Brandon Bruce Lee

Brandon Bruce Lee (February 1, 1965 – March 31, 1993) was an Chinese-American actor and martial artist.

He was the son of martial arts film star Bruce Lee.

After a promising start in action movies and the signing of a multi-film contract with 20th Century Fox, Lee was accidentally shot and killed in North Carolina at the age of 28 while filming The Crow.

Brandon Lee was born in Oakland, California, the son of martial artist and actor Bruce Lee and Linda Emery.

A week after his birth, his grandfather Lee Hoi-Chuen died.

Career

Lee returned to Los Angeles in 1985, where he worked for Ruddy Morgan Productions as a script reader. He was asked to audition for a role by casting director Lyn Stalmaster and got his first acting role in Kung Fu

The Movie, a feature-length television movie which was a follow-up to the 1970s television series Kung Fu. The film aired on ABC on February 1, 1986 which was also Lee's 21 birthday.

In Kung Fu: The Movie, Lee played Chung Wang, the suspected son of Kwai Chang Caine (David Carradine). Lee's father was originally intended to have played the leading role in the Kung Fu TV series. Bruce Lee had also developed the original concept for the TV series.

Lee got his first major film role later that year in the Hong Kong action thriller Legacy of Rage in which he starred alongside Michael Wong. This film also featured a cameo appearance by Bolo Yeung who appeared in his father's film, Enter the Dragon.

Death

On March 31, 1993, while making The Crow, the crew filmed a scene in which his character walks into his apartment and discovers his fiancée being beaten and raped by thugs.

Actor Michael Massee, who played one of the film's villains, was supposed to fire a pistol at Lee as he walked onto the scene.

Because the movie's second unit was running behind schedule, they decided to make dummy cartridges (cartridges that outwardly appear to be functional but contain no propellant or primers) from real cartridges by pulling out the bullets, dumping out the propellant and reinserting the bullets.

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.

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.

They were due to be married in Ensenada, Mexico on April 17, 1993, a week after Lee was to complete filming on The Crow, just 17 days after he died.

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.

“I had a normal childhood. I never wanted a different one”. – Brandon Lee

Brandon Bruce Lee made his way into the world on February 1, 1965, in Oakland, California. He was the first and only son of Linda Emery (an American of Swedish descent) and the legendary martial artist Bruce Lee.  Weighing in at a healthy eight pounds and eleven ounces, Brandon was off to a good start. Brandon’s father Bruce although born in the United States in 1940, lived from age 3 months in the British Colony of Hong Kong. In 1959, at age 18 he left to live with family friends in the U.S, finally settling in Seattle, Washington, where he met Brandon’s mother, Linda in 1963.

The happy occasion of Brandon’s birth was marred by the sudden death of Bruce’s father Li Hoi Cheun only five days. Shortly after Bruce was asked to test for TV producer William Dozier. The test paved the way for Bruce to be chosen to co-star in a new action drama that was based on the comic book ‘The Green Hornet’. Although busy trying to build a career in Hollywood for himself, Bruce took great pride in his new role as father.