Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee (born Lee Jun-fan; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was a Hong Kong and American martial artist, actor, and filmmaker. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy, which was formed from his experiences in unarmed fighting and self-defense—as well as eclectic, Zen Buddhist, and Taoist philosophies—as a new school of martial arts thought. With a career spanning Hong Kong and the United States, Lee is regarded as the first global Chinese film star and one of the most influential martial artists in the history of cinema. Known for the five feature-length martial arts films that he starred in as an adult, he is credited with helping to popularize martial arts films in the 1970s and promoting Hong Kong action cinema.

Born in San Francisco and raised in Hong Kong, Lee was introduced to the Hong Kong film industry as a child actor by his father, Lee Hoi-chuen. Lee's early martial arts experience included Wing Chun (trained under Ip Man), tai chi, boxing (winning a Hong Kong boxing tournament), and frequent street fighting (neighborhood and rooftop fights). He moved to Seattle in 1959, enrolling at the University of Washington in 1961. It was during this time that Lee began to consider making money by teaching martial arts, even though he aspired to have a career in acting. He opened his first martial arts school, operated out of his home in Seattle. After later adding a second school in Oakland, California, Lee once drew significant attention at the 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championships of California by making demonstrations and speaking. He subsequently moved to Los Angeles to teach, where his students included Chuck Norris, Sharon Tate, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.