Actors - Bruce Lee

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	Actors - Bruce Lee

:This article is about the martial artist. For the serial killer and arsonist, see Bruce George Peter Lee.

Bruce Junfan Lee (November 27, 1940 — July 20, 1973) was a Chinese American martial artist and actor regarded as one of the most influential martial artists of the 20th century.

Lee's movies, especially his performance in the Hollywood-produced Enter the Dragon, elevated the traditional Hong Kong martial arts film to a new level of quality and popularity. Lee would use filmmaking to prove and to demonstrate his fighting theories in Jeet Kune Do and his pioneering efforts paved the way for future martial artists and actors such as Jackie Chan
, Jet Li
, and Chuck Norris
. Bruce Lee movies sparked the first major surge of interest in Chinese martial arts in the West. The direction and tone of Bruce Lee's movies have forever changed and influenced martial arts and martial arts films in Hong Kong, China, and the rest of the world. Lee became an iconic figure particularly to Chinese; as he portrayed Chinese national pride and Chinese nationalism in his movies. Many see Lee as a model blueprint for acquiring a strong and efficient body as well as developing a mastery of martial arts and hand to hand combat skills. Bruce Lee's evaluation of the traditional martial arts doctrines is nowadays seen as the first step into the modern style of mixed martial arts.
Early life
Bruce Lee was an American Born Chinese (ABC) born at the Chinese Hospital in San Francisco to his Chinese father, Lee Hoi-Chuen
(李海泉) and Chinese-German mother Grace Lee (何金棠).
Names
Lee's Cantonese name, Lee Jun Fan (李振藩; Mandarin Pinyin: Lǐ Zhènfán), literally means "invigorate San Francisco (三藩市)". At birth, Bruce Lee was given the English name "Bruce" by Dr. Mary Glover. Mrs. Lee had not initially planned on an American name but deemed it appropriate and concurred with Dr. Glover. Interestingly the name "Bruce" was never used within his family until he enrolled in La Salle College, a Hong Kong high school, at 12 years of age.

In addition, Lee initially had a birth name (Li Yuen Kam)(李炫金; Mandarin Pinyin: Lǐ Xuànjīn) given by his mother, as at the time Lee's father was away on a Chinese opera tour. After several months, when Lee's father returned, the name was abandoned because of a conflict with the name of Lee's grandfather. Lee was then renamed Jun Fan. Finally, Lee was also given a feminine name, Sai Fung (細鳳, literally "small Phœnix"), used throughout his early childhood in keeping with a Chinese custom traditionally thought to hide the child from evil spirits.

Bruce Lee's screen name was Lee Siu Lung in Cantonese and Li Xiao Long in Mandarin (李小龍; Cantonese pengyam: Ley⁵ Siw² Long⁴; Mandarin Pinyin: Lǐ Xiǎolóng) which literally means "Lee Little Dragon." These were first used by director 袁步雲 of the 1950 Cantonese movie 細路祥 in which Lee performed. It was very likely that the name "little dragon" was chosen based on his childhood name "small phoenix". In Chinese tradition, dragon and phoenix come in pairs to represent the male and female genders, respectively.
Education and martial arts training
Bruce Lee was educated both academically and in the field of martial arts. His studies of Kung Fu sparked his enthusiasm and understanding of martial arts in the development of Jeet Kune Do. Later Lee studied Judo, Jujitsu, Western Boxing, and other styles of martial arts.

Lee received his early education and Kung Fu training in Hong Kong. Because of his father's fame as a Chinese opera actor, Lee had the opportunity to appear in several Hong Kong movies as a child. He studied the Wing Chun style of martial arts at a young age and learned English and Cantonese.

Having seen his father practice Tai Chi Chuan, Lee was enrolled in Wing Chun under Sifu Yip Man. Wing Chun would later form a base for his later development and evolution of martial arts and the development of Jeet Kune Do.

At age 14, Bruce Lee entered La Salle College, a high school, under the wing of Brother Henry. In 1959, Bruce got into a fight with a feared Triad
gang member's son, and his father worried, so he and his wife decided to send Bruce to the United States to live with an old friend of his father's. All he had was $100 in his pocket and the title of 1958 Crown Colony Cha Cha Champion of Hong Kong. After living in San Francisco, he moved to Seattle to work for Ruby Chow, another friend of his father's.
[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Bruce Lee ]

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Actors - Bruce Lee

Early life

Names

Education and martial arts training

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