Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon (1973). Image: Lexinatrix [Flickr]
1. Bruce Lee's Family Gave Him a Girl's Name: "Little Phoenix"
Bruce's family never called him "Bruce." They preferred to call him by his nickname "Sai Fon" or "Little Phoenix." It was a girl's name, deliberately chosen by his parents because they believed that evil spirits did not like boys in the family (their firstborn was a son who died in infancy). So, by giving Bruce a girl's name, they believed they could fool the demons into sparing his life!
Actually, "Bruce" was a name given by a nurse at the Jackson Street Hospital, San Francisco, where he was born (Bruce's father was traveling with an acting troupe at the time). The nurse thought that giving the baby an English name would help avoid any confusion with his American birth certificate (yes, Bruce was an American by birth - he never had any other citizenship).
2. Bruce Lee was Part German
Bruce wasn't pure Chinese - he was actually part German (his grandfather from his mother's side was half German).
3. Bruce Lee Never Lost a Fight
Well, actually he lost a fight only once in his life: when he was 13 years old. This loss actually prompted Bruce to learn martial arts from a Wing Chun master named Yip Man. After other students learned that Bruce wasn't pure Chinese, they refused to let him train in their class. Yip Man had to train him privately. (Image: Portland Kung Fu Club)
4. Bruce Lee was a Bad Student
Academics didn't interest Bruce in the least. After primary school, Bruce entered La Salle College, an English-speaking boys' secondary school in Kowloon, Hong Kong, where he often got into trouble. Bruce was expelled from La Salle for disruptive behavior.
Even after his parents moved him to a different school, Bruce kept on getting into street fights.
5. Bruce Lee was an Excellent Dancer and Boxer
Actually, Bruce studied dancing as hard as he studied martial arts: he was an excellent dancer who, at 18 years of age, won the 1958 Hong Kong Cha Cha Championship! Bruce was also a great boxer: he won the 1958 Boxing Championship - by knockout, of course.
6. Bruce Lee was a Philosophy Major
Bruce wasn't just all muscle and no brain. He attended the University of Washington, where he majored in philosophy with focus on the philosophical principles of martial art techniques. As you might imagine, Bruce supported himself in college by teaching martial arts. Later, Bruce dropped out of college to open his martial arts school.
7. Want to challenge Bruce Lee? Just tap your foot on the ground!
After he got famous, a lot of people thought they could beat Bruce - they would walk up to him, tap their foot on the ground (symbolizing a challenge) and then proceed to attack him! Well... maybe not that literal, but Bruce's popularity certainly attracted a lot nutcase trying to prove they're better than him.
One day, while filming Enter the Dragon, an extra taunted Bruce Lee and challenged him to fight. The whole thing went on like this:
"This kid was good. He was no punk. He was strong and fast, and he was really trying to punch Bruce's brains in. But Bruce just methodically took him apart."
"I mean Bruce kept moving so well, this kid couldn't touch him...Then all of a sudden, Bruce got him and rammed his ass into the wall and swept him, he proceeded to drop his knee into his opponent's chest, locked his arm out straight, and nailed him in the face repeatedly."
Typical of Bruce Lee, after the fight he didn't fire the extra - he actually gave his challenger lesson on how to improve!
8. Bruce Lee was Strong
In 1964, Bruce was invited to a karate championship in Long Beach, California. There he performed his famous "One Inch Punch," where he would deliver a devastating blow from only an inch away, sending his opponent flying back!
Bob Baker of Stockton, whom Bruce hit, said "I told Bruce not to do this type of demonstration again. When he punched me that last time, I had to stay home from work because the pain in my chest was unbearable."
... and Fast!
Most martial art films are sped up to make fighting scenes appear fast, but not Bruce Lee's. His moves were too fast to be captured on the regular 24 frames per second film - so they had to film him at 32 fps, and run the film slower so you can see his moves.
9. Bruce Lee vs. Chuck Norris, who would win?
Here's a clip of Bruce Lee fighting Chuck Norris in Return of the Dragon. You can see how fast Bruce Lee moved ... though it's obvious that Chuck Norris would be immune to the One Inch Punch as his one-inch chest hair would absorb the punch with ease!
And the most bizarre Bruce Lee fact is this:
10. Bruce Lee's Corpse Acted in his Final Movie!
Bruce Lee was filming Game of Death when he died unexpectedly. So what did the studio do? Well, they rewrote the script so Bruce's character faked his own death to escape the mafia. Then they took footage from Bruce's actual funeral - including close-ups shots of the open casket showing his embalmed face - and work that into the movie! (More on this at Neatorama's post: The Creepiest Movie Ever Made)
Source: Bruce Lee [wikipedia] | Academy of Jeet Kune Do Fighting Technology: Sijo Bruce Lee | Bruce Lee Foundation: Bruce Lee Bio [PDF]
Bruce Lee lost a lot more then one fight when he was a kid. Not "just one". He was being bullied at school day in and day out so he finally started learning to defend himself. Yip man was the only martial arts teacher Bruce ever had.
You stole what Bob Wall said in an interview about Bruce from documentary that says how he beat the hell out of the guy who challenged him during filming then helped him improve his skills? Bullshit, no one including Bob Wall ever said that Bruce gave the guy tips and pointers on how to improve. The list go's on and on. Your so full of shit your trying to pass on info that you got wrong as your own.
You do know that this is the world wide web right?
Other people besides the rejects in your little hut village read your garbage too. I'm one of them unfortunatly and I'm calling you a jackass. Thats all for now.
Hugs and kisses you fucking shitheel!
P.S. If you really want to know about Bruce and his accomplishments, visit HIS website.
Good night, and good luck....purple monkey dishwasher.
http://flickr.com/groups/apostrophes/
We beat jeet kune do and kick karate
punching in the budokan area
We talk about Bruce Lee..
"You know Bruce Lee?"
He's dead!
HAHAHAHAHA!
dead.
To be famous is so nice
Suck my kick
Kick my a**
In limosines we have fight
everynight with my famous friends
Nice...
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+ Videos are down.
Re: Bruce Lee giving advice to his challenger after beating the tar out of the guy. See ref: Vaughn, Jack (1986). The Legendary Bruce Lee. Ohara, 153.
Re: Bruce Lee's loss as a child. If you can come up with a reference of him being beaten up repeatedly in fights, please let me know. From the readings I did, it was a singular street fight that he lost (got beat up pretty bad - Bruce was actually a scrawny kid) that he decided to take up martial arts.
Re: Yip Man being the only martial art teacher Bruce had. Technically not true, Bruce learned boxing - someone had to teach him that. He also learned fencing and various martial arts, such as judo. But yes, Yip Man was Bruce's main teacher. The article didn't make a claim that he was just one of Bruce's teachers.
Re: Cannabis. Yes, the autopsy revealed that Bruce had cannabis in his system, but it's controversial whether that is a source or contributing factor in his death. Understandably, most biographies on Bruce kind of glosses over this fact.
I'll pass on the other savory comments that were made regarding my knowledge of the world wide web, my "little hut village," and my purple monkey dishwasher (ZOMG! HOW DID YOU KNOW !?!?!)
While I enjoyed your comments and believe every word that you said, I couldn't help but notice that your use of the word "your" when you really mean "you're" or "you are" doesn't help your cause when calling someone else a douchebag, fucking shitheel (good one), or a jackass.
Bruce Lee perhaps never lost a documented street fight in his life, but he regularly lost fights during sparring sessions. He regularly lost fights with practitioners of the grappling arts, which taught him how to incorporate grappling into his Jeet Kun Do system. Remember that Bruce Lee is the father of mixed martial arts and while his foundation was from traditional Gung Fu, Bruce was continually modifying, testing and tweaking his fighting method against other people. He realized that losing was the primary component of learning. You can also read his extensive biography in the heroes and role models section of my website.
Great article on your website, for those who want to read up, here's the link.
http://www.chucknorrisfacts.com/
BTW, Chuck Norris was the current karate champ at the time and would own Bruce Lee in a real fight.
It is a well known fact that as part of this sort of cloning process you get a crummy twin like Danny Devito, in Bruce Lee's case he was so awesome that the bad genes actually formed a pretty good fighter too, his name was Neo, who could stop bullets in mid air but still lost to Bruce regularly when he felt like it.
Let us also remove any question about what his name means. It is both dragon and Phoenix, as a dragon and a phoenix were both used as part of the cloning process and later went on to star in that Harry Potter movie where Hermione got tits.
Speaking of which, is it ok to watch The Professional and consider twelve year old at the time Natalie Portman hot?
But I digress. I believe that we were discussing the true history of Bruce Campbell. You see, aside from bit parts in the Spider Man movies, Bruce has saved the world from rampaging demons not only in the modern era but also in the past. Fortunately his friend Sam was around with a video camera (I think their original intention was to film a porn movie) and so he captured all of Bruce's moves on camera.
I hope this is cleared everything up.
am gonna check out those facts ...
Apple Trailers.
Exploration of "Asianness" through the guise of a fictional interpretation of how "Game of Death" was made.
Po mo baby.
Controversial indeed. It would be a medical first since cannabis has to this day not not killed anyone, not a single person, ever.
http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/98/0731/feat_3.html
What?!!! Where is the evidence?? Or DId u ask his then Wife Linda???
While rare, there are recorded instances of cannabis toxicity, including one death in Britain.
Though, I do find it interesting that both Bruce and his son died while filming, though don't know if Bruce died actually filming like his kid did.
I'll have to check that out.
BUT... not for some pud screw that lives in his mommy's basement and has a confederate flag hanging on his wall, and for you other IDIOTS that are here to spell check, why don't you spell "dental work" after bruce lee knocks your freakin' molars on the floor,
great site, keep up the faith!
actually, ill call you bobby brown, because its just that funny. and with a mentality like you have, it's easily justified.
why ya gotta be a dick? maybe he has some wrong info? who cares that much to personally attack some mofo he doesnt even know?
u r super gay.
The chinese written language, the characters, is standardised between the two dialects. A character will have the same meaning just when pronounced are two totally different sounding words.
Ok, lesson over. Back to mindless arguing.
and i know the real story from the real people so just watch what you say and di you all know they really did have to slow his films down so he can be seen
Reisi9593, CEO of Epic-V
i need to know more about the german side.
please contact me.
BillyBob or whatever your name is, your parents didn't spank you enough.
I was trying to explain the meaning of Kick Ass to my Japanese students ( I teach English in Japan) and this is kinda how I explained it in Japanese
http://japansugoi.com/wordpress/please-explain-the-meaning-of-kick-ass/
Ps. Bruce actually WAS that badass.
Rodrigo Reinante
elro_europe@hotmail.com
(Contact me if you are proud of your knowledge)
R.I.P MASTER BRUCE LEE...
BRUCE LEE WOULD MURDER ANYONE IN A STREET FIGHT...
billy brown you tool
lei seew long
LEE little/small dragon
1. Bruce Lee was a very great martial artist.
2. If Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris were to fight in an all out battle, Bruce Lee would ultimately win. No argument.
Some other stuff you should know (for noobs/10 year olds)
1. Bruce Lee is teh 1337Z.
2. If you claim Chuck Norris wins over Bruce Lee, you are obviously a kid who saw a random, funny Chuck Norris Fact.
3. If you want to know more about Bruce Lee, just google it.
4. If I'm wrong about anything, please correct me, non-12-year-olds.
TRANSLATION - T3H N00BX
L3TX S3TTL3 T!5 PL0X!!!1!1oneoneone
1 BRu53 L33 !5 w!n kungf00 m@n!!1111!!1
1. L33 f1t3z t3h Chuck N0rR15? Chuk i5 t3h w1n. now@it. L33 r t3h w1n u nubx!!1!1one
shtuff f0r p33pz h00 luv t3h m3m35 @nd t3h lulc@tz
L33 = 13375
2. u 5@yz chuk 3p1c w1n vs l33? u r0ng s0 3piclee. n00bx
2 g00gl3 t3h b@d@55 l33 nub.
4. u c@ll meh r t3h r0ngx? t3n u f1x unl355 u t3h nub @l50!
lie 1940 avem zodia sagetator semanam la fata si la par îi ?tiu toate mi?c?rile
Bruce Lee wants your blood, sweet, and tears in the gym until the movie 300 looks G rated.
What about that guy that was mentioned at the end of the movie Blood Sport eh? ... The guy who founded the AMERICAN NINJUTSU system! ... what about him? ... he held the record for the fastest punch resulting in a knockout according to that text at the end of Blood Sport that told of the real life guy that the movie character was based upon. ... Does that mean that Bruce's "Punch with a KNOCKOUT" was not as fast as his?
Bruce held the fastest movement speed punch, but I think that guy maybe beat him in the knockout category, meaning Bruce had a faster punch in general but the BloodSport guy had a faster punch recorded as having a knockout. Anyway, yea ... I bet there was somebody who could have at least rivaled Bruce. I don't think that Chuck ever could beat him, that's just my opinion, maybe it's wrong, I don't know the facts. Did they ever have a real fight? Chuck just seems slow to me in comparison to Bruce though, but speed isn't everything. Of course Bruce Lee had strength too ... he worked out like 8 hours a day or some crazy amount!
Someone should make a videogame with Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, etc ... oh and Mr. T! and other famous people too, but only the kewl ones.
(it doesn't have to be all martial artists or completely realistic, I just wanna see a game with those people in it! with good gameplay though)
(it Does have to be real people though, no Mario or Sonic or Link)
I plan to make this game one day ... but I've got alot to do before then :'(
And please, no more jokes about Bruce Lee's death, show some respect.
On the other hand next time, research before you do something like this again, you have made your self look a little stupid.
Mr Hann, really? are you that bored? lol