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After graduating high school, Brandon Lee went to Emerson College in Boston while taking acting lessons in New York City. By the age of twenty, Brandon thought that he was ready for Hollywood, but the offers did not come in like he wanted them to. In the beginning, Brandon was "Bruce Lee's son," not Brandon Lee. He wanted to be a dramatic actor, not an action star. In his words, "For years I was in my father's shadow, and I resented it. I wanted to be an actor, not do marital arts films. But it finally dawned on me--I am who I am, and I might as well accept it. Once I realized that, doors started to open for me. I'll go in and do what they ask of me, and I'll use it to get to the kind of movies that I want to make." Brandon had to travel back to Hong Kong, just like his late father, to get a starring role. In 1987, Brandon's first feature film opened in Cantonese in Hong Kong. It was "Legacy of Rage." He continued down the path of the action star with movies like "Laser Mission" and "Showdown in Little Tokyo." The latter was a big break for the young actor, it featured Dolph Lundgren. His last movie, which he died making, was "The Crow."
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| Name |
Sex |
Origin |
Meaning |
Popularity |
| Brandon Lee |
Male |
1965-1993, American |
Actor, martial artist |
Bruce Lee's son |
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When Brandon Lee accepted the lead part for "The Crow," he had no idea that that would be his last movie. During one scene, the .44 Magnum pistol that was supposed to fire only blanks discharged an live bullet. It pierced Brandon's abdomen and lodged in his spine. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, but within four hours, the bleeding could not be stopped. On March 31, 1993, Brandon Lee was pronounced dead. The movie was comparable to Bruce Lee's "Game of Death" in that most of the role was played by the Lee's double, and the resulting movie gave a patched-together appearance. As with his father, many people believed that there was a larger conspiracy rather than just a simple accident. According to legend, Bruce Lee awakened demons that existed in his neighbor's house, and the curse that they put on him was supposed to last for three generations. In an interview about his character given just weeks before his death, Lee said, "You tend to take a great deal for granted, because you feel like you're going to live forever. It's only if you lose a friend, or maybe have a near-death experience [that] many events and people in your life suddenly attain real significance. When you take into account the fact that that could have been the last time I would ever see this person [or] do something so mundane as go out to dinner... . This is [where] this character is coming from. [He realizes] just how precious each moment of his life is."
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Brandon was born in 1965 to Bruce Lee, a martial arts legend, and an American woman. When Brandon was just an infant, Bruce decided to move his family back to Hong Kong, to try and pursue an acting career there. Because Brandon was an American in Hong Kong, he grew up fluent in both English and Cantonese. At the age of only two years old, Brandon started practicing Jeet Kune Do, his father's martial art. Bruce Lee died in 1973 under mysterious circumstances, Brandon and his sister, Shanon, were left without a father at ages eight and eleven, respectively. The Lee family moved to Rolling Hills, California, but Brandon had trouble settling in, mostly due to his father's image. For his whole life, Brandon psychologically suffered from his attempts to escape from his father's legendary shadow.
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1. "Brandon Lee" from "Notable Asian Americans" 1995
2. "Brandon Lee" from "Newsmakers" Issue 4 1993
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