Bruce Lee could flow like water and spin nunchucks like nobody's business. With his crazy kicks and lightning-fast speed, the man went became a star in just a few years. But in a twist of fate, Bruce Lee didn't live to see his big moment. Here's the truth behind Bruce Lee's tragic death.
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00:00Bruce Lee could flow like water and spin nunchucks like no one else.
00:05Thanks to his mind-blowing kicks and lightning-fast speed, the man became a star in the span of
00:09just a few years.
00:10But in an unfortunate twist of fate, Bruce Lee never lived to see his big moment.
00:15Here's the truth behind Bruce Lee's tragic death.
00:19Bruce Lee was practically made for the movies.
00:21As a kid growing up in Hong Kong, Lee was a prolific child actor, playing in around
00:2520 films.
00:26When he moved back to his birth country of the United States, he opened martial arts
00:30schools, taught stars including Steve McQueen, and even donned a black mask and started fighting
00:34crime.
00:35Playing Kato on The Green Hornets, Lee introduced kung fu to the American mainstream.
00:39Unfortunately, the series only lasted 26 episodes and failed to launch him into the big time.
00:44Frustrated by Hollywood executives passing him over or giving him bit parts, Lee packed
00:49his bags and returned to Hong Kong, where he discovered he was the most famous man alive.
00:54The Green Hornet was so popular in his homeland that it was known as The Kato Show, and soon
00:58Lee was getting leading man parts in Hong Kong films.
01:01Lee's first film as a lead actor was The Big Boss, which became the highest-grossing movie
01:06in Hong Kong history.
01:07It held that record until Lee's second film, Fist of Fury, came along.
01:11Soon after, Lee even got a chance to direct, working on both sides of the camera for Way
01:16of the Dragon.
01:18After just three films, Lee was suddenly the king of Asian cinema, and Hollywood finally
01:21decided they wanted to be in the Bruce Lee business.
01:31When Bruce Lee started breaking Asian box office records, Warner Bros. gave him a call.
01:36This was Lee's big Hollywood moment, and Enter the Dragon was what resulted.
01:40His first English-language movie, Enter the Dragon, was the perfect film showcase for
01:44Lee's philosophy, charisma, and fighting abilities.
01:47The plot finds Lee playing a Shaolin warrior tasked with sailing to an island fortress,
01:50joining a martial arts competition, and busting the drug lord running the show.
01:54With on-screen backup from uber-cool Jim Kelly and a groovy score from Lalo Schifrin, Lee
01:58crafted a kung fu flick that is still counted as one of the best action movies ever made.
02:03And when the film hit theaters in August 1973, it became a box office smash, nabbing $20
02:08million and earning the top spot internationally.
02:11Bruce Lee had finally hit the big time, but by that point, he wasn't around to enjoy his
02:15newfound fame.
02:17With his bulging biceps and incredible abs, Bruce Lee was what you might call a physical
02:21specimen.
02:22Whether he was skipping rope, circuit training, or doing isometric exercises, Lee was constantly
02:27working on his superhero physique.
02:29"...as an actor, as a martial artist, as a human being, all these I have learned from
02:37martial arts."
02:38The man seemed absolutely unstoppable, but despite his amazing build and unbelievable
02:42speed, the little dragon was actually suffering from some major health issues.
02:46On May 10th, 1973, an exhausted Lee was working on the post-production of Enter the Dragon.
02:51He was doing some dubbing in a Hong Kong studio booth when he suddenly keeled over and began
02:55shaking and vomiting.
02:56Lee was rushed to the hospital, and it took him a couple of days to regain the ability
02:59to speak.
03:00After he was feeling better, Lee got an extensive checkup, but doctors weren't sure what had
03:05happened.
03:06They knew he'd suffered from a cerebral edema, which is when fluids build up around the brain
03:09causing it to swell, but they weren't sure what had caused it.
03:13It was a shocking moment for the 32-year-old Lee, who always looked nigh-on invincible
03:17on the big screen.
03:18Sadly, it was a harbinger of things to come.
03:22Bruce Lee died on July 20th, 1973, at just 32 years of age.
03:27But how did he spend his last day on Earth?
03:29Lee was busy with his upcoming film Game of Death, and he was meeting with George Lazenby,
03:34hoping to get the James Bond actor on board.
03:36After talking with Lazenby, Lee did some hash with a buddy, and then drove to his mistress
03:40Betty Ting Pei's apartment.
03:42The two spent the next couple of hours in bed and getting high, only pausing when Lee's
03:46producer Raymond Chow showed up at the door, and Lee began eagerly acting out scenes from
03:50Game of Death.
03:51That's when things took a tragic turn.
03:53Lee started feeling dizzy, and his head began hurting.
03:56So Ting Pei offered Lee an equazizic pill, a prescription drug that's part painkiller
04:00and part tranquilizer, and after taking it, Lee went into Ting Pei's bedroom to rest.
04:04Chow took off, leaving the two alone, and Ting Pei let her lover sleep for a few hours.
04:09Unfortunately, when she finally went to wake him up, the dragon was unresponsive.
04:13Freaked out, Ting Pei called Chow for help, but even though a doctor and paramedics rushed
04:17to the scene, they were too late.
04:19Bruce Lee, the great movie star and martial artist, had died in his sleep.
04:23About a month before Enter the Dragon would hit theaters and turn him into an international
04:27star.
04:28Bruce Lee's death sent shockwaves around the world.
04:31But what exactly killed him?
04:33After an autopsy at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, doctors discovered that Lee's brain had swollen
04:37by nearly 13 percent.
04:40According to the official report, Lee had died of, quote, "...congestion and edema of
04:44the brain," the same exact thing that had hospitalized Lee in May 1973.
04:48The edema was originally blamed on the cannabis in Lee's system.
04:52However, that theory was called into question when Donald Teer showed up.
04:55A forensic expert recommended by Scotland Yard, Teer had earlier performed the autopsy
04:59of Jimi Hendrix, so he knew a thing or two about drug overdoses.
05:03And after Teer finished his investigation, he concluded that Lee had an allergic reaction
05:07to the aquagizic pill that Betty Ting Pei had given him to help with his headache.
05:11However, Ting Pei has said this wasn't the first time she'd given Lee an aquagizic pill,
05:16and obviously the drug didn't kill him on those occasions.
05:19Still, Teer's version of events is widely accepted.
05:22Sadly, however, whenever any major celebrity dies under strange circumstances, some truly
05:27mad conspiracy theories are bound to show up, and there are still plenty swirling around
05:31about Bruce Lee.
05:32Raymond Chow made a big mistake after Bruce Lee's death.
05:36Hoping to protect Lee's image, Chow's production company claimed the actor died at home with
05:40his wife Linda, but once the press found out the truth, the tabloids got going.
05:44In fact, a lot of people pointed the finger at Betty Ting Pei, claiming she was responsible
05:48for Lee's death, with some suggesting she'd even poisoned him.
05:52Unfortunately, that wasn't the only rumor involving foul play.
05:55One of the most popular theories says other martial artists were angry at Lee for teaching
05:59their secrets to Westerners, so they decided to bump him off.
06:03Some imaginative folks say ninjas were responsible, and others claim Lee was killed with a dim
06:08mack, a mythical martial arts move that supposedly kills a victim in one blow.
06:12Some believe he was killed after refusing to pay protection money to the Triads, while
06:16others claim the mafia did the deed because Lee wouldn't let them control his career.
06:20The more mystical conspiracy theorists even say there's a family curse that took the life
06:24of both Bruce and his son, Brandon Lee.
06:26But despite all this wild speculation, Lee wasn't killed by a mob boss or poisoned by
06:31his lover.
06:32The master of the one-inch punch was almost certainly taken out accidentally by a tiny
06:36pill.
06:37Game of Death could have been the greatest martial arts movie ever made.
06:40Starring Bruce Lee in all his jumpsuited glory, the movie would have followed the head-kicking
06:44hero as he battled his way up a pagoda, searching for a valuable treasure and fighting a new
06:48boss at every level.
06:50Each bad guy would be the master of a particular martial arts style, and Lee would have to
06:54display different tenets of his philosophy Jeet Kune Do to defeat his foes.
06:59Unfortunately, Lee only filmed 40 minutes of footage for the movie before passing away.
07:03So to complete the film, a Bruce Lee double was hired to play the main character.
07:07Worse still, during one scene in which the double looks into a mirror, the filmmakers
07:11taped a cardboard cutout of Lee's face on the mirror to serve as a reflection.
07:15And that's not even counting all the times the movie cuts to scenes from other Bruce
07:19Lee films.
07:20The plot was also completely shaken up.
07:22With the hero becoming a movie star whose girlfriend is kidnapped by the mob, perhaps
07:26the worst moment of all, however, comes when the movie uses footage from Lee's actual funeral,
07:31even showing the actor's corpse.
07:33Adding insult to injury, the theatrical version of Game of Death only uses 11 minutes of Lee's
07:38original footage.
07:39Fortunately, the 40 minutes Lee shot are still out there, and at the very least, the film
07:44gives us the iconic image of the Little Dragon trading punches with NBA giant Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
07:50Immediately after Lee's death, Hong Kong filmmakers seized the moment, birthing an
07:54entire genre called Bruceploitation.
07:57Hoping to capitalize on Lee's posthumous stardom, studios hired actors who vaguely resembled
08:01the movie star, gave them off-brand names like Bruce Lee with just one E and Dragon
08:06Lee, and tossed them into knockoff movies that weren't exactly tasteful.
08:10For example, there's Bruce Lee and I, a sleazy softcore drama about Lee's relationship with
08:15Betty Ting Pei, in which Ting Pei plays herself.
08:18One of the truly bizarre Bruceploitation flicks was The Clones of Bruce Lee, where an evil
08:22scientist forces three Lee clones to fight to the death.
08:25And in Exit the Dragon and the Tiger, we learn the so-called Real Bruce Lee was a reluctant
08:30drug mule for the Triads and eventually murdered, so now a successor named Bruce Lai wants revenge
08:35against the gangsters.
08:36But without a doubt, the weirdest Bruceploitation flick was The Dragon Lives Again, where recently
08:41deceased Bruce Lee wakes up in the afterlife and fights pop culture characters like James
08:45Bond and the Man with No Name.
08:47Popeye also makes an appearance, while Dracula later shows up with a gang of mummies, obviously.
08:52Bruce Lee's son Brandon was more than a little reluctant to take up his father's mantle.
08:57Brandon was just eight when his father died, and for a while he refused to have anything
09:00to do with martial arts.
09:02Evidently, Brandon found himself dealing with a lot of anger, and he was kicked out of two
09:06high schools before dropping out of a third.
09:08I remember when I was a little kid, a lot of my friends didn't want to come over to
09:11the house because there were always these men out in the backyard screaming and breaking
09:15things, you know?"
09:16Brandon admits he felt a lot of pressure to live up to his dad, and at the time, he had
09:20no intention of following in his father's footsteps.
09:23As he put it,
09:24"...I was like, hey, wait a minute, where was my vote in this?
09:28So I blew it off."
09:29His mother, Linda Lee, acknowledged being Bruce Lee's son wasn't easy.
09:33She told The New York Times,
09:34"...it was a blessing, because Bruce was a wonderful father.
09:37But for Brandon, it was also a burden to live up to what other people expect of you because
09:41of who your father is."
09:42However, Brandon was eventually bitten by the acting bug, and thanks partly to his martial
09:47arts training from his dad and partly to the Lee family name, he nabbed his first role
09:51in the TV movie Kung Fu the Movie.
09:53His first feature film was the 1986 Hong Kong flick Legacy of Rage, and in 1991, he teamed
09:59up with Dolph Lundgren for his first American movie, Showdown in Little Tokyo.
10:03Obviously, the movie that made him big was The Crow.
10:06But tragically, Brandon died on set before the film was completed due to a mishap with
10:10a prop gun.
10:11Brandon Lee died on March 31, 1993 at the age of 28, passing away right before he was
10:17about to become famous, just like his father.