Brendan Lee

In his teens, Lee had a difficult time and eventually rebelled. He attended high school at the Chadwick School, where he was asked to leave for insubordination—more specifically, driving down the school's hill backward. He briefly attended Bishop Montgomery High School, located in Torrance, from 1979 to 1980.

Well, I would say this: when you move down the road towards mastery of the martial arts—and you know, you are constantly moving down that road—you end up coming up against these barriers inside yourself that will attempt to stop you from continuing to pursue the mastery of the martial arts. And these barriers are such things as when you come up against your own limitations, when you come up against the limitations of your will, your ability, your natural ability, your courage, how you deal with success—and failure as well, for that matter. And as you overcome each one of these barriers, you end up learning something about yourself. And sometimes, the things you learn about yourself can, to the individual, seem to convey a certain spiritual sense along with them.

...It's funny, every time you come up against a true barrier to your progress, you are a child again. And it's a very interesting experience to be reduced, once again, to the level of knowing nothing about what you're doing. I think there's a lot of room for learning and growth when that happens—if you face it head-on and don't choose to say, "Ah, screw that! I'm going to do something else!"

In the fatal scene, which called for the revolver to be fired at Lee from a distance of 3.6–4.5 meters (12–15 feet), the dummy cartridges were exchanged with blank rounds, which feature a live powder charge and primer, but no bullet, thus allowing the gun to be fired without the risk of an actual projectile. However, since the bullet from the dummy round was already trapped in the barrel, this caused the .44 Magnum bullet to be fired out of the barrel with virtually the same force as if the gun had been loaded with a live round, and it struck Lee in the abdomen, mortally wounding him. He was rushed to the New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he underwent six hours of surgery.

In 1994, The Crow opened at number one in the United States in 1,573 theaters with $11,774,332 and averaging $7,485 per theater. The film ultimately grossed $50,693,129, above its $23 million budget. It ranked at #24 for all films released in the US in 1994 and 10 for R-rated films released that year. It was the most successful film of Lee's short career, and is also considered a cult classic. The film was also a success overseas. The Crow has an approval rating of 82% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 55 reviews. The critical consensus states: "Filled with style and dark, lurid energy, The Crow is an action-packed visual feast that also has a soul in the performance of the late Brandon Lee." The film also has a score of 71 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 14 critics, indicating "Generally favorable reviews". Reviewers praised the action and visual style. Rolling Stone called it a "dazzling fever dream of a movie"; Caryn James, writing for The New York Times, called it "a genre film of a high order, stylish and smooth"; and Roger Ebert called it "a stunning work of visual style". The Los Angeles Times praised the film also. Lee's death was alleged to have a melancholic effect on viewers; Desson Howe of The Washington Post wrote that Lee "haunts every frame" and James Berardinelli called the film "a case of 'art imitating death', and that specter will always hang over The Crow". Berardinelli called it an appropriate epitaph to Lee, Howe called it an appropriate sendoff, and Ebert stated that not only was this Lee's best film, but it was better than any of his father's (Bruce Lee).

The Crow was released in May 1994 and became a box office hit, grossing over $50 million in the U.S. Lee's portrayal of Eric Draven posthumously earned him an MTV Movie Award nomination for Best Male Performance and a Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Actor. The film retained a loyal following many years after its release. Due to the macabre nature of the film and Lee's fate it's often described as a goth cult film.

On March 31, 1993, Lee was filming a scene in The Crow where his character is shot and killed by thugs. In the scene, Lee's character walks into his apartment and discovers his fiancée being beaten and raped. Actor Michael Massee's character fires a Smith & Wesson Model 629 .44 Magnum revolver at Lee as he walks into the room. A previous scene using the same gun had called for inert dummy cartridges (with no powder or primer) to be loaded in the revolver for a close-up scene. (For film scenes that utilize a revolver where the bullets are visible from the front and do not require the gun to actually be fired, dummy cartridges provide the realistic appearance of actual rounds.)

Attempts to save him were unsuccessful, and Lee was pronounced dead on March 31, 1993 at 1:03 pm. EST. He was 28 years old. The shooting was ruled an accident due to negligence. Lee's passing resulted in the reemerging conspiracies surrounding his father's early death. Lee's body was flown to Jacksonville, North Carolina, where an autopsy was performed. He was then flown to Seattle, Washington, where he was buried next to his father at the Lake View Cemetery in a plot that Linda Lee Cadwell had originally reserved for herself. A private funeral took place in Seattle on April 3, 1993. Approximately forty individuals attended. The following day, 200 of Lee's family, friends, and business associates attended a memorial service in Los Angeles, held at the house of actress Polly Bergen. Notable guests included Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, David Hasselhoff, Steven Seagal, David Carradine, and Melissa Etheridge.

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 planned to get married in Ensenada, Mexico on April 17, 1993, a week after Lee was to complete filming on The Crow.

In 1992, he landed his most notable role as Eric Draven in Alex Proyas's The Crow (1994), based on the comic book of the same name, which would be his final film.

In 1992, he had his first starring role in the action thriller Rapid Fire, directed by Dwight H. Little and co-starring Powers Boothe and Nick Mancuso. Lee plays a student who witnesses a murder and is put under a witness protection programme. Lee was reportedly in talks with 20th Century Fox about making two more sequels. Many of the fight scenes were orchestrated by Lee, which contain elements of his father Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do fighting style. Most critics didn't like the film, however many of them found Lee to be charismatic. More lenient critics found Rapid Fire to be slick, well acted, and a serviceable action film.

In August 1992, Bruce Lee biographer John Little asked Brandon Lee what his philosophy in life was, and he replied, "Eat—or die!" Brandon later spoke of the martial arts and self-knowledge:

In 1991, he starred opposite Dolph Lundgren in the buddy cop action film Showdown in Little Tokyo. This marked his first studio film and his first American theatrical release. Lee signed a multi-picture deal with 20th Century Fox in 1991. In the film Lee plays Johnny Murata, a Japanese American cop who is partnered with sergeant named Kenner (Lundgren) working in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles. The two are sent to infiltrate the operations of new Japanese drug gang named the Iron Claw who are manufacturing illegal drugs. Upon release, the movie faced largely negative reviews from critics. However, some retrospective critics find it to be entertaining for its genre.

He eventually returned to the craft with Inosanto as his main trainer and became proud of his heritage. Lee said he did a few amateur fights but didn't seek to pursuit martial arts tournament. 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. By his mid-twenties Lee was seen practicing regularly at the Inosanto Martial Arts Academy. In 1991, Lee received a certification by The Thai Boxing Association. Lee, while his main goal was dramatic acting, credited the skill to have helped him to boost his career and become an action film leading man.

Filmed between 1990 and 1993, Lee was among the cameos in the Swedish genre film Sex, Lögner och Videovåld (2002) that also included Mel Brooks, and other Swedish personalities. The film was completed in 2000. During this time Lee was asked to play his father in the bio-pic Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993). Lee turned it down finding it awkward to play his dad, and too strange to approach the romance between his parents.

On January 23, 1988, Lee played a role in the episode What's in a name of the American television series Ohara starring Pat Morita. That same year the action film Laser Mission was announced. Shot mostly in South Africa it was his first English-language film. It co-starred Ernest Borgnine who shot his scenes with him in Namibia. The plot concerns a mercenary named Michael Gold (Lee) who is sent to convince Dr. Braun (Borgnine), a Laser specialist, to defect to the United States before the KGB acquires him and uses both his talent to create a nuclear weapon. In the United States the film was released on home video in 1990 by Turner Home Entertainment, and was a financial success. The film is generally panned by critics with a few finding it to be an amusing action B movie.

Shortly after, on television, Lee played a lead in the pilot Kung Fu: The Next Generation (1987), guest-starred in an episode of the television series Ohara (1988). Following this, Lee was the lead in the low budget action film Laser Mission (1989), the US direct to video release of it proved to be financially successful. In the 1990s, he started working with major Hollywood studios and his first American theatrical release was the Warner Bros' buddy cop action film Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991), directed by Mark L. Lester and co-starring Dolph Lundgren. By critics described it as an overwhelmingly silly action film and didn't like it upon release, but found appreciation in retrospect for that same reason. This was followed by the leading role in Dwight H. Little's Rapid Fire (1992) produced by 20th Century Fox, where Lee also did the fight choreography. While some critics liked the film, most felt the script was too simple, however almost all described Lee to be charismatic, in a slick Hollywood action film.

In 1987, Lee starred in the unsold television pilot Kung Fu: The Next Generation. It aired on CBS Summer Playhouse, a program that specialized in rejected pilots and allowed the audience to call in to vote for a show to be picked up as a series. It was another follow-up to the Kung Fu TV series. In this film, the story moved to the present day, and centered on the story of the grandson and the great-grandson Johnny Caine (Lee) of Kwai Chang Caine. While his father uses his fighting abilities to assist people in need, Johnny Caine choose the life of crime. Once caught doing a robbery, Johnny's father takes him in custody and tries to rehabilitate him, but he is tempted to go back to his mischievous ways. The pilot was poorly received and did not win the CBS Summer Playhouse contest to be an outgoing series.

Lee returned to Los Angeles in 1985, where he worked as a script reader. Some time after, he was asked to audition for a role by casting director Lyn Stalmaster and got his first credited acting role in Kung Fu: The Movie. It was a feature-length television movie that was a follow-up to the 1970s television series Kung Fu, with David Carradine returning as the lead. In the film, the show's hero, Kwai Chang Caine (Carradine), is forced to fight his hitherto unknown son, Chung Wang (Lee). It aired on ABC on February 1, 1986, which was also Lee's 21st birthday. 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. Lee got his first leading film role later that year in the Hong Kong action crime thriller Legacy of Rage in which he starred alongside Michael Wong, Regina Kent and Bolo Yeung in a small role. In the film Lee plays the character of Brandon Ma who is a regular young man who works two jobs to support his life with his girlfriend May (Kent) and to save up to buy his dream of motorcycle. His best friend, Michael Wan (Wong), is an ambitious and murderous drug dealer who eventually blames one of his crimes on him. Ma is sent to jail and vows vengeance on Wan. Made in Cantonese and directed by Ronny Yu, it was the only film Lee made in Hong Kong. He was also nominated for a Hong Kong Film Award for Best New Performer in this role. In May of the following year, it was a critical success at the Cannes Film Festival and commercial one in Japan. On the 16th of July, the film got his cinematic release in the Philippines by Pioneer Releasing, under the title of Dragon Blood. The film was number one in the country for its first five days and became a local success. At one point between its original release and the making of Lee's first lead an American Studio film the action thriller Rapid Fire (1992), producer Robert Lawrence screened Legacy of Rage and saw Lee's potential to be an action leading man in Hollywood, which led to their collaboration. After Lee's passing in 1993, in the US the film was released directly to Home media in 1998 and 1999 in Australia. The Hong Kong action film is described to be a stylistic, fast-paced, with a good performance by Lee. While some didn't think it was up to par with Lee's final film, also considered it to be a good and his best genre film.

In 1986, Lee said that he training in Yee Chuan Tao a relaxation based martial arts with a trainer named Mike Vendrell. Lee said that the exercise helped him being less tense while punching a bag, and that it consisted of exercises such as slow sparring, Chi sao practice, they also worked on a wooden dummy, as well as Vendrell swinging a staff at him while he would duck or jump over.

Somewhere between 1984 and 1990, Lee and his mother had a meeting with Marvel CEO Margaret Loesch through comic book writer Stan Lee (no relation). Stan Lee felt that Brandon would be ideal for the casting of super-hero Shang-Chi in a film or television adaptation of his adventures.

He received his GED in 1983 at the age of 18, and then went to Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, where he majored in theater. That same year, while struggling with his identity, he stopped training in martial arts. Under the guidance of Inosanto and others, Lee eventually resumed his training.

Brandon Bruce Lee (February 1, 1965 – March 31, 1993) was an American actor and martial artist. He was the only son of martial artist and film star Bruce Lee. As a child from visiting his father's sets, who at the time was a major martial arts film leading man, Lee developed the desire to become an actor. Lee was 8 years old when his father died, becoming an iconic figure of both the art and the film genre he specialized in. Lee pursued his goal of being a thespian, he then studied the craft at the Emerson College and the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. Wanting to escape his father's image to become a dramatic actor, Lee figured that acting in action-oriented films would eventually lead him to other types of roles. After a stint doing local theater, Lee made his screen debut opposite David Carradine in the 1986 ABC's television film Kung Fu: The Movie, a spin-off of the 1970s television series Kung Fu, where he received second billing and starred in his first leading role in Ronny Yu's Hong Kong action film Legacy of Rage that same year.

Brandon was born on February 1, 1965, in Oakland, California, the son of martial artist and actor Bruce Lee and Linda Lee Cadwell (née Emery). The family moved to Los Angeles, California, when he was three months old. From a young age, Lee learned martial arts from his father, who at the time was a major martial arts movie star. While visiting his sets Brandon developed a desire to act. The family lived in Hong Kong from 1971 to 1973, after which his mother moved back to the United States following the death of his father, who became the epitome of the style of film he made, and the sport he practiced.

Lee is the grandson of Cantonese opera singer Lee Hoi-chuen, the nephew of Robert Lee Jun-fai, and the brother of Shannon Lee. Lee's paternal Great Grandfather was Ho Kom Tong, a Chinese philanthropist of Dutch-Jewish descent who was son of Charles Henry Maurice Bosman (1839–1892). Lee's mother Linda Emery, background includes Swedish and German roots. According to the book, Lee “proudly told everyone” about his newborn son Brandon’s diverse features, describing him as perhaps the only Chinese person with blond hair and grey eyes.