Bruce Lee

In December 1939, his parents traveled to California for an international opera tour in Chinatown, San Francisco.

Bruce Lee (born Lee Jun-fan, 李振藩; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was a Hong Kong-American martial artist and actor whose career spanned Hong Kong and the United States.

He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy drawing from different combat disciplines that is sometimes credited with paving the way for modern mixed martial arts (MMA).

Lee is considered by some commentators and martial artists to be the most influential martial artist of all time and a pop culture icon of the 20th century, who bridged the gap between East and West.

He is credited with promoting Hong Kong action cinema and helping to change the way Chinese people were presented in American films.

Born in San Francisco and raised in British Hong Kong, Lee was introduced to the Hong Kong film industry as a child actor by his father.

However, these were not martial arts films.

His early martial arts experience included Wing Chun (trained under Yip Man), tai chi, boxing (winning a Hong Kong boxing tournament), and apparently frequent street fighting (neighbourhood and rooftop fights).

He was born there on November 27, 1940, allowing him to claim U.S. citizenship due to the United States' jus soli citizenship laws.

When he was four months old (April 1941), the Lee family returned to Hong Kong.

Soon after, the Lee family experienced unexpected hardships over the next four years as Japan, in the midst of World War II, launched a surprise attack on Hong Kong in December 1941 and ruled the city for the next four years.

Lee's maternal grandfather was Cantonese, his maternal grandmother was English and his maternal great-uncle, Robert Hotung, was a Hong Kong businessman of Dutch Jewish and Cantonese descent.

Lee's father Lee Hoi-chuen was a Cantonese opera star.

As a result, the junior Lee was introduced to the world of cinema at a very young age and appeared in several films as a child.

Lee had his first role as a baby who was carried onto the stage in the film Golden Gate Girl.

He took his Chinese stage name as 李小龍, lit. Lee the Little Dragon, for the fact that he was born in both the hour and the year of the Dragon by the Chinese zodiac.

As a nine-year-old, he co-starred with his father in The Kid in 1950, which was based on a comic book character, "Kid Cheung", and was his first leading role.

By the time he was 18, he had appeared in 20 films.

After attending Tak Sun School (德信學校; several blocks from his home at 218 Nathan Road, Kowloon), Lee entered the primary school division of the Catholic La Salle College at age 12.

In 1953, Lee's friend William Cheung introduced him to Ip Man, but he was rejected from learning Wing Chun Kung Fu under him because of the long-standing rule in the Chinese martial arts world not to teach foreigners.

His one quarter European background from his mother's side was an initial obstacle towards his Wing Chun training.

In 1956, due to poor academic performance and possibly poor conduct, he was transferred to St. Francis Xavier's College, where he was mentored by Brother Edward Muss, F.M.S., a Bavarian-born teacher and coach of the school boxing team.

After Lee was involved in several street fights, his parents decided that he needed to be trained in the martial arts.

In 1959, Lee moved to Seattle.

In 1961, he enrolled in the University of Washington.

It was during this time in the United States that he began considering 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 home in Seattle.

After later adding a second school in Oakland, California, he 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.

In the 1970s, his Hong Kong and Hollywood-produced films elevated the Hong Kong martial arts films to a new level of popularity and acclaim, sparking a surge of Western interest in Chinese martial arts.

The direction and tone of his films dramatically influenced and changed martial arts and martial arts films worldwide.

He is noted for his roles in five feature-length Hong Kong martial arts films in the early 1970s: Lo Wei's The Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972); Golden Harvest's The Way of the Dragon (1972), directed and written by Lee; and Golden Harvest and Warner Brothers' Enter the Dragon (1973) and The Game of Death (1978), both directed by Robert Clouse.

Lee became an iconic figure known throughout the world, particularly among the Chinese, based upon his portrayal of Chinese nationalism in his films, and among Asian Americans for defying Asian stereotypes in the United States.

Having initially learnt Wing Chun, tai chi, boxing, and street fighting, he combined them with other influences from various sources into the spirit of his personal martial arts philosophy, which he dubbed Jeet Kune Do (The Way of the Intercepting Fist).

Lee died in July 1973, aged 32.

Since his death, Lee has continued to be a prominent influence on modern combat sports, including judo, karate, mixed martial arts, and boxing, as well as modern popular culture, including film, television, comics, animation, and video games.

Time named Lee one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century.

Bruce Lee's birth name was Lee Jun-fan.

His father Lee Hoi-chuen was a Cantonese opera singer based in Hong Kong.

His mother Grace Ho was born in Shanghai, and she was of Eurasian ancestry.