Trivia

Once performed a kick so fast, it had be slowed down by editors for fear that it would look like it was sped up.

Was capable of doing push ups with a 250-pound man on his back and could do push-ups with only one finger.

Spoke Cantonese, Japanese, Mandarin and English fluently.

Bruce Lee Jun Fan Yuen Kam (Bruce Lee's full birth name) was born in the year of the dragon (1940), at the hour of the dragon (between 6:00 am - 8:00 am).

Was only 160 pounds (73 kg) at his heaviest.

Mastered a technique called "The One-Inch Punch", in which he could deliver a devastating blow yet have his fist travel the distance of one mere inch (2.54 cm) before striking an opponent.

When Elvis Presley's and Ed Parker's unfinished martial arts film "New Gladiators" was found in 2003, there was 20 minutes of Lee's demonstration at a martial arts display in the mid-1960s found along with this.

According to Hong Kong stuntman Phillip Ko, Lee was challenged by a tiger/crane kung fu stylist, an extra on Enter the Dragon (1973), who claimed Lee was a phony. Lee, who was furious at the claim, accepted the challenge to prove that his martial arts were indeed the real deal. The fight, which took place on the film set, only lasted 30 seconds, with Lee pummeling his challenger with a series of straight punches to the face, low-line kicks to his shins/knees/thighs and finally ended with the guy being smashed to the wall with his hair pulled and his arms trapped by Lee. After Lee forced the kung fu stylist to submit, he showed some class by telling him to go back to work instead of firing him. This fight was witnessed by the film's producer, Fred Weintraub, and Robert Wall.

Developed a trick for showing off his speed: a person held a coin and closed his hand and, as he closed it, Lee would take it and could even swap the coin for another.

His students in martial arts included George Lazenby, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, John Saxon, Steve McQueen and James Coburn.

His development of Jeet Kune Do came partially out of an incident with his school. A rival martial artist challenged him to a duel over his decision to teach non-Chinese students. Lee accepted the challenge and won the duel but later thought that the fight took too long because his martial art technique was too rigid and formalistic. Thus he decided to develop a better system with an emphasis on practicality and flexibility.

Was constantly challenged by movie extras and other men seeking to gain fame by beating him in a fight.

Jackie Chan has said that being accidentally struck in the face with nun chucks by Lee while filming Enter the Dragon (1973) is still one of the most painful injuries he has faced in his career.

His sudden death was considered to be under 'extraordinarily bizarre' circumstances by many experts. Many people claimed that it was the work of 'Oni' (Japanese for Demons or evil spirits), while others claimed he was cursed. The theory of the 'Curse of Bruce Lee' carried over to the extremely bizarre death of his son, Brandon Lee, who was shot and killed during the filming of The Crow (1994) in 1993.

Departed for Seattle, Washington in 1958 with $100. Gave cha cha cha lessons to first-class passengers to earn extra money during ship ride to the United States.

Demand for his private lessons grew so high that his hourly rate soared to $275 per hour.

He was a gang leader in his teenage years. The name of his group was known as "The Tigers of Junction Street".

Was an accomplished dancer and Hong Kong cha cha cha champion.

Lee was trained by Yip Man from 1954-1957 and Wong Shun-Leung from 1957-1958.

Passed away from brain edema in Hong Kong at age 32.

While The Green Hornet (1966) television series was in production, Lee made several promotional appearances as Kato but made a point to never do the standard martial art stunts like breaking boards, which he felt had nothing to do with what martial arts are about.

Weighed only 128 pounds at the time of his sudden death.

Developed his martial art style called Jeet Kune Do (Way of the Intercepting Fist) which is more of an idea of being flexible and practical with learning martial arts.

Before hitting it big as a movie star, he often trained with the martial arts world's biggest stars, many of whom would latter become celebrities in their own right, such as world karate champion Chuck Norris. Despite rumors and reports to the contrary, Lee was never Norris' instructor. They trained together, often trading techniques and ideas, but never had a student-teacher relationship.

His father, Hoi-Chuen Lee (born February 1901, died February 8, 1965) was a popular stage actor and died eight days after Brandon Lee was born.

He is considered the greatest martial artist of the 20th century.

Suffered a serious back injury while attempting a good-morning (involves holding a barbell across the shoulders and bending forward, keeping legs and back straight). During his recuperation, he wrote several books on the martial arts.

Lee knocked out Wong Jack-Man in Oakland, California, in a 1965 no-holds-barred challenge match. It was Lee's last official fight. It lasted three minutes.

A noted brawler in Hong Kong, Lee received formal training in wing chun under legendary sifu Yip Man. He later trained in a variety of arts but eventually found classical style limiting and, counter-productive. He developed Jeet Kune Do which, he stressed, is not a style but a way of approaching martial arts beyond style. It is the forerunner to mix martial arts.

Lee knocked out Uechi in 10 seconds in a 1962 Full-Contact match in Seattle, Washington. The match was refereed by Jesse Glover.

In his first and only meeting with Enter the Dragon (1973) composer Lalo Schifrin, Lee told him that he often trains to the Mission: Impossible (1966) theme.

Defeated British boxer Gary Elms by knockout in the third round in the 1958 Hong Kong amateur boxing championships by using Wing Chun traps and high/low-level straight punches. Before he met Elms in the finals, he knocked out three boxers in the first round. Hawkings Cheung, his fellow Wing Chun street fighter, witnessed the event.

Was able to name every single karate term and performed them with dead accuracy.

To mark the occasion of what would have been Lee's 65th birthday (27 November 2005), a bronze statue of a topless Bruce adopting a martial arts stance was unveiled in Hong Kong, effectively kicking off a week-long Bruce Lee festival.

Has a statue placed in the country Bosnia. After many years of war and religious splits, Lee's figure is to commend his work, to successfully bridge culture gaps in the world. (September 2004)

His first major U.S. project was the role of Kato in the television series The Green Hornet (1966). He joked that he got this role because he was the only Oriental actor who could properly pronounce the lead character's name: "Britt Reid".

He was a huge fan of soap operas and it was said that missing an episode of General Hospital (1963) could leave him upset for days.

UFC President Dana White considers Bruce Lee as "the father of Mixed Martial Arts".

Following his sudden death, he was interred at Lake View Cemetery in Seattle, Washington.

Received $30,000 for his first two feature films.

His last movie, Game of Death (1978), was his first film to be shot with sound, unlike most of his earlier films which were filmed without sound and later dubbed in by the actors. Some of the lost footage was later shown in Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey (2000). You can hear his own voice speaking English and Cantonese. Had he not died, his character's name in this movie would have been Hai Tien.

Is often honored in video games. In "Mortal Kombat" games, the character Liu Kang was an obvious tribute to Lee. Then, in Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (1993), a character named Fei Long was introduced bearing an uncanny resemblance in both looks and fighting style to Lee. A lesser game, World Heroes (1992), also copied Lee as Kim Dragon. Lastly, the "Tekken" games did the tribute to him not once, but twice. First with Marshall Law, then with his son Forrest Law for the third installment of Tekken. Along with this, his fighting style was honored in Virtua Fighter (1993) with Jacky Bryant, in Dead or Alive (1996) with Jann Lee and in the "Soul Calibur" series as Maxi. In the Nintendo game series, Pokémon, the fighting type monster Hitmonlee is based on Lee.

Upon claiming that he invented a new martial art, Lee was pitted against a former karate champion in an attempt to prove his claims. Unfazed, Lee claimed that not only would he defeat the challenger, but he would do so within one minute. He did it in 58 seconds.

Lee knocked-out Chung, a Choy Li Fut fighter, in Hong Kong in a 1958 Full-Contact match. The match was refereed by Sheun-Leung Wong.

Chosen by Goldsea Asian American Daily as one of the "100 Most Inspiring Asian Americans of All Time". (ranked #2).

Bruce Lee was voted as the Greatest Movie Fighter Ever by the Houston Boxing Hall of Fame (2014). The HBHOF is a combat sports voting body composed exclusively of current and former fighters and Martial Artists.

Alongside Muhammad Ali, Lee is cited as a major influence by many K-1 and MMA champions: Bas Rutten, Jose "Pele' Landi-Jons, Wanderlei Silva, 'Emilianenko Fedor', Norifumi "Kid' Yamamoto, Rob Kaman, Ramon Dekkers, Frank Shamrock, Murilo Rua, Maurício Rua, 'Jerome Le Banner', 'Carlos Newton', Remy Bonjasky, Jeremy Horn, David Loiseau and Tito Ortiz, among others.

Faced discrimination from other Chinese kung fu masters when trying to learn other martial arts styles. Would usually go to the number 3 or 4 man in a certain system to learn it in exchange for teaching what he knew.

His father, Lee Hoi-chuen, was Chinese. His mother, Grace Ho, is described as being of mixed Chinese and European (usually stated as German) descent.

Pallbearers at his funeral on July 25, 1973 included Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Chuck Norris, George Lazenby, Dan Inosanto, Peter Chin, Taky Kimura, and Lee's brother Robert.