Facts About Bruce Lee
Facts About Bruce Lee
2. Bruce was the fourth child born to Lee Hoi Chuen and his wife Grace Ho. He had two older sisters, Phoebe and Agnes, an older brother, Peter, and a younger brother, Robert.
3. Bruce’s parents gave him the name “Jun Fan.” Since it is Chinese custom to put the surname first, Bruce’s full name is written Lee Jun Fan.
4. His nickname in the family was “SAI FON,” which literally means Little Peacock. This is a girl’s nickname, but in being applied to Bruce, it had a serious purpose.
5. Another nickname the family often applied to Bruce was “Mo Si Ting” which means “never sits still” and aptly described his personality.
6. Bruce was also a terrific dancer, and in 1958 he won the Hong Kong Cha Cha Championship. He studied dancing as assiduously as he did gung fu, keeping a notebook in which he had noted 108 different cha cha steps.
7. “Enter the Dragon” was due to premier at Hollywood’s Chinese theater in August of 1973.Unfortunately, Bruce would not live to see the opening of his film, nor would he experience the accumulated success of more than thirty years of all his films’popularity.
8. Bruce Lee injured his back causing damage to his sacral nerve in 1970. The injury was due to over-lifting during "Good Mornings",a weight training exercise, not during a fight as movies have led people to believe. Although doctors told him he would not be able to continue his lifestyle in the martial arts, through determination he fully recovered and went on to star in four and a half films made between 1971 and 1973.
9. Bruce Lee used the focus glove for martial arts training as far back as 1962. It was Bruce Lee who popularized its use in the martial arts. Focus gloves are now used by almost every martial artist in the United States.
10. Although Bruce Lee weighed only about 140 lbs.,he trained on a 300 lb. heavy bag to improve his kicking power.
11. Lee was far from being genetically perfect, as some believe. Bruce Lee wore contact lenses and actually failed his physical exam in 1963 and was deemed physically unacceptable by the U.S. Army Draft Board.
12. Bruce Lee was introduced to the football shield for kicking by student Dan Inosanto. At first, he rejected the idea, but within a few days he had developed a series of drills and the kicking shield became a mainstay of Jun Fan Gun Fu Jeet Kune Do training. Today there is a kicking shield of some sort in almost every martial arts school in the USA.
13. Bruce Lee was one of the first Chinese Gung Fu teachers in the United States to teach non-Chinese. Sigung Lee did not allow racial discrimination to enter into his choice of who he wanted to teach.He chose to see people as individuals, and regardless of what the Chinese community at that time wanted he stood his ground, even though he was challenged to fight as an ultimatum to stop teaching people other than those of Chinese decent.
14. Although Bruce Lee started his acting career at age 6 and was known worldwide as an actor, he considered himself a martial artist first and an actor second.
15. Bruce Lee was so fast, he once broke five boards with a speed break on Hong Kong TV, as they were held stacked dangling between his assistant's thumb and forefinger!
16. Bruce was so fast that often, movie directors would ask him to slow down because they could not capture his body movements clearly on film.
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