Welcome! Martial Artist supreme Bruce Lee remains influential in many parts of the world to this very day, so many years after his death. He received many honors and tributes during his life time and beyond. He is arguably the first Asian movie and martial arts superstar, pioneering the way for others heroes as Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan, two notable rising stars he closely worked with in the 1970s. Bruce Lee’s instant martial arts charisma and acting style stunned many and quickly popularized martial arts across America and broke the mold of the stereotypical roles much Asian American actors were seen as.
The One and Only Bruce Lee (credit: Photobucket)
Bruce Lee’s wide reaching influence can be credited towards popularizing martial arts in the movies, in recent memorable films as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and The Matrix (1999).
But fame and its rewards were not gotten easily. Bruce Lee experienced his rise and fall. He had a series of film flops over which he had little control over . Arguably, these films featured only brief clips of Bruce Lee.
Today, enthusiasts may only find four Bruce Lee feature films produced from 1972-73:
- Fists of Fury
- Enter the Dragon
- The Chinese Connection
- Return of the Dragon
Enter the Dragon appears to be the most popular according to Internet Movie Database, resulting in a respectable $90 million in worldwide sales. In the 1978 movie Game of Death, movie makers even tried to cleverly finish a movie without Bruce Lee.
It’s understandably not difficult to see his popular films had many different but similar sounded titles; many movie goers were fooled into watching knock offs over the years, thinking they were watching a real Bruce Lee film. While his movies are mainstay in our memories, his legacy continues today in the form of Bruce Lee fighting games online.
An exceptional martial artist, Bruce Lee choreographed martial arts techniques and introduced unarmed combat martial arts films. Having experience in various martial arts styles as Kung Fu and Ti Chi Bruce Lee successfully combined philosophy, and classical martial arts into his own self-defense practice he called Jeet Kune Do, or JKD, a style that concentrated on simplicity, speed and efficiency. As a Martial Arts maverick, Bruce Lee encountered discrimination and opposition for his unconventional approach and style of martial arts – and was said to attract a loyal following as well as enemies who often being challenged to duels. These reported enemies included the Triad, a Chinese gang. Urban legends? Maybe. Maybe not.
Bruce Lee died suddenly one night. But his spirit lives on and he is remembered for the impact he made on entertainment and martial arts. It remains to be seen who will ever match his accomplishments.
His unmatched legendary martial skills can be seen in movies and TV and the various Bruce Lee fighting games online. Bruce Lee lives on as one of the most influential martial artists of the 20th century and a Chinese American icon. In death Bruce Lee became legendary. Bruce Lee is perhaps the biggest name in martial arts cinematic history.
