Hong Kong's finest son and world's first real Asian superstar!

I can’t believe there are not more posts for the man who put martial arts movies ON THE MAP in the US market.

Oh. Wait a minute . . . You know what? I, very sadly, can believe it. Bruce Lee’s Enter The Dragon was to martial arts movies what Deep Throat was to porn. It brought what had been a niche genre to mainstream attention. Bruce Lee also created the Kung-Fu TV series, and was promised the leading role, which was actually given to the very white David “Bigfoot” (and sexual asphyxiation) Carradine. Bruce Lee died in 1973. Bruce Lee got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1993, some 20 years later. Are martial arts movies works of art? In most cases, no. Have the martial arts become an integral and money-making part of popular entertainment? That’s a rhetorical question. Who made that happen? Bruce Lee. The man was not only a pioneer in bringing a fringe genre smack into the mainstream; not only in making a ton of money for I don’t know how many studios; not only for entertaining and perhaps even inspiring millions of people; he was also a pioneer in the fields of health and physical fitness, inventing exercises and exercise machines that influence us to this day. Bruce Lee weighed 140 pounds. He would take a 70 barbell, stand up, extend the weight the length of his arms, and hold it for a full 30 seconds. Can you hold half your weight, standing, arms fully extended, for 30 seconds? The man had earned respect.

I worked in a real Chinese restaurant for 3 years in my youth. The Chinese owners didn't view Bruce Lee as China's finest anything. According to them, Lee was someone of low moral character and a serial cheater of his American wife. They said Bruce was screwing every hot babe on the cast while making his Raymond Chow productions, when his wife wasn't in country. They intimated this lead to his eventual succumbing to STD death, or possibly poisoned by jilted lovers.