly by Lee's company, Golden Harvest and Warner Bros. It was made for US$850,000 and is estimated to have earned over $400 million worldwide. Lee died suddenly at 32, six days before it was released.
He had already shot over 100 minutes of footage for Game of Death, including a fight with 218-centimeter basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a former student. In it, Lee's character wears a yellow tracksuit and faces a different challenger on each floor of a five-level building.
From Boxing Rings to Video Games
In 2004, UFC founder Dana White called Lee the 'father of mixed martial arts'. Lee's idea was that the best fighter can adapt to any style instead of following one system. Boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard said he perfected his jab by watching Lee. Lee also taught taekwondo master Jhoon Goo Rhee a fast punch that Rhee called the 'accupunch'. Rhee later taught it to Muhammad Ali, who used it to knock out Richard Dunn in 1975.
His reach went far beyond fighting. The first beat 'em up video game, Kung-Fu Master (1984), was based on Game of Death, and the Street Fighter series was inspired by Enter the Dragon. Marvel's Stan Lee saw him as a superhero without a costume. Breakdancing pioneers such as the Rock Steady Crew drew on his kung fu moves, inspiring moves like the windmill. In France, the Yamakasi, who developed parkour, called him their 'unofficial president'.
Time magazine named him one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century.
