Brandon Bruce Lee was an American actor and martial artist.
72 Facts About Brandon Lee
2.
Lee was the son of martial artist and film star Bruce Lee, who died when Brandon was eight years old.
3.
Brandon Lee, who followed in his father's footsteps, trained in martial arts and studied acting at Emerson College and the Brandon Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.
4.
Brandon Lee started his career with leading roles in the Hong Kong action film Legacy of Rage and the straight-to-video Laser Mission.
5.
Brandon Lee appeared in two spin-offs of the 1970s series Kung Fu, the television film Kung Fu: The Movie and the pilot Kung Fu: The Next Generation.
6.
Brandon Lee posthumously received praise for his performance, while the film became a critical and commercial success.
7.
Brandon Lee's career has drawn parallels with his father's, both men having died young prior to the release of their breakthrough films.
8.
From a young age, Brandon Lee learned martial arts from his father, who was a well known practitioner and a martial arts movie star.
9.
Brandon Lee said the family lived between Hong Kong and the United States, due to his father's career.
10.
Brandon Lee's father died suddenly in 1973, leaving a legacy that made him an icon of martial arts and cinema.
11.
Brandon Lee began studying with Dan Inosanto, one of his father's students, when he was 9.
12.
Later in his youth, Brandon Lee trained with Richard Bustillo and Jeff Imada.
13.
Imada said that when Brandon Lee was in his teens, he struggled with his identity, and having to train in dojos which included large photos of his father troubled him.
14.
In 1983, four months prior to his graduation, Brandon Lee was asked to leave the Chadwick School for misbehavior.
15.
That year Brandon Lee received his GED from Miraleste High School.
16.
Brandon Lee pursued his studies in New York City, where he took acting lessons at the Brandon Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.
17.
Brandon Lee went on to Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, where he majored in theater.
18.
Brandon Lee was part of the Eric Morris American New Theatre, with them he acted in John Lee Hancock's play Full Fed Beast.
19.
Brandon Lee returned to Los Angeles in 1985 and worked as a script reader.
20.
On set Brandon Lee reconnected with his former instructor Jeff Imada who worked in the stunt department.
21.
Imada said Brandon Lee had to be talked into accepting the role, since the martial arts nature of the film did not appeal to Brandon Lee, who avoided any connection with his father's genre of film.
22.
Brandon Lee said that he felt there was some justice in being cast for this role in his first feature, since the TV show's pilot had been conceived for his father.
23.
Brandon Lee was nominated for a Hong Kong Film Award for Best New Performer in this role.
24.
In 1987, Brandon Lee starred in another spin-off of Kung Fu, the unsold television pilot Kung Fu: The Next Generation.
25.
In 1988, Brandon Lee had a role in "What's In a Name", an episode of the American television series Ohara, starring Pat Morita, He portrayed the main villain, the son of a yakuza.
26.
Jeff Imada, who worked as stunt coordinator, said that Brandon Lee was recommended not to do the role due to the nature of the character.
27.
However, Brandon Lee saw it as a chance to expand his acting range, and took the role.
28.
Inosanto said that Brandon Lee would bring a camera to the training facilities to see which techniques looked good on screen.
29.
Stan Lee felt that Brandon would be ideal in the role of super-hero Shang-Chi in a film or television adaptation.
30.
Brandon Lee turned the role down, finding it awkward to play his father, and too strange to approach the romance between his parents.
31.
Also, producer Raffaella De Laurentiis said he did not look Chinese enough and that she would have refused to work on the project if they had to resort to making Brandon Lee appear more Asian.
32.
Brandon Lee said his father was, after all, a man who had a profound destiny, but he was not a god.
33.
Brandon Lee was a man who had a temper, a lot of anger, who found mediocrity offensive.
34.
Brandon Lee starred opposite Dolph Lundgren in the buddy cop action film.
35.
Brandon Lee secured his role on October 13,1990, to make his American feature debut.
36.
Brandon Lee plays a student named Jake Lo who witnesses a murder and is put in a witness protection program.
37.
The film came about when producer Robert Lawrence started working with Brandon Lee and noticed his potential to be an action leading man in Hollywood after screening Brandon Lee's earlier project Legacy of Rage.
38.
Brandon Lee was involved with the story development, and connected with the plot point where his character loses his father.
39.
Jeff Imada, the film's stunt coordinator, witnessed Brandon Lee bringing a book of work by his father to emotionally prepare himself in the scene where the character loses his dad.
40.
Brandon Lee was allowed to add some touches of his own humor to the script.
41.
Also that year, it was reported that Brandon Lee signed a three-picture deal with 20th Century Fox and a multi-picture deal with Carolco Pictures.
42.
Hence, Brandon Lee focused on the brevity and rhythm of the lines of dialogue to make the character threatening.
43.
In preparation for the fight sequence, Most said that director Proyas and Brandon Lee studied martial arts movies.
44.
Also according to Most, Brandon Lee did not want metaphysical characters besides his own in the film.
45.
Costumer Roberta Bile said that Brandon Lee modelled Draven after singer Chris Robinson.
46.
Brandon Lee convinced the team to hire Jeff Imada who became the stunt coordinator; he and Imada oversaw the fight choreography.
47.
Imada and Brandon Lee agreed that the character of Eric Draven would not do conventional martial arts moves; his movements would be unique, as he is a character without formal martial arts training who was given supernatural abilities upon resurrection.
48.
Imada said that in order to look like a rocker and not an action hero, Brandon Lee went on a strict diet weeks before shooting in order to remove a lot of bulk, and would even weigh the food he ate.
49.
Brandon Lee focused on cardiovascular exercise with a stairmaster, did repetitions on lighter weights to elongate and stretch his muscles, and did aerobics to lose body fat rapidly.
50.
Imada was surprised that Brandon Lee requested the bags of ice because of the weather, and the fact that he was already barefoot and bare-naked.
51.
Key hairstylist Michelle Johnson said that in rain scenes Brandon Lee would soak himself prior to filming the scenes, where he would act without a shirt in cold weather.
52.
On March 31,1993, while filming The Crow, Brandon Lee died from a wound on set, caused by a firearm malfunction; the lead tip of a bullet from a previous scene had stayed in the barrel of a handgun and ruptured a major blood vessel when a blank was shot at Brandon Lee.
53.
Berardinelli called it an appropriate epitaph to Brandon Lee, Howe called it an appropriate sendoff, and Ebert stated that not only was this Brandon Lee's best film, it was better than any of his father's.
54.
On March 31,1993, Brandon Lee was filming a scene for the film The Crow in which his character is shot and killed by thugs.
55.
Jeff Imada, who immediately checked Brandon Lee, noticed something wrong when he came close and noted Brandon Lee was unconscious and breathing heavily.
56.
Brandon Lee was rushed to the New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, North Carolina.
57.
Attempts to save him were unsuccessful and after six hours of emergency surgery, Brandon Lee was pronounced dead on March 31,1993, at 1:03 pm.
58.
Brandon Lee's death led to the re-emergence of conspiracy theories surrounding his father's similarly early death.
59.
Brandon Lee was buried next to his father at the Lake View Cemetery in Seattle, Washington.
60.
Brandon Lee was trained from a young age by his father Bruce in martial arts.
61.
Imada said Brandon Lee stopped training in his mid-teens to play soccer.
62.
Brandon Lee said that with his training Arnis with Inosanto he specialized in both Kali and Escrima and lasted three to four years.
63.
In 1986, Brandon Lee said that he was training in Yee Chuan Tao, a relaxation-based martial art, with a trainer named Mike Vendrell.
64.
Brandon Lee said that it consisted of exercises such as slow sparring, Chi sao practice; they worked on a wooden dummy, as well as Vendrell swinging a staff at him while he would duck or jump over.
65.
Brandon Lee said later that the exercise helped him be less tense.
66.
Also in the 1980s, Brandon Lee returned to Dan Inosanto's Academy.
67.
Brandon Lee said he did a few amateur fights but did not seek to compete in tournaments.
68.
Brandon Lee would bring a camera to Inosanto's studio, both would choreograph fights for Lee's films and would allow him to see how various moves played out on screen.
69.
In 1991, Brandon Lee was certified by the Thai Boxing Association.
70.
John Brandon Lee Hancock said he had a friendship with Brandon Lee, who would read all of his scripts.
71.
Brandon Lee was a friend of Chad Stahelski, his double after his death during The Crow.
72.
In 1990, Brandon Lee met Eliza Hutton at director Renny Harlin's office, where she was working as his personal assistant.