Brandon Lee

Brandon Lee
Background information
Chinese name 李國豪 (traditional)
Pinyin Lǐ Guóháo (Mandarin)
Jyutping Lei Gwok Hou (Cantonese)
Born Brandon Bruce Lee
(1965-02-01)February 1, 1965
Oakland, California, U.S.
Died March 31, 1993(1993-03-31) (aged 28)
Wilmington, North Carolina, U.S.
Resting place Lake View Cemetery, Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Occupation Actor, martial artist
Years active 1985–1993
Nationality American
Partner(s) Eliza Hutton (1990–1993; his death)
Parents Bruce Lee (1940–1973)
Linda Lee Cadwell (born 1945)
Siblings Shannon Lee (born 1969)
Ancestry Shunde, Guangdong, China

Brandon Bruce Lee (February 1, 1965 – March 31, 1993) was an American actor and martial artist. He was the only son of martial artist and actor Bruce Lee and teacher Linda Lee Cadwell (née Emery), the grandson of Cantonese opera singer Lee Hoi-chuen, and brother of Shannon Lee.[1]

Lee started his career with a supporting role in the 1986 ABC television film Kung Fu: The Movie. Shortly after he became a leading man in low-budget action films made outside of the US during the mid to late 1980s such as Legacy of Rage (1986) and Laser Mission (1989). In the 1990s, he started to work with major Hollywood studios starring in Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991) and Rapid Fire (1992).

In 1992, he landed his breakthrough role as Eric Draven in The Crow, based on the comic book of the same name which would be his final film. On March 31, 1993, only days away from completing the film, Lee died on the set of The Crow after the misfiring of a faulty prop gun which fired the tip of a dummy round accidentally lodged in the barrel. The film was completed by re-writing the script, CGI and stunt doubles and released one year after Lee's death to critical and commercial success and is now considered a cult classic.[2]

Early life

Brandon and his father Bruce Lee c. 1966

Brandon was born on February 1, 1965, in Oakland, California, the son of martial artist and actor Bruce Lee and Linda Emery. The family moved to Los Angeles, California, when he was three months old. The family lived in Hong Kong from 1971 to 1973, after which his mother moved back to the United States following the death of his father.

He attended high school at Chadwick School, but was asked to leave for insubordination—more specifically, driving down the school's hill backwards. He briefly attended Bishop Montgomery High School, located in Torrance from 1979 to 1980.[3] He received his GED in 1983 at the age of 18, and then went to Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, where he majored in theater.

After one year, Lee moved to New York City, where he took acting lessons at the famed Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and was part of the American New Theatre group founded by his friend John Lee Hancock. The bulk of Lee's martial arts instruction came from his father's top students, and best friends Dan Inosanto and Richard Bustillo.[4]

Career

1985 to 1989: Early roles

Lee returned to Los Angeles in 1985, where he worked for Ruddy Morgan Productions as a script reader, doing an uncredited cameo in the action film Crime Killer (1985) starring George Pan Andreas.

He was asked to audition for a role by casting director Lyn Stalmaster and got his first credited acting role in Kung Fu: The Movie, a feature-length television movie which was a follow-up to the 1970s television series Kung Fu, starring David Carradine. The film aired on ABC on February 1, 1986, which was also Lee's 21st birthday. In Kung Fu: The Movie, Lee played Chung Wang, the suspected son of Kwai Chang Caine (Carradine).[5] Lee's real-life father was originally considered to play the leading role in the Kung Fu TV series.

Lee got his first leading film role later that year in the Hong Kong action crime thriller Legacy of Rage in which he starred alongside Michael Wong, Regina Kent and Mang Hoi (look-alike of film star Yuen Biao). It also featured a cameo appearance by Bolo Yeung who appeared in his father's film, Enter the Dragon. Made in Cantonese and directed by Ronny Yu, it was the only film Lee made in Hong Kong. He was also nominated for a Hong Kong Film Award for Best New Performer in this role.

In 1987, Lee starred in the unsold television pilot Kung Fu: The Next Generation which aired on CBS Summer Playhouse and was another follow-up to the Kung Fu TV series. In this film the story moved to the present day, and centered on the story of the grandson and the great-grandson Johnny Caine (Lee) of Kwai Chang Caine.[6][7] While his father uses his fighting abilities to assist people in need, Johnny Caine choose the life of crime. Once caught doing a robbery Johnny' father takes him in custody and tries to rehabilitate him, but he is tempted to go back to his mischievous ways.

In 1988, Lee made a guest appearance alongside Pat Morita in an episode of the short-lived American television series Ohara, playing a villainous character named Kenji. This was Lee's first and only guest appearance in a television series and also the only time he played a villain.

In the summer of 1988, Lee also started filming his first English-language B-grade action film, Laser Mission; it was filmed on a low-budget in South Africa, and was eventually released direct to video on the European market in 1990. It co-stars veteran actor Ernest Borgnine. The plot concerns a mercenary named Michael Gold (Lee) who is sent to convince Dr. Braun (Borgnine), a Laser specialist, to defect to the United States before the KGB acquire him and use both his talent and a stolen diamond to create a nuclear weapon.[8]

1991 to 1993: Hollywood breakthrough

In 1991, he starred opposite Dolph Lundgren in the buddy cop action film Showdown in Little Tokyo. This marked his first studio film and American film debut. Lee signed a multi-picture deal with 20th Century Fox in 1991. In the film Lee plays Johnny Murata, a Japanese American cop who is partnered with sergeant named Kenner (Lundgren) working in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles. The two are sent to infiltrate the operations of new Japanese drug gang named the Iron Claw manufacturing a lethal methamphetamine while using a local brewery and nightclub as a front for the operation. Along the way, Kenner discovers that Yoshida (Tagawa), the head of the drug gang, is a member of the Yakuza who killed his parents in front of him as a young boy in Japan and the case becomes violent and personal.[9][10]

In 1992, he had his first starring role in the action thriller Rapid Fire, directed by Dwight H. Little, co-starring Powers Boothe and Nick Mancuso. Lee plays a student who witnesses a murder and is put under a witness protection programme. Lee was reportedly in talks with 20th Century Fox about making two more sequels. Many of the fight scenes were orchestrated by Lee, which contain elements of his father Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do fighting style.[11]

Also that year, Lee landed the lead role in the film adaptation of The Crow, a popular underground comic book. The film tells the story of Eric Draven (Lee), a rock musician who is revived from the dead by a supernatural crow to avenge his own death as well as the rape and murder of his fiancée by a dangerous gang in his city.[12]

Filming began on February 1, 1993, and Lee would work on the film till his death almost two months later. On March 31, 1993, only days before the film was completed, Lee was accidentally killed on the set by a tip of a dummy round lodged in the barrel of a prop gun. The film was completed using CGI and stunt doubles and released over a year after Lee's death. The film opened at number one in the United States in 1,573 theaters with $11,774,332 and averaging $7,485 per theater.[13] The film ultimately grossed $50,693,129, above its $23 million budget. It ranked at #24 for all films released in the US in 1994 and 10 for R-rated films released that year. It was the most successful film of Lee's shortlived career.[14]

Death

On March 31, 1993, Lee was filming a scene in The Crow where his character is shot and killed by thugs. In the scene, Lee's character walks into his apartment and discovers his fiancée being beaten and raped by thugs. Actor Michael Massee's character fires a .44 Magnum revolver at Lee as he walks into the room.[15] A previous scene using the same gun had called for inert dummy cartridges fitted with bullets (but no powder or primer) to be loaded in the revolver for a close-up scene; for film scenes that utilize a revolver (where the bullets are visible from the front) and do not require the gun to actually be fired, dummy cartridges provide the realistic appearance of actual rounds. Instead of purchasing commercial dummy cartridges, the film's prop crew created their own by pulling the bullets from live rounds, dumping the powder charge then reinserting the bullets. However, they unknowingly or unintentionally left the live primer in place at the rear of the cartridge. At some point during filming, the revolver was apparently discharged with one of these improperly-deactivated cartridges in the chamber, setting off the primer with enough force to drive the bullet partway into the barrel, where it became stuck (a condition known as a squib load). The prop crew either failed to notice this or failed to recognize the significance of this issue.

In the fatal scene, which called for the revolver to be fired at Lee from a distance of 3.6–4.5 meters (12–15 feet), the dummy cartridges were exchanged with blank rounds, which feature a live powder charge and primer, but no bullet, thus allowing the gun to be fired without the risk of an actual projectile. But since the bullet from the dummy round was already trapped in the barrel, this caused the .44 Magnum bullet to be fired out of the barrel with virtually the same force as if the gun had been loaded with a live round, and it struck Lee in the abdomen, mortally wounding him.[16][17] He was rushed to the New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he underwent six hours of surgery. Attempts to save him were unsuccessful, and Lee was pronounced dead on March 31, 1993 at 1:03 p.m. EST. He was 28 years old. The shooting was ruled an accident.

The scenes which were to form the beginning of the film, which had not been finished, was rewritten, and the apartment scene remade using computer graphics from an earlier scene of Lee.[18] Lee's body was flown to Jacksonville, North Carolina, where an autopsy was performed. He was then flown to Seattle, Washington, where he was buried next to his father at the Lake View Cemetery[19][20] in a plot that Linda Lee Cadwell had originally reserved for herself. A private funeral took place in Seattle on April 3, 1993. Only close family and friends were permitted to attend, including Lee's immediate family as well as fiancée Eliza Hutton's parents and younger sister, who flew in from Missouri. The following day, 250 of Lee's family, friends and business associates attended a memorial service in Los Angeles, held at the house of actress Polly Bergen.

The gravestone, designed by North Snohomish County sculptor Kirk McLean, is a tribute to Lee and Hutton. Its two twisting rectangles of charcoal granite join at the bottom and pull apart at the top. "It represents Eliza and Brandon, the two of them, and how the tragedy of his death separated their mortal life together", said his mother, Linda Lee Cadwell, who described her son, like his father before him, as a poetic, romantic person.[21]

Legacy

After Lee's death, his fiancée Eliza Hutton and his mother supported director Alex Proyas' decision to complete The Crow. At the time of Lee's death, only eight days were left before completion of the movie. A majority of the film had already been completed with Lee and only a few scenes remained to be done. To complete the film, stunt double Chad Stahelski, who was a friend of Lee's at Inosanto Academy, served as a stand-in; special effects were used to give him Lee's face. Another stunt double, Jeff Cadiente, was also used to complete Lee's unfinished scenes for the movie.

The Crow was released in May 1994 and became a box office hit, grossing over $50 million in the U.S.,[22] and retaining a loyal cult following many years after its release.[23] Lee's portrayal of Eric Draven posthumously earned him an MTV Movie Award nomination for Best Male Performance and a Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Actor. The film is dedicated to Brandon and Eliza.

The grave site of Brandon Lee and his father, Bruce Lee

In an interview just prior to his death, Lee quoted a passage from Paul Bowles' book The Sheltering Sky that he had chosen for his wedding invitations; it is now inscribed on his tombstone:

Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. And yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four, or five times more? Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless...

The quotation is not attributed to Bowles on his tombstone. The interview can be seen on VHS, DVD and Blu-ray releases of The Crow.

At the time of his death, his father's biopic Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story was ready for release. The film was released two months after Lee's death, with a dedication to his memory in the end credits. In the film, his father was portrayed by actor Jason Scott Lee (no relation).[24]

In August 1992, Bruce Lee biographer John Little asked Brandon Lee what his philosophy in life was, and he replied, "Eat—or die!"[25] Brandon later spoke of the martial arts and self-knowledge:

Well, I would say this: when you move down the road towards mastery of the martial arts—and you know, you are constantly moving down that road—you end up coming up against these barriers inside yourself that will attempt to stop you from continuing to pursue the mastery of the martial arts. And these barriers are such things as when you come up against your own limitations, when you come up against the limitations of your will, your ability, your natural ability, your courage, how you deal with success—and failure as well, for that matter. And as you overcome each one of these barriers, you end up learning something about yourself. And sometimes, the things you learn about yourself can, to the individual, seem to convey a certain spiritual sense along with them.

...It's funny, every time you come up against a true barrier to your progress, you are a child again. And it's a very interesting experience to be reduced, once again, to the level of knowing nothing about what you're doing. I think there's a lot of room for learning and growth when that happens—if you face it head on and don't choose to say, "Ah, screw that! I'm going to do something else!"

We reduce ourselves at a certain point in our lives to kind of solely pursuing things that we already know how to do. You know, because you don't want to have that experience of not knowing what you're doing and being an amateur again. And I think that's rather unfortunate. It's so much more interesting and usually illuminating to put yourself in a situation where you don't know what's going to happen, than to do something again that you already know essentially what the outcome will be within three or four points either way.[26]

Personal life

In 1990, Lee met Eliza "Lisa" Hutton at director Renny Harlin's office, located at the headquarters of 20th Century Fox. Hutton was working as a personal assistant to Harlin, and later became a story editor for Stillwater Productions, in 1991. Lee and Hutton moved in together in early 1991 and became engaged in October 1992. Brandon and Eliza planned to start a family immediately after they were married, but they had yet to conceive when he died.

They were due to be married in Ensenada, Mexico, on April 17, 1993, a week after Lee was to complete filming on The Crow. At the time of Lee's death, Hutton was working as a casting assistant and was on set of The Crow so much that she was later credited with being Lee's on-set assistant. After his death, Hutton petitioned to have gun safety regulations tightened on film sets. The Crow is dedicated to the couple.

Brandon Lee was trained in Jeet Kune Do, Wing Chun, Muay Thai, and Shaolin Kung-Fu.

Filmography

Film
Year Title Role Notes
1985 Crime Killer Gangster Uncredited
1986 Legacy of Rage Brandon Ma Alternative title: Long Zai Jiang Hu
1989 Laser Mission Michael Gold Alternative titles: Mercenary Man, Soldier of Fortune
1991 Showdown in Little Tokyo Johnny Murata
1992 Rapid Fire Jake Lo
1994 The Crow Eric Draven/The Crow Shot and killed as a result of negligence during filming. Special effects and a stand-in were used to complete Lee's remaining scenes.
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1986 Kung Fu: The Movie Chung Wang Television Film
1987 Kung Fu: The Next Generation Johnny Caine Television Pilot. Aired on CBS Summer Playhouse
1988 Ohara Kenji Episode: What's in a Name

Awards and nominations

Year Awards Category Nominated work Result
1986 Hong Kong Film Awards Best New Performer Legacy of Rage Nominated
1994 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards Best Actor The Crow Won
MTV Movie & TV Awards Best Male Performance Nominated

References

  1. ↑ "Brandon Lee follows father's footsteps". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2013-12-06.
  2. ↑ https://www.loudersound.com/features/1994-when-a-surprise-movie-hit-unleashed-a-gothic-vision-that-endures-today
  3. ↑ "Explore 1980 Bishop Montgomery High School Yearbook, Torrance CA - Classmates". classmates.com.
  4. ↑ Jeffrey, Douglas (1993). "The Tragic death of Brandon Lee". Black Belt. 31 (7): 29–30.
  5. ↑ "Enter the Son of the Dragon: Bruce Lee's Only Boy, Brandon, Gets No Kick from Kung Fu". PEOPLE.com. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
  6. ↑ "Kung Fu: The Next Generation (1987) - Overview - TCM.com". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
  7. ↑ Coleman, Jim (April 1, 1986). "Bruce Lee's Son Speaks Out". Black Belt. 24 (4): 20–24, 104.
  8. ↑ Noble, Barnes &. "Laser Mission". Barnes & Noble. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
  9. ↑ Goh, Robbie B. H.; Wong, Shawn (2004). Asian diasporas: cultures, identities, representations. Hong Kong University Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-962-209-673-8. Retrieved 21 May 2011.
  10. ↑ Willis, John (February 2000). Screen World 1992. Applause. ISBN 978-1-55783-135-4. Retrieved 21 May 2011.
  11. ↑ "Brandon Lee follows father's footsteps". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2010-09-20.
  12. ↑ The Crow (DVD)|format= requires |url= (help) (film) (in English, French, and and Spanish). Miramax / Dimension Home Entertainment. ISBN 0-7888-2602-6. 21460.
  13. ↑ Fox, David J. (May 16, 1994), "'The Crow' Takes Off at Box Office", Los Angeles Times, Tribune Company, retrieved March 12, 2011
  14. ↑ "The Crow (1994)", Box Office Mojo, Amazon.com, retrieved March 12, 2011
  15. ↑ Welkos, Robert W. (April 1, 1993). "Bruce Lee's Son, Brandon, Killed in Movie Accident". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-12-07.
  16. ↑ Pristin, Terry (August 11, 1993). "Brandon Lee's Mother Claims Negligence Caused His Death : Movies: Linda Lee Cadwell sues 14 entities regarding the actor's 'agonizing pain, suffering and untimely death' last March on the North Carolina set of 'The Crow'". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-12-04.
  17. ↑ Harris, Mark (April 16, 1993). "The Brief Life and Unnecessary Death of Brandon Lee". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2010-12-07.
  18. ↑ Friedman, David R. (1996). "The Mysterious Legacy of Brandon Leen". Todays Chiropr. 25: 34–38.
  19. ↑ Lakeview Cemetery website. Search for Lee. Only use last name.
  20. ↑ "Brandon Lee (1965-1993) - Find A Grave Memorial". www.findagrave.com. Find A Grave. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  21. ↑ "New Gravestone Marks Brandon Lee's Final Rest", By M.L. LYKE Seattle P-I Reporter - June 1, 1995.
  22. ↑ "The Crow (1994) - Box Office Mojo". boxofficemojo.com.
  23. ↑ https://www.loudersound.com/features/1994-when-a-surprise-movie-hit-unleashed-a-gothic-vision-that-endures-today
  24. ↑ Higgins, Bill (April 30, 1993). "A Film Premiere Tempered by Loss : Memories: Brandon Lee's death made the opening of Bruce Lee's bio a poignant event. But the elder Lee's widow said it was a tribute to both". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-12-03.
  25. ↑ Little, John (1996). The Warrior Within - The philosophies of Bruce Lee to better understand the world around you and achieve a rewarding life. Contemporary Books. p. 129. ISBN 0-8092-3194-8.
  26. ↑ Little, John (1996). The Warrior Within - The philosophies of Bruce Lee to better understand the world around you and achieve a rewarding life. Contemporary Books. p. 150. ISBN 0-8092-3194-8.

Further reading

  • Baiss, Bridget. The Crow: The Story Behind The Film. London: Making of The Crow Inc, 2000. ISBN 1-870048-54-7.
  • Dyson, Cindy. They Died Too Young: Brandon Lee. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2001. ISBN 0-7910-5858-1.
  • Pilato, Herbie J. The Kung Fu Book of Caine: The Complete Guide to TV's First Mystical Eastern Western. Boston: Charles A. Tuttle, 1993. ISBN 0-8048-1826-6.
  • Brandon Lee on The Tonight Show on YouTube
  • Brandon Lee Movement tribute site
  • Brandon Lee on IMDb
  • Brandon Lee at Curlie (based on DMOZ)
  • "Brandon Lee". Find a Grave. Retrieved June 11, 2013.
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