Bruce Lee; baby name - Li Xiaolong (Chinese 李小龙, English Li Xiao Long, Russian “Little Dragon”), adult name - Li Zhenfan (Chinese 李振藩, English Lee Jun Fan); born November 27, 1940 in San Francisco - died July 20, 1973 in Hong Kong - a legend in the field of Chinese martial arts, Hong Kong and American film actor, director, screenwriter, producer, stage director and philosopher.
He began acting in films from childhood, in total he starred in 36 films.
He popularized oriental martial arts in Western countries in the second half of the 20th century. Became widely known in the field of martial arts and has attracted many imitators in film and television. More than 30 films have been filmed around the world about the life and work of Bruce Lee.
Bruce Lee lay tipped over on the sofa cushions, and the desperately wailing woman shook him, hit him on the cheeks, rubbed his temples with ammonia. He was asleep, but she could not wake him. The doctor who ran into the room immediately realized that Master Kungfu was no longer in this world. They immediately called my wife: she gasped, clutched at her heart ...
At 7:30 pm, Bruce complained of a headache, Betty gave him one of her Equagsic (home remedy for headaches) pills, and Lee lay down to take a nap on her bed. And at 23:00 shocking news was announced in the press- famous film actor and director, popularizer and reformer of Chinese martial arts, the most trained person in the world Bruce Lee dies suddenly at the age of 32.
More than a hundred years ago, Great Britain took the Kowloon Peninsula from the Chinese Empire. That war was called "the opium"; it was short, brutal and absolutely hopeless for the Chinese armed with crossbows and axes. The city of Hong Kong arose on the peninsula - a center built up with snow-white European mansions and an indigenous suburb that smelled of stale fish and spicy local cuisine through and through.
In 1942, the Japanese captured Hong Kong and staged a grand massacre, then the British returned their colony; after Mao defeated in China, refugees poured into the city ...
Bruce Lee was born on November 27, 1940 in San Francisco in the Year of the Dragon and at the hour of the Dragon according to the Chinese calendar (between 6 and 8 a.m.) during the tour of their parents in America - the actor-comedian of the Cantonese Chinese Opera Lee Hoi Chen and his wife Grace Lee. Grace Lee's mother had Eurasian roots (she was half German), her father was Chinese.
When the boy grew up, he was given a name Lee Yen Kam - "Never Sitting Still"; after the first filming, the name appeared Lee Sui Lung - "Little Dragon"... And in a birth certificate issued at a Chinese hospital in the city of San Francisco, the name was Bruce Lee.
The most interesting thing is that for a long time everyone around him considered Bruce Lee a girl and called Baby Phoenix!
Why this happened, we must go deep into the history of the Bruce Lee family. P the first son died, and they decided that they had something to anger the gods; in China, they believe that the second child in the family should be a girl, and Grace and Lee adopted the daughter of a poor man. Then they had a son, Peter, then Grace became pregnant again and could not find a place for herself because of anxiety: according to Chinese beliefs, the second son is also in danger.
Newborn Bruce got his ears pierced and called his maiden name- it seemed that the evil spirits managed to be deceived and the evil spirits knew for sure that Grace gave birth to a girl: mother and father spent a lot of effort to confuse them, and even gave the child the girlish nickname Little Phoenix.
Hong Kong where Bruce Lee lived. The Hong Kong in which Bruce Lee spent his childhood was located at the junction between the city's front façade and the quarters of the poor. This Hong Kong is a labyrinth of alleyways bustling with life. These alleyways wind between peeling walls of apartment buildings, overcrowded shops and restaurants, beckoning passers-by with flashy neon signs. They are overrun with trucks, taxis and rickshaw carts.
The local atmosphere, consisting of a complex mixture of odors of exotic dishes and no less exotic garbage (in various phases of decay), sticky fumes and heavy stuffiness, changes little over the years. And while Hong Kong is energizing, it can be exhausting. Everything but peace and quiet can be found in Hong Kong.
The boy grew up and did not give rest to the whole quarter: the second such badass in Hong Kong has not yet been... He rushed around the city, made friends with just anyone, climbed trees and garbage dumps, pulled apples and pears from the stalls of local street vendors and did not obey his parents, and this is a big sin for Chinese people who respect old age.
He starred in films from birth: at the age of 3 months Bruce Lee starred in his first film - "Golden Gate Girl" (the role of a little baby girl), v age 6 - "The Origin of Humanity".
There was a misconception that Bruce Lee never starred with his father, but this is not true.... In childhood and adolescence, Bruce Lee was frail, in films he starred in the roles of a “difficult” child or a cocky orphan street hooligan.
Bruce's father was also not distinguished by family virtues.... He was a good actor and a great guy, he was loved by his friends and women, and he didn’t like them. But Lee Hoi Chen spent his money on anything but children.
“I smoke opium to sing in a softer voice,” Li Hoi Chun often said. Hoi Chun was also fond of gambling, which is why his sidekicks enjoyed the man's company and generosity as much as his family. He was a comic actor for the Hong Kong Canton Opera, which is essentially an operetta theater rather than classical opera (as opposed to the Peking Opera). And he did well to afford several apartments.
By Hong Kong standards, Lee was a wealthy man ( he owned several apartments that he rented), but the way the family lived would have horrified a Russian bum. A large hall, against the back wall of which there was a refrigerator, served alternately as a dining room, living room and bedroom. A large table at which they ate, played and read; the only room in which Lee, Grace, their children, grandparents, several servants and a huge German shepherd named Bobby, Bruce's favorite dog, slept under his bed; a fan under the ceiling, bleakly driving hot air ...
Water was supplied to the house once a week for several hours., and she was recruited into everything that was at hand. The Lee family took a cat-style shower, smearing water on the face, snorting and splashing, - what a bath is, they did not know in the house, and the forty-degree heat in Hong Kong is in the order of things ...
The Lee family's apartment in an old house on Nathan Road was on the 2nd floor above some shops. A narrow staircase led to a front door without doors, where the homeless set up their makeshift dwellings. But the staircase on the second floor was securely protected by a sturdy double door, reinforced with steel beams and equipped with a peephole.
The beds were iron and covered with hard mattresses. In addition to the dining room, the apartment consisted of two smaller rooms. One of them had two bunk beds. The other room, overlooking Nathan Road, was adorned with a veranda decorated with many potted plants, and at the same time a cage with chickens.
His father sometimes took Bruce with him to the opera. There, the boy met Sue Ki Lune, known among friends as the "Unicorn". His father was also an opera artist. Although the Unicorn was three years older than Lee, a friendship developed between the boys. They fought and fenced with bamboo swords. Bruce Lee played the role of Robin Hood, and although his opponent was older and stronger, Bruce never put up with defeat and fought until the Unicorn gave up. Over the years, the Unicorn recalled how Bruce repeatedly got into trouble due to constant fights. Mr. Lee would often teach his son a lesson by hitting him on the head with all his might.
In Chinese families, there is usually a chasm between father and children.... For a father, reverence is far more important than filial love. To maintain his position in the family, the father does not indulge the children. Keeping distance is the price that fathers pay to maintain their own authority.
Children grew up - Bruce and his brothers were sent to a Jesuit college. The Jesuits had been doing missionary work in China for several centuries and knew more about the natives than anyone else, but even they could not cope with Bruce Lee.
Small, thin, nimble, he could not sit still, did not want to puzzle over arithmetic and English grammar, and felt great pleasure only when he managed to smash someone's nose.
Bruce's mom paid monthly tuition fees and then got a call from school asking why Bruce was not attending class. In the end, he and Bruce came to an agreement that he could skip classes (since he does not like school so much), but must inform her where he goes to play so that his mother can always find him. After this conversation, Bruce continued to skip classes, but always informed his mother about where to look for him. Several years passed, and Bruce Lee was kicked out of school.
He had a huge craving for self-affirmation, street showdowns elevated him in their own eyes. He was puny, evasive and absolutely fearless: the reason for a fight could even be that the boy he met looked at him wrong, sighed wrong, spat in the wrong direction, apologized insufficiently respectfully.
Bruce did not pay attention to the height and weight of his enemies, and they beat him twice a day.
Lee Hoi Chen, of course, was not a model father, but the bruises on his son's face and the always torn clothes got on his nerves. Lee Hoi Chen did not give money to the children out of principle, but when Bruce asked to pay for his Kung Fu lessons, he unexpectedly agreed- he had at least a faint hope that this disgrace would someday end.
“Bruce’s personality did not change,” his mother later said. - He repeated the same mistakes. Over and over again I got upset about him. I once asked him how he thought of earning his living by continuing to behave in the same spirit. To this he replied: "One day I will become a famous film actor." I scolded him and explained that the lives of famous artists were not at all as pleasant as it might seem from the outside, and that they did not lead a completely normal existence. I told Bruce, “You don’t even know how to behave humanly. How can you expect to become a famous film actor? "
She told how she suddenly noticed that Bruce was peering somewhere into the distance from the window of the room. Then he jumped out into the street with lightning and ran somewhere. When she went to the window, she saw Bruce helping a blind man to cross the road. He then explained that he had to help a man who looked so confused and desperate to wait for someone to help.
Bruce Lee wore glasses at the age of 6 and walked in his sleep?
Sister Agness gave him the name "Little Dragon", which stuck to Bruce for the rest of his life. She says that from early childhood, Bruce considered himself "special" and was about to accomplish something extraordinary in his life. She remembers his nightmares and sleepwalking.
The rest of the family knew him by the affectionate name of Mo Si Tun, or "Never Sitting Still." This characteristic corresponded exactly to him. If Bruce fell silent even for a moment, everyone feared that he was sick. He only stopped running, jumping and chatting when he was hammered into the far corner with a book and completely immersed himself in reading. Sometimes he would read out late into the night. The mother believes that this was the reason for his early myopia. From the age of six, Bruce began to wear glasses.
Young Bruce loved practical jokes, and could not help laughing, seeing how the intended victim is ready to be hooked. He started out with simple pranks, like tricks with caustic powder and "electric shock", but soon the jokes became much more intricate.
Once he rearranged all the furniture in the room to confuse the cleaning lady.... On another occasion, he persuaded his brother Robert to imagine himself as a submarine and to look up from the sleeve of his jacket as from a periscope. When his brother agreed to this game, Bruce “fired an onboard torpedo” and poured a pitcher full of water into his sleeve.
But he didn't always get away with it. Other "jokes" were not so funny. One day he pushed his sister Fawby into the pool. She caught him and held him headlong under water until he vowed not to do so again. After this incident, Bruce did not go to the pool.
In 1954, Bruce Lee begins to take cha-cha-cha dance lessons, and after 4 years he wins the cha-cha-cha dance championship in Hong Kong, plays the main role in the film "Orphan" and participates in an inter-school boxing competition (defeating Gary Elms, three-year title holder)... Then he decided to seriously study Kung Fu. His first kung fu teacher recalled that Bruce came to him and said: “Master, I know that you are fluent in kung fu - and I am the best cha-cha-cha dancer. So let's exchange knowledge: you teach me the kung fu technique, and I will teach you to dance the cha-cha-cha. " Bruce turned out to be very talented, in literally 3 days of classes he mastered the movements of the Taijiquan technique, the basic training of which usually takes weeks. Since then, Bruce never left kung fu for a long time and constantly trained.
Children:
Ren (daughter)
Lee Hoi Chen and his wife Grace Lee
Li Huichen was born in Junan, Guangdong province on February 4, 1901. He was a leading actor in Cantonese Opera and has played many roles on stage and in film. Best known as the leading actor in the films Dajie Yinsilu (1939), Qimi Yang Zhuangyuan (1947), Xi lu xiang (1950).
During a Cantonese opera tour of the United States in 1940, in San Francisco, Lee Hoichen and his wife Grace Ho had a second son, Bruce Lee, who later became a famous film actor. The actor's youngest son, Robert Lee, was famous in Hong Kong in the 1960s as the vocalist and founder of the popular beat group Thunderbirds.
Li Huichen died at St. Teresa's Hospital in Hong Kong on February 7, 1965, three days after his 64th birthday and a week after the birth of his grandson Brandon Lee.
Linda Lee Cadwell (nee Linda Emery (born March 21, 1945) is an American teacher, widow of the star of martial arts films Bruce Lee, mother of the tragically deceased actor Brandon Lee.
Cadwell was born in Everett, Washington to Vivian and Everett Emery. The family were Baptists, descendants of the Swedes and the British. Linda met Bruce at Garfield High School in Seattle, where he came to demonstrate the art of kung fu. At the time, Bruce was attending the University of Washington. By chance, Linda came to him to study kung fu, also arriving at the University of Washington.
In college, she also continued to take kung fu lessons. Bruce and Linda's wedding took place on August 17, 1964. In marriage, children were born - Brandon and Shannon. Bruce Lee at this time opened his own kung fu school and taught jitkundo. On July 20, 1973, while filming, the actor died suddenly.
Linda subsequently remarried in 1988 to Tom Bleecker, but the couple divorced two years later. Linda married stockbroker Bruce Cadwell for the third time in 1991 and moved to Boyes, Idaho. In 1996, Bleecker published a book in which he presented his version of the death of Bruce Lee. Linda Lee Cadwell tried to obstruct publication, but did not succeed. Linda's son, Brandon, just like his father, chose the profession of an actor. Just like his father, he died during the filming (film The Raven) on March 31, 1993, twenty years after the death of Bruce Lee. Linda and Brandon's fiancée Eliza Hutton began an out-of-court proceeding with the film's producers in 1993, and the film was eventually released in 1994.
Linda Cadwell continued to develop Bruce Lee's jitkundo style until 2001, when she stopped practicing. The family is currently run by her daughter Shannon, along with her son-in-law, Jan Keesler, they founded the Bruce Lee Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the dissemination of Bruce Lee's philosophy and martial arts.
(English Brandon Lee, full name - Brandon Bruce Lee, English Brandon Bruce Lee; February 1, 1965 - March 31, 1993) - Hong Kong and American actor, master of martial arts. Bruce Lee's son.
Brandon Lee was born in Oakland, California to Bruce Lee and Linda Emery. When Brandon was three months old, their family moved to Los Angeles. In 1971, the family decided to leave for Hong Kong. His mother, Linda Lee, was of Anglo-Swedish descent, and his father, Bruce Lee, was German-Chinese.
Brandon spent his childhood in Hong Kong, learning the Cantonese dialect and mastering the art of kung fu according to the system of his father - jitkundo. At the age of five, he already knew how to walk on his arms and jumped up to his father's shoulders. After the family moved from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, Brandon began attending the school his father had previously attended. At school, it was required to wear a uniform, speak and write only in Chinese. Brandon had problems in college due to his star son status. Bodyguards were supposed to accompany little Brandon and his sister Shannon to college in order to avoid the possibility of their abduction.
When his father died, Brandon was 8 years old. His mother took him and his sister to the United States, where they lived first in Seattle and then in California. After moving to Los Angeles, Brandon's mother enrolled in a military arts school. The IMB Academy at the time was run by Bruce Lee's students Dan Inosanto and Richard Bustillo, and was based in California.
As a child, Brandon enjoyed playing chess, backgammon, pin, poker and table tennis.
Finally, Brandon Lee's stellar status was supposed to consolidate "The Raven" - immersed in a dark, "gothic" atmosphere, the film adaptation of comics on the themes of honor and retribution. River Phoenix or Christian Slater were originally planned for the role of Eric Draven.
Filming began on February 1, 1993 in Wilmington, on the same day Brandon turned 28. On March 31, at first one in the morning (00:30), while shooting one of the final scenes, where the main character is shot from a pistol, Brandon was wounded in the stomach. Actor Michael Massey, who played one of the villains (Fanboy), shot from a 44 caliber revolver. The plug stuck in the barrel was not noticed by the members of the film crew and flew out when fired with a blank cartridge. As a result, the foreign body pierced Brandon Lee's abdomen and lodged in the spine, causing extensive blood loss. He died 12 hours later in a hospital in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Doctors stated the death of Brandon Lee on March 31, 1993, at 13 hours 3 minutes, from incessant hemorrhage. McMurry's surgeon tried in vain to stop the bleeding - after a long five-hour operation, the situation did not improve. Later, the surgeon will say: “There was too much blood loss. The blood did not clot. It oozed from everywhere. " According to doctors, if the actor could have been saved, then, most likely, he would have remained paralyzed for life.
Brandon died seventeen days before his own wedding. He and Eliza Hutton were already engaged and were supposed to get married immediately after filming ended - on April 17, 1993 in Mexico City.
The footage of the murder was not included in the film, this tape was destroyed, and the scene was filmed again with the participation of an understudy (Chad Stahelski). The unfinished scenes of the film were edited using computer technology by superimposing Brandon Lee's face on the body of the stunt double.
On April 3, 1993, a closed funeral was held. Brandon Lee was buried next to his father in Seattle at Lake View Cemetery on the shores of Lake Washington, on a site that Linda, his mother, had originally reserved for herself. After the funeral ceremony, about two hundred relatives and friends gathered to honor the memory of the deceased actor. As they left, each of the guests took with them a photograph of Brandon Lee.
Shannon Emery Lee (born April 19, 1969) is an American actress, daughter of the famous martial artist and actor Bruce Lee and Linda Lee Cadwell, younger sister of actor Brandon Lee.
Shannon Lee was born in Los Angeles, California and was the second child of Bruce and Linda Lee. Shannon and her family lived in Hong Kong from 1971 to 1973, then after the tragic death of her husband, her mother returned to the United States. After that, the family lived in Seattle, (Washington), in the homeland of Linda, and then in Los Angeles. Shannon grew up in the Rolling Hills area of California.
Bruce Lee has starred in 36 films in his life, and almost the same number of documentaries and feature films about the actor himself were shot after his death. Bruce was the man who reimagined the martial arts world in cinematography. On stage, he was a fearless hero who overcame any difficulties on the way to justice, a stern and ruthless fighter. In ordinary life, Bruce Lee was a smiling and charming person who loved his family with all his heart. Our review today is a few color photographs of the great fighter as a loving family man.
At the age of 14, Bruce was completely different from himself as an adult - puny, frail, nimble, and completely unable to concentrate on one thing (and therefore did not shine with much success at school). Instead of studying, Bruce decided to take dance lessons - just 4 years of training and he suddenly wins the cha-cha-cha dance championship in Hong Kong. Hardly anyone expected such success from him, but the guy had his own plans. Having achieved success in this field, he decided that it was time to take new heights. Bruce came to the kung fu teacher and said: “ Master, I know that you are fluent in kung fu - and I am the best cha-cha dancer. So let's share our knowledge: you teach me the kung fu technique, and I will teach you how to dance the cha-cha-cha».
Literally a year later, Bruce went to America to confirm his citizenship (he was born in the United States while his parents were on tour there). And stayed there. An acquaintance of his father gave him a job as a waiter, Yuryus entered the University of Washington at the Faculty of Philosophy. During his studies, he met his future wife Linda. She later bore him two children: a son, Brandon, and a daughter, Shannon.
Around the same time, Bruce began acting in television series, giving private martial arts lessons. However, he could not achieve serious success, and this greatly upset him. To the extent that in order to get the main role in the film, Bruce moved the whole family back to Hong Kong, where he persuaded the director of the studio to give him the opportunity to play in the film and direct all the action scenes. Apparently, Bruce was quite convincing: the movie "Big Boss" was an incredible success. The films that followed had a larger budget and even greater success.
Bruce's son Lee Brandon, like his father, was engaged in martial arts and tried himself in acting. Unfortunately, he died tragically during the filming of his fifth film "The Crow" (1993), which tells about the original return of the protagonist after death to this world in order to avenge the death of his girlfriend. At that time, Brandon was only 28 years old. Shannon Lee, Bruce's youngest daughter, is also a martial artist. She now heads the Bruce Lee Foundation.
1 February 2019, 20:02“True happiness is a wonderful spouse. It seems to me that when people get married, they go either to heaven or to hell. They can live life like in a fairy tale, or they can suffer with each other. I am very fortunate - and not because my films have broken box office records. I have a wonderful wife, Linda. She's the best. Why do I say that? First, I believe that spouses should also be friends. Linda and I have it. We understand each other as good friends and therefore spend time happily together. The best thing in my life is not the big shots, but my wife. "
Behind every great man is a great woman, and for martial arts legend Bruce Lee, that woman was Linda Emery, who married her gallant kung fu teacher in the mid-60s. Linda and Bruce were husband and wife until July 20, 1973, when Bruce died of cerebral edema at the age of 32 ... just six days before the release in Hong Kong of what many consider his greatest cinematic achievement: Coming Out of the Dragon. 
If we look at Linda's life before she met, we can see that it is very different from the traditional Chinese lifestyle of Bruce Lee. Linda Lee Cadwell nee - Linda Emery was born on March 21, 1945 in Everett, Washington, to Vivian and Everett Emery. The family were Baptists, descendants of the Swedes and the British. 
Linda attended Garfield High School and then graduated from the University of Washington. She reportedly did cheerleading during her school years. Although Linda wanted to connect her life with medicine, she had a different purpose. 
The love story of Bruce Lee and Linda Emery is pretty sweet.
"It's actually a funny story!"- laughing, says Linda. “I was in high school at Garfield High School in Seattle. And Bruce came to my school, he was five years older and was a philosophy student at the University of Washington. He was friends with our philosophy teacher. Therefore, he came to us to give lectures on Chinese philosophy. I was not in this class, but I can tell you that every girl in my school knew when Bruce Lee was at home because he was so spectacular and so handsome. One of my friends took kung fu lessons from him. So, in the summer after I graduated from high school, she invited me to take a kung fu class with her, so Bruce and I met for the first time.
The friends went to Chinatown, where Bruce gave his lessons. Although the group met in a basement room with bare cement walls, the atmosphere was lively. Linda hoped that her acquaintance with kung fu would be limited to only one excursion, but, to her own surprise, she soon became one of the regular students. 
Sunday afternoons were a kind of holiday for the kung fu group members. Usually everyone would gather in Chinatown, where Bruce would make endless jokes at lunch, and then everyone would go to the cinema together, most often to a samurai movie. Bruce led the way from the restaurant to the cinema. Suddenly, an orange or other object flashed through the air. The guys had to grab these objects on the fly without comment. Bruce wanted to teach them how to do it instinctively. While watching the film, Bruce liked to comment on the actions, pretending to be mistakes in the shooting. Later, he asked his students about the smallest details of the film, about the people in the restaurant and about the weather, to test their observation. Bruce took every opportunity to teach the kids to be aware of their surroundings. Realize even that it is never too late to learn to be better aware! Bruce soon asked the university to allow the gym to be used for kung fu demonstrations and soon attracted new students. Students began to skip university classes in order to go to see Bruce's kung fu performances. He not only demonstrated the techniques, but also explained the philosophy behind them, and in between did not forget to make jokes. 
Once they were teaching on a lawn surrounded by trees. Bruce seized the moment when Linda stood aside, approached her and invited her to dine with him in the evening at a restaurant. 
Linda Emery turned out to be a great match for Bruce - she was a great listener! They sat in the revolving Space Needle, the lights of Seattle floating beneath them, and Bruce continued to talk about his plans for the future. It was a delightful evening. Lee put on a new suit - a black jacket with a scarlet lining, a scarlet silk shirt with a black tie. Black and red colors were very suitable for him - Linda could not take her eyes off him. Linda was also good. A dark-haired petite girl (Linda liked to dye her hair in a "golden blonde") with regular Scandinavian features and an ideal figure. Bruce considered her to be perfect. That evening, he told everything about himself - starting with the first childhood memories. He spoke about his hobby for Chinese philosophy and Confucius. About his people, parents, brothers and sisters. About Hong Kong, about my attitude to America. And most importantly - about my dream of opening a "big kung fu institute" in Seattle. Linda listened and understood: her future husband was sitting in front of her. 
Unfortunately, the girl was forced to keep her relationship with Bruce a secret from her parents. She was born and raised to a white Protestant family, and while her mother could hardly object to Linda being friends with Asians at school (where a good half of the class were colored children), the thought of her daughter dating a Chinese could not to her taste. Linda suspected how her mother should feel about all this, but realized that her feelings for Bruce were already stronger. 
In June 1963, Bruce returned to Hong Kong. No, he did not leave America, Seattle, his kung fu school and Linda. He just came to visit his parents and relatives. When he secretly told his mother about Linda, Grace Lee was delighted. Half European herself, she was happy that her son chose not a Chinese woman as his wife, but a “European”. 
Bruce Lee's parents
Another curious detail - at the time of meeting Li, Linda did not speak Chinese, and Bruce did not speak English well. But then both mastered each other's languages. In the family, Linda and Bruce spoke fluent English and Chinese.
In general, Li spoke four languages - Mandarin (Mandarin, the official language of China), "Hong Kong Chinese", which is called the Cantonese dialect (spoken by numerous Chinese immigrants scattered throughout the world, including the United States), Japanese and English ... 
Bruce and Linda corresponded regularly. Linda received letters directly in the mail so that her mother would not guess about the affair. 
When marriage seemed to be a decided affair, Bruce was scared at the thought of meeting his future mother-in-law. Meeting with the "black belt" of karate is one thing, but meeting with Linda's mother is quite another. So a brilliant plan ripened in Lee's head: first he and Linda would get married, and then, prudently retiring to Auckland, they would notify Linda's mother by phone. 
On August 12, 1964, Bruce returned to Seattle with an engagement ring loaned to him by James Lee's wife. Unfortunately, after Bruce and Linda filed an application with the local court, a message about the upcoming marriage appeared in local newspapers (as required by law). When Linda's aunt read the ad, she called Mrs. Emery to find out what happened to her invitation. The whole family immediately gathered to demonstrate strength to force the lovers to abandon their plan. But Bruce met their onslaught without flinching and declared: “I want to marry your daughter. By the way, I'm Chinese. "
Trying to dissuade them from getting married, Linda's uncle scared her niece that it would not be a "Christian" marriage, and at the same time convinced Bruce that Linda "couldn't do anything."
"She will learn," Bruce snapped.
Bruce Lee's friend and student, Taki Kimura, who has suffered from racial prejudice more than once, tries not to emphasize this aspect: "I think it was a natural concern for parents when they saw that their very young daughter was about to marry a man with no job or steady income."
The parents gave their consent to this marriage. Linda's mother entered into negotiations with the abbot of the Seattle United Church. Taki Kimura was the witness at the wedding. Everything was happening so fast that Bruce had to borrow a wedding suit, and Linda did not have a wedding dress. There was also no photographer at the ceremony.
"But he could at least buy flowers!" sighed Linda's mother.
Bruce then said to Linda: "Maybe I can't give you anything now, but I will do it in the future."
Many might think that Bruce Lee was a very complicated person, in fact, he was a very simple and sweet person. Due to his straightforwardness and sincerity, he had many friends. 
The couple moved to Hong Kong after the wedding, and Linda Li mentioned how the Chinese looked at her strangely. A year after the wedding, a son, Brandon, was born, and in 1969 they had a daughter, Shannon. But four years later, in 1973, Bruce Lee died of cerebral edema. 
Linda no longer wanted to stay in Hong Kong, she returned to Seattle and then moved to Los Angeles. 15 years later, in 1988, Linda married actor and writer Tom Bleecker. But by 1990, the couple had divorced. In 1991, she married for the third time to Bruce Cadwell, he works as a stock broker. The family currently resides in Rancho Mirage, California. On March 31, 1993, Linda lost her son Brandon to an accident on set. 
Brandon Lee
Bruce Lee's daughter, Shannon is an American actress, martial artist and businesswoman. Since 1994 she has been married to attorney Jan Kiesler. The couple have a daughter, Ren. 
Shannon Lee
Linda continued to develop Bruce Lee's jitkundo style until 2001, when she stopped practicing. The family is currently managed by her daughter and her son-in-law. They founded the Bruce Lee Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the dissemination of the Bruce Lee philosophy and the martial arts.
In 1975, Linda published the book "Bruce Lee: The Man I Only Knew", on which in 1993 the movie "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" was filmed. In 1989, Linda's book "The Bruce Lee Story" was published. 
Sources: Bruce Lee sites: the legacy of the Master, PUZZUPS, KungFun, Thomas Bruce's book “Bruce Lee. Fighting Spirit ".
Updated 20/08/19 21:00:
On July 20, 1973, news of the death of Bruce Lee, the highest level of kung fu wrestling master and film actor, hit Hong Kong and then the whole world. He was a man who became the idol of millions of people, who mastered the art of martial arts and glorified it. The cinema did not know before and still does not know an artist who would combine such filigree skill with the ability to artistically perform roles like Bruce Lee. The date of his death has become a black day not only for fans of Hong Kong action films, but also for connoisseurs of the art of the blue screen around the world. Simultaneously with this grief, she launched numerous attempts to solve the riddle of the sudden death of the master, sometimes sincere, and sometimes selfish.
To understand how Bruce Lee died, it's important to know how he lived.
In 1940, Chinese opera actor Li Hui Chun and his wife, Grace Li, rejoiced, they found an heir. The boy was called Little, this name sounded like Li Xiao Lun, but there were two more options: Li Zhengfan and Bruce Lee. Mother was not a purebred Chinese woman; she also had German blood in her veins. The future king of kung fu was born in the United States, in San Francisco, where the theater toured.
During the period of maturity of the future actor, Hong Kong was a multinational "anthill", an English colony in which all races and peoples were mixed, and a refuge for adventurers around the world. The criminal environment in the metropolis matched his reputation. Numerous youth gangs divided spheres of influence among themselves, usually sorting things out hand-to-hand. The Little Dragon was also a member of one of the triads.
Yip Meng Li, a martial artist, became Bruce's first teacher. The young man trained so hard that he soon became a noticeable star in the criminal sky of the Wanchai region, and the godfathers of the Hong Kong mafia began to look closely at him. To save their son from their influence, his parents sent him to study in the United States in technical sciences and philosophy, believing that it would be better this way. However, there were also Chinese, American, of course, who had something to learn from the young man who was fond of the ancient art of fighting. A variety of styles had already become Lee's calling card.
Returning to her homeland, the beginning of a cinematic career and her success are described in many articles, books and are reflected in biographical films. All these numerous sources do not give an unambiguous answer to the question of what Bruce Lee died from, but one of the options suggests itself. The master was engaged in what he loved so actively that it could cause an extreme degree of overwork, which caused a tumor and failure of the vital functions of the brain. Perhaps such an explanation may seem vulgar to professional doctors, but it was this version that his mother-in-law voiced when she learned about the tragedy. She knew about the ruthless training regime that her son-in-law had condemned himself to in pursuit of improving his skills. Sometimes he got up in the middle of the night and went to the hall to work out techniques that, as it seemed to him, he did not master well enough. This went on for many years.
This can explain how old Bruce Lee died. After all, he was only 32 years old.
In China and in the East, in general, much more attention is paid to "signs of fate" than in Western countries. The fate of a person, according to the gray-haired sages, can be influenced by a variety of circumstances, in our opinion, insignificant. For example, an expensive mansion in the Kaulun area, bought by an actor for himself and his wife, was extremely poorly located in terms of its impact on health and well-being. In the lowest part of Hong Kong Island, it is believed, nine dragons, who could be jealous of such a persistent desire for self-improvement. What Bruce Lee died of may well be the embodiment of the evil will of the intangible mysterious spirits living in this "lake", and they warned the actor about the possible consequences in advance, driving him in ten days before his death. In favor of this version, persistent rumors also speak that the financial affairs of the artist, beloved by the whole world, were not going well.
Fans and simply not indifferent people, in addition to the question of why Bruce Lee died, was also worried that the tragedy did not occur in his house, but in a completely different place. The fact that actress Betty Ting, visiting whom he suddenly fell ill, added fuel to the fire, at first denied her involvement in the events and even her very presence near the actor. Of course, the truth was soon revealed, and almost everyone began to express assumptions about the love affair of filmmakers. As the scandal sparked, the names of other women with whom Bruce had a relationship, possibly beyond mere friendship, surfaced. The press played an important role in spreading these rumors, trying, and not without success, to make money on sensational materials. Nobody was interested in how true this information was.
When opening the body in the stomach of the actor, doctors found substances formed by the use of intoxicants, presumably based on marijuana. Immediately, a version appeared in print that it was drugs that were what Bruce Lee died of. There were not enough grounds for this hypothesis, the actor did not drink alcohol, did not smoke and led a very healthy lifestyle. In addition, the concentration of these chemical compounds indicated that the harm from them could be about the same as from a couple of cups of coffee. Nevertheless, reporters hungry for sensations immediately rushed with statements that the kung fu master was a drug addict. Someone believes in this even now.
While visiting Betty Ting, the actor suddenly felt a severe headache. He did not attach any importance to this either, not to mention the hostess, who offered him a pill prescribed for her for migraine attacks. The drug was called "Ecuazic", and it was a composition of aspirin and meprobanate, a weak narcotic substance, which is the reason for the fact that it is dispensed exclusively by prescription. By itself, it was unlikely to pose a danger, but in combination with other factors, as it turned out later, it could cause People who knew the actor from his films, wondered: "Is this tiny pill what Bruce Lee died of?" And they didn’t want to believe that such a trifle could crush a master who didn’t care about anything ...
At the present time, this version seems to be the most probable.
Crowds of people accompanied the funeral procession. The fact that the cause of Bruce Lee's death at that time was not officially announced, gave rise to many of the most fantastic assumptions. It was rumored that the actor was hit with a delayed action, that he was poisoned with a secret potion that could not be identified at autopsy, that he was tortured by the overly temperamental Betty Ting with her exceptional love of love, and many other most unimaginable hypotheses. People did not want to believe in the usual circumstances of the death of an extraordinary person.
The actor found his last resting place on American soil. During the flight, the expensive coffin was damaged so much that it had to be replaced. The Chinese considered that this was a bad omen, and the spirit of the actor would wander and will not rest for a long time. Well, they were right ...
