It's been more than 50 years since Bruce Lee passed away, and he's still the best martial artist in film history. But how much do you know about the man himself? From his rumored temper to his net worth to his unexpected relationship with Chuck Norris, we have all the info you could ever need.
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00:00It's been more than 50 years since Bruce Lee passed away, and he's still the best martial
00:04artist in film history.
00:05But how much do you know about the man himself?
00:07From his rumored temper to his net worth to his unexpected relationship with Chuck Norris,
00:12we have all the info you could ever need.
00:15Bruce Lee was practically made for the movies.
00:18As a kid growing up in Hong Kong, Lee was a prolific child actor, playing in around
00:2120 films.
00:22And when he moved back to his birth country of the United States, he opened martial arts
00:26schools, taught stars including Steve McQueen, and even donned a black mask and started fighting
00:31crime.
00:32Playing Kato on The Green Hornets, Lee introduced kung fu to the American mainstream.
00:36Unfortunately, the series only lasted 26 episodes and failed to launch him into the big time.
00:40Frustrated by Hollywood executives passing him over or giving him bit parts, Lee packed
00:45his bags and returned to Hong Kong, where he discovered he was the most famous man alive.
00:50The Green Hornet was so popular in his homeland that it was known as The Kato Show, and soon
00:55Lee was getting leading man parts in Hong Kong films.
00:58Lee's first film as a lead actor was The Big Boss, which became the highest-grossing movie
01:02in Hong Kong history.
01:04It held that record until Lee's second film, Fist of Fury, came along.
01:08Soon after, Lee even got a chance to direct, working on both sides of the camera for Way
01:12of the Dragon.
01:14After just three films, Lee was suddenly the king of Asian cinema, and Hollywood finally
01:17decided they wanted to be in the Bruce Lee business.
01:25When Bruce Lee started breaking Asian box office records, Warner Bros. gave him a call.
01:33This was Lee's big Hollywood moment, and Enter the Dragon was what resulted.
01:37His first English-language movie, Enter the Dragon, was the perfect film showcase for
01:41Lee's philosophy, charisma, and fighting abilities.
01:44The plot finds Lee playing a Shaolin warrior tasked with sailing to an island fortress,
01:47joining a martial arts competition, and busting the drug lord running the show.
01:51With on-screen backup from uber-cool Jim Kelly and a groovy score from Lalo Schifrin,
01:55Lee crafted a kung fu flick that is still counted as one of the best action movies ever
01:59made.
02:00And when the film hit theaters in August 1973, it became a box office smash, nabbing $20
02:05million and earning the top spot internationally.
02:08Bruce Lee had finally hit the big time, but by that point, he wasn't around to enjoy his
02:12newfound fame.
02:14With his bulging biceps and incredible abs, Bruce Lee was what you might call a physical
02:18specimen.
02:19Whether it was skipping rope, circuit training, or doing isometric exercises, Lee was constantly
02:24working on his superhero physique.
02:25As an actor, as a martial artist, as a human being, all these I have learned from martial
02:34art."
02:35The man seemed absolutely unstoppable.
02:37But despite his amazing build and unbelievable speed, the little dragon was actually suffering
02:41from some major health issues.
02:43On May 10, 1973, an exhausted Lee was working on the post-production of Enter the Dragon.
02:48He was doing some dubbing in a Hong Kong studio booth when he suddenly keeled over
02:52and began shaking and vomiting.
02:53Lee was rushed to the hospital, and it took him a couple of days to regain the ability
02:57to speak.
02:58After he was feeling better, Lee got an extensive checkup, but doctors weren't sure what had
03:02happened.
03:03They knew he'd suffered from a cerebral edema, which is when fluids build up around the brain
03:07causing it to swell, but they weren't sure what had caused it.
03:10It was a shocking moment for the 32-year-old Lee, who always looked nigh-on invincible
03:15on the big screen.
03:16But sadly, it was a harbinger of things to come.
03:19Bruce Lee died on July 20, 1973 at just 32 years of age.
03:24But how did he spend his last day on Earth?
03:27Lee was busy with his upcoming film Game of Death, and he was meeting with George Lazenby,
03:31hoping to get the James Bond actor on board.
03:33After talking with Lazenby, Lee did some hash with a buddy, and then drove to his mistress
03:37Betty Ting Pei's apartment.
03:39The two spent the next couple of hours in bed and getting high, only pausing when Lee's
03:43producer, Raymond Chow, showed up at the door, and Lee began eagerly acting out scenes from
03:47Game of Death.
03:49That's when things took a tragic turn.
03:50Lee started feeling dizzy, and his head began hurting.
03:53So Ting Pei offered Lee an Equazizic pill, a prescription drug that's part painkiller
03:57and part tranquilizer, and after taking it, Lee went into Ting Pei's bedroom to rest.
04:02Chow took off, leaving the two alone, and Ting Pei let her lover sleep for a few hours.
04:06Unfortunately, when she finally went to wake him up, the dragon was unresponsive.
04:10Freaked out, Ting Pei called Chow for help, but even though a doctor and paramedics rushed
04:14to the scene, they were too late.
04:16Bruce Lee, the great movie star and martial artist, had died in his sleep, about a month
04:21before Enter the Dragon would hit theaters and turn him into an international star.
04:26Bruce Lee's death sent shockwaves around the world.
04:29But what exactly killed him?
04:30After an autopsy at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, doctors discovered that Lee's brain had swollen
04:35by nearly 13 percent.
04:37According to the official report, Lee had died of, quote, "...congestion and edema of
04:41the brain," the same exact thing that had hospitalized Lee in May 1973.
04:46The edema was originally blamed on the cannabis in Lee's system.
04:49However, that theory was called into question when Donald Teer showed up.
04:53A forensic expert recommended by Scotland Yard, Teer had earlier performed the autopsy
04:57of Jimi Hendrix, so he knew a thing or two about drug overdoses.
05:00And after Teer finished his investigation, he concluded that Lee had an allergic reaction
05:05to the aquagizic pill that Betty Ting Pei had given him to help with his headache.
05:09However, Ting Pei has said this wasn't the first time she'd given Lee an aquagizic pill,
05:14and obviously the drug didn't kill him on those occasions.
05:16Still, Teer's version of events is widely accepted.
05:19Sadly, however, whenever any major celebrity dies under strange circumstances, some truly
05:24mad conspiracy theories are bound to show up, and there are still plenty swirling around
05:28about Bruce Lee.
05:30Raymond Chow made a big mistake after Bruce Lee's death.
05:33Hoping to protect Lee's image, Chow's production company claimed the actor died at home with
05:37his wife Linda, but once the press found out the truth, the tabloids got going.
05:41In fact, a lot of people pointed the finger at Betty Ting Pei, claiming she was responsible
05:45for Lee's death, with some suggesting she'd even poisoned him.
05:49Unfortunately, that wasn't the only rumor involving foul play.
05:53One of the most popular theories says other martial artists were angry at Lee for teaching
05:57their secrets to Westerners, so they decided to bump him off.
06:00Some imaginative folks say ninjas were responsible, and others claim Lee was killed with the Dim
06:05Mac, a mythical martial arts move that supposedly kills a victim in one blow.
06:10Some believe he was killed after refusing to pay protection money to the Triads, while
06:13others claim the mafia did the deed because Lee wouldn't let them control his career.
06:17The more mystical conspiracy theorists even say there's a family curse that took the life
06:21of both Bruce and his son, Brandon Lee.
06:24But despite all this wild speculation, Lee wasn't killed by a mob boss or poisoned by
06:28his lover.
06:29The master of the one-inch punch was almost certainly taken out accidentally by a tiny
06:33pill.
06:34Game of Death could have been the greatest martial arts movie ever made.
06:37Starring Bruce Lee in all his jumpsuited glory, the movie would have followed the head-kicking
06:41hero as he battled his way up a pagoda, searching for a valuable treasure and fighting a new
06:46boss at every level.
06:47Each bad guy would be the master of a particular martial arts style, and Lee would have to
06:51display different tenets of his philosophy Jeet Kune Do to defeat his foes.
06:56Unfortunately, Lee only filmed 40 minutes of footage for the movie before passing away,
07:00so to complete the film, a Bruce Lee double was hired to play the main character.
07:04Worse still, during one scene in which the double looks into a mirror, the filmmakers
07:08taped a cardboard cutout of Lee's face on the mirror to serve as a reflection.
07:13And that's not even counting all the times the movie cuts to scenes from other Bruce
07:16Lee films.
07:17The plot was also completely shaken up, with the hero becoming a movie star whose girlfriend
07:22is kidnapped by the mob.
07:23Perhaps the worst moment of all, however, comes when the movie uses footage from Lee's
07:27actual funeral, even showing the actor's corpse.
07:30Adding insult to injury, the theatrical version of Game of Death only uses 11 minutes of Lee's
07:35original footage.
07:36Fortunately, the 40 minutes Lee shot are still out there, and at the very least, the film
07:41gives us the iconic image of the Little Dragon trading punches with NBA giant Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
07:47Immediately after Lee's death, Hong Kong filmmakers seized the moment, birthing an entire genre
07:52called Bruceploitation.
07:54Hoping to capitalize on Lee's posthumous stardom, studios hired actors who vaguely resembled
07:58the movie star, gave them off-brand names like Bruce Lee with just one E and Dragon
08:03Lee, and tossed them into knockoff movies that weren't exactly tasteful.
08:07For example, there's Bruce Lee and I, a sleazy softcore drama about Lee's relationship with
08:12Betty Ting Pei, in which Ting Pei plays herself.
08:15One of the truly bizarre Bruceploitation flicks was The Clones of Bruce Lee, where an evil
08:19scientist forces three Lee clones to fight to the death.
08:22And in Exit to Dragon and of the Tiger, we learn the so-called real Bruce Lee was a reluctant
08:27drug mule for the Triads and eventually murdered, so now, a successor named Bruce Lai wants
08:32revenge against the gangsters.
08:33But without a doubt, the weirdest Bruceploitation flick was The Dragon Lives Again, where recently
08:38deceased Bruce Lee wakes up in the afterlife and fights pop culture characters like James
08:42Bond and the Man with No Name.
08:44Popeye also makes an appearance, while Dracula later shows up with a gang of mummies, obviously.
08:49Bruce Lee's son Brandon was more than a little reluctant to take up his father's mantle.
08:54Brandon was just eight when his father died, and for a while he refused to have anything
08:58to do with martial arts.
08:59Evidently, Brandon found himself dealing with a lot of anger, and he was kicked out of two
09:03high schools before dropping out of a third.
09:05I remember when I was a little kid, a lot of my friends didn't want to come over to
09:08the house because there were always these men out in the backyard screaming and breaking
09:12things, you know?"
09:13Brandon admits he felt a lot of pressure to live up to his dad, and at the time, he had
09:18no intention of following in his father's footsteps.
09:21As he put it,
09:22"...I was like, hey, wait a minute, where was my vote in this?
09:25So I blew it off."
09:27His mother, Linda Lee, acknowledged being Bruce Lee's son wasn't easy.
09:30She told The New York Times,
09:31"...it was a blessing, because Bruce was a wonderful father.
09:35But for Brandon, it was also a burden to live up to what other people expect of you because
09:38of who your father is."
09:39However, Brandon was eventually bitten by the acting bug, and thanks partly to his martial
09:44arts training from his dad and partly to the Lee family name, he nabbed his first role
09:48in the TV movie Kung Fu the Movie.
09:50His first feature film was the 1986 Hong Kong flick Legacy of Rage, and in 1991, he teamed
09:57up with Dolph Lundgren for his first American movie, Showdown in Little Tokyo.
10:01Obviously, the movie that made him big was The Crow.
10:03But tragically, Brandon died on set before the film was completed due to a mishap with
10:07a prop gun.
10:08Brandon Lee died on March 31, 1993, at the age of 28, passing away right before he was
10:14about to become famous, just like his father.
10:18Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris are both legendary martial arts icons, but their lives could
10:22hardly have been more different.
10:23Lee's original name was Lee Jun Fan, and he was born in California to an immigrant family
10:28from Hong Kong in 1940.
10:30Norris was also born in 1940 and became a famous martial artist, but that's where the
10:34similarities end.
10:35He was a shy kid and a mediocre student who married his high school sweetheart before
10:39discovering martial arts while serving in Korea in the U.S. Air Force.
10:42In the 1960s, he became a karate instructor and an owner of over 30 karate schools, while
10:47also crafting a career as one of the greatest fighters in martial arts, and a multiple-time
10:51karate champion.
10:52Now, as many martial arts movie fans know, the two legends have faced each other on screen,
10:57and their epic Coliseum fight in The Way of the Dragon is arguably one of the genre's
11:01greatest throwdowns.
11:03Here's the question, though.
11:04Was that their only interaction, or is there more to their relationship?
11:08Did their status as high-profile martial artists make them mortal enemies or staunch allies?
11:13Or were they just two kick-ass ships in the night?
11:15Although Lee's sad fate means it's impossible to hear his side of the relationship, Norris
11:19is thankfully still around to shed some light on the matter.
11:22According to the man himself, Chuck Norris was actually on great terms with Bruce Lee.
11:26In fact, he and Lee not only knew each other, but often hung out together and even sparred
11:30on occasion.
11:31In his WorldNet Daily column, Norris has described Lee as extremely charismatic and friendly,
11:36both in person and on the silver screen.
11:38But while it's heartwarming to know that the Jeet Kune Do innovator and the karate master
11:42were actually great buddies in real life, there's one question on everyone's lips here.
11:47What would have happened if the two had faced each other in a real-life competition?
11:50Sadly, Norris refused to name a winner, tactfully dodging the question with a Lee-style philosophy
11:55nugget he calls a Bruce-ism.
11:57Showing off is the fool's idea of glory.
11:59What was that?
12:00An exhibition?
12:02We need emotional content."
12:05Still, it appears that Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris genuinely enjoyed spending time with
12:10each other, and they clearly had plenty of respect for each other's skills and philosophy.
12:14The men met at the 1967 All-American Karate Open Championships at Madison Square Garden,
12:20where Lee gave a demonstration of his techniques and Norris took home the championship.
12:24The two men started talking, and soon ended up taking part in a long discussion about
12:27their respective fighting philosophies.
12:30After that, Lee and Norris became good friends.
12:32For the next two years, they met up in Los Angeles to train in Lee's backyard, a routine
12:36that only ended when Lee relocated to Hong Kong to quite literally kickstart his movie
12:41career.
12:42And hey, speaking of kicks, everyone knows Norris is the master of swooping high kicks
12:46and roundhouses, but it was actually he who convinced Lee to see their usefulness.
12:51Norris explains,
12:52"[Bruce had different philosophies at that time than I did.
12:54He said, I believe in only kicking below the waist.
12:56I believe you shouldn't go any higher than the waist."
12:59Norris, in turn, argued that you should absolutely kick your opponent wherever they're dumb
13:03enough to allow you to, and backed up his argument by showcasing a range of high kicks.
13:08This impressed Lee greatly, and he soon began to incorporate Norris' high kick techniques
13:12into his arsenal.
13:13Now, to be fair, Lee had already performed his fair share of on-screen high kicks at
13:25that point, so it's not like Norris taught him an entirely new skill out of the blue.
13:29Still, Lee certainly seems to have remembered his old sparring partner fondly, because when
13:33he was looking for a hardcore on-screen opponent a few years later, he picked up the phone
13:37and called his old friend Chuck, about a new movie called The Way of the Dragon.
13:42The rest, as they say, is history.
13:45The 1993 film Dragon, the Bruce Lee story, is the most famous biopic about the life and
13:50death of Bruce Lee.
13:51However, the movie definitely takes significant liberties with the details of Lee's life.
13:56Bruce Lee was proud of his Chinese heritage, but his background was actually quite multicultural.
14:01Bruce Lee's biographer Matthew Pauly discovered from Lee's ancestry that the legendary fighter
14:05was only five-eighths Chinese, in addition to being one-quarter English and one-eighth
14:10Dutch Jewish.
14:12According to Vice, Lee's mother, Grace, a member of a prestigious and affluent Eurasian
14:16family, eloped with his father, Lee Ho Chuen, a Chinese opera singer, much to the horror
14:22of her family.
14:24It was during one of Hoi Chuen's tours in America that Bruce Lee was born in San Francisco,
14:29giving baby Bruce American citizenship.
14:31Although Lee had a rich cultural background, it wasn't entirely beneficial when he started
14:36studying kung fu in Hong Kong.
14:38The young Bruce studied under the renowned master Ip Man, but many of his fellow students
14:43didn't support Bruce receiving instruction, since he wasn't full-blooded Chinese.
14:48The oft-mentioned rule in the Bruce Lee story about non-Chinese not being allowed kung fu
14:52instruction was real, but eventually would fade out.
14:56From watching the movie, it would be easy to believe that Bruce Lee didn't get his big
14:59break in entertainment until he came to the United States.
15:03Not so.
15:04Coming from a family of industry veterans, Bruce already had plenty of experience in
15:08film acting long before he landed in America.
15:12According to Biography, he had his first on-screen role at the age of three months, when he acted
15:17as the stand-in for an American baby in the 1941 film Golden Gate Girl.
15:22From 1946 onward, Lee appeared in over 20 Chinese films as a child actor.
15:28His biggest break in American entertainment culture would come when he played the role
15:31of Kato in the short-lived TV series The Green Hornet.
15:35While he was a well-known actor in China, Lee would only cement his place in American
15:39pop culture history after the posthumous release of the film Enter the Dragon.
15:44In the beginning of Dragon, the Bruce Lee story, we see the young Bruce living with
15:47his father in a shabby little apartment in Hong Kong.
15:51They appear to be living in near poverty.
15:53In reality, the exact opposite was true.
15:56The Lee family was quite wealthy.
15:59According to Lee's biographer, the Lees had a nice home with a chauffeur and two live-in
16:03maids, a far cry from the run-down flat we saw in the biopic.
16:08When the Lee family sent young Bruce to the United States to keep him out of trouble,
16:12they didn't even send him overseas alone to make his way.
16:15You'll have to leave Hong Kong.
16:17For how long?
16:18Forever.
16:20He went to live with family friends and worked as a dishwasher in a Chinese restaurant, but
16:24the restaurant belonged to the family friend.
16:27In fact, unlike in the film, Lee never arrived in America as a ship passenger and steerage.
16:32He was upgraded to first class after he started giving cha-cha lessons to ship passengers,
16:38as Lee was also a renowned cha-cha dancing champion in Hong Kong.
16:41Did I ever tell you I was the cha-cha champion of Hong Kong?
16:44About 15,000 times.
16:48The movie showed young Bruce Lee leaving Hong Kong after beating up a few British sailors,
16:53which isn't exactly what happened.
16:55Hong Kong was still under British rule at the time, so Lee's affluent private school
16:59consisted of both children of Hong Kong's elite families and the children of the British
17:03upper crust.
17:05According to Newsweek, Lee and his fellow Chinese classmates were bullied by British
17:08students.
17:09In retaliation, Lee formed his own gang called the Junction Street Eight Tigers.
17:14As further reported by Newsweek, Lee later recounted his street gang days in a 1967 interview
17:19with Black Belt magazine.
17:21"'I was a punk and went looking for fights.
17:23We used chains and pens with knives hidden inside.
17:26Then one day, I wondered what would happen if I didn't have my gang behind me if I got
17:30into a fight."
17:31According to Lee, he was beaten very badly when an older student used a kung fu technique
17:35during a fight.
17:37This prompted Lee to begin his studies under the Grandmaster Ip Man to avoid feeling helpless
17:42again.
17:43However, his lessons never did keep him completely out of trouble.
17:46After a run-in with the police, Lee was sent to America for a fresh start.
17:51One of the most eventful scenes in Dragon takes place when Lee goes head-to-head with
17:54a kung fu master named Johnny Sun.
17:57When it looks as though Lee has won the fight and he turns to depart, Sun attacks Lee from
18:02behind in what is regarded as a dishonorable move, breaking Lee's back.
18:07It's a memorable scene, but the actual story is far less intense.
18:11Lee never actually broke his back.
18:13He injured his back very severely, but it wasn't from a power struggle with another
18:18fighter.
18:19According to his official website, Lee hurt his back in 1969 during a routine exercise
18:23session due to not warming up properly beforehand.
18:27The cause of the injury might sound fairly mundane, but the damage was no joke.
18:32The injury to his back was so severe that the doctors told Lee he could never practice
18:36martial arts again, and he might not even be able to fully walk properly.
18:42Lee was confined to his bed for almost a year, where he spent his time researching his injury.
18:47While he never recovered in the traditional sense, a combination of therapy and Lee's
18:51knowledge of kinesthetics and martial arts helped create a path to healing to the point
18:56where he was eventually able to go back to training and teaching.
19:00Lee's fight with Johnny Sun in the film made for tense storytelling, but Sun didn't exist.
19:05A martial arts master named Wong Jack Man did.
19:09While the Chinese-only martial arts code was a real rule, the policy was dying off by the
19:141960s.
19:15The real reason for the fight?
19:17To put the nuanced situation simply, the fight happened as a result of Bruce Lee's trash
19:22talk.
19:23I'll beat any man in this world in 60 seconds!
19:29According to Vice, Lee was critical of other teachers' kung fu practices, deeming them
19:33ineffective.
19:35Lee often liked to demonstrate existing practices, then explain why they wouldn't work.
19:39A particularly brutal lecture delivered at the Long Beach tournament, during which Lee
19:44appeared highly condescending, raised the ire of many martial artists.
19:49Many challenged Lee, and Wong Jack Man was one such challenger.
19:53There are a few theories explaining why Wong stepped up, but the likely one is that he
19:57wanted publicity for a new martial arts school he aspired to open.
20:02The fight between Lee and Wong took place behind closed doors, with only seven other
20:06people to witness the fight.
20:08They just faced off and went at it."
20:14The overall consensus was that the fight was rapid, intense, and raw, with Lee being the
20:18more aggressive and Wong more elusive, but there's no consensus on who the overall winner
20:23was.
20:24By all accounts, Bruce Lee is widely regarded as a kinetic genius, which Matthew Pauly discusses
20:31in his biography.
20:32While Dragon, the Bruce Lee story, shows Lee's many struggles in overcoming his injured back,
20:37it never mentions that Lee had other significant physical issues.
20:41These issues came to light after Lee was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1963, though he was
20:46ultimately rejected from service when it was revealed he had poor eyesight, a sinus disorder,
20:52and an undescended testicle.
20:54While Lee was capable of mastering just about any form of martial arts, he had other physical
20:59limitations, such as never learning to swim, according to his siblings.
21:03Contrary to popular myth, Lee was able to ride a bike, however.
21:08Bruce Lee met his wife, Linda Emery, while they were attending the University of Washington,
21:12and Linda became a student at his Kung Fu school.
21:15The two were very much in love and married in 1964, an unusual union for the time, as
21:21Bruce was Chinese and Linda was white.
21:23The movie did show Linda defying her racist mother and eloping with Lee.
21:28I don't want to rain on your parade, Mr. Lee, but the world needs hamburgers.
21:32It doesn't need judo.
21:33Kung fu.
21:34Whatever.
21:37But according to Linda Lee Caldwell, her wedding day to Lee was a bit less dramatic.
21:41It was true that her family did not approve of her marrying outside of her race over concerns
21:46of hardship and discrimination, but Linda and Bruce did marry in a congressional church
21:51with Linda's mother and grandmother in attendance.
21:54The film also never mentions that, while Bruce and Linda married in 1964, their marriage
21:59wasn't accepted everywhere at the time.
22:01It wasn't just Linda's family that disapproved of their union.
22:04Some state laws didn't approve, either.
22:07The Supreme Court wouldn't force all states to recognize interracial marriages until 1967.
22:14It took Lee a while to find onscreen fame in the United States, but he was doing amazing
22:18things behind the scenes.
22:20One aspect the Bruce Lee story never really covers is just about how much of an impact
22:25Lee made on the sets by personally training many of Hollywood's biggest stars.
22:30Such actors who came under Lee's tutelage included Sterling Sifflin, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,
22:35Sharon Tate, Roman Polanski, Steve McQueen, and James Coburn, with the latter two actually
22:42serving as pallbearers in Lee's funeral in 1973.
22:46Another of Bruce Lee's famous Hollywood acquaintances was none other than the future action star
22:50Chuck Norris.
22:51While he never trained Norris, Lee and Norris did work together, and the two filmed a fight
22:55scene in the movie The Way of the Dragon.
22:58In an interview with Black Belt, Norris recalled working with Bruce with immense fondness and
23:03respect, saying,
23:04"...Bruce Lee learned from everybody.
23:07He had a very open mind.
23:09He never believed in only one martial arts style, or that one was superior.
23:13He believed that everything had strengths and weaknesses, and we should find the strengths
23:18in each method."
23:20One major plot point in Dragon, The Bruce Lee Story, dealt with Lee's struggles in the
23:23American entertainment industry.
23:25In one notable scene, Bruce Lee is shown discussing with a producer his idea to make a kung fu
23:29western TV show.
23:31How about The Wild West?
23:32Okay, great.
23:33The Wild West.
23:34Okay.
23:35A Chinese immigrant wanders the land.
23:36He's a good guy.
23:37A hero.
23:38Of course he's a hero.
23:39He's the star of the show.
23:40Later, we see the show has been made, but with David Carradine in the starring role.
23:45It was heavily implied that the producer essentially stole Lee's original idea for the TV series,
23:51Kung Fu.
23:52But Lee never actually came up with the story.
23:53A Jewish comedy writer with a passion for Asian culture named Ed Spielman did.
23:58Warner Bros. executive Fred Weintraub took an interest in the script and retooled the
24:02idea, making Kung Fu a weekly TV show.
24:06Lee was Weintraub's first choice for the lead, and he auditioned for the role, but studio
24:10heads complained that his accent couldn't be understood.
24:14After other Asian actors auditioned and were met with similar complaints, the white actor
24:18David Carradine was selected, and the character's Asian ancestry was minimized.
24:24Throughout the film, we see Lee having nightmares of a strange demon, the result of a family
24:28curse.
24:29When the movie ends, Lee's death is revealed through Linda Lee's final narration that her
24:33husband died after slipping into a mysterious coma on July 20, 1973.
24:39Three weeks before the opening of Enter the Dragon, the film that brought him international
24:43fame, Bruce fell into a mysterious coma and died.
24:47Lee's premature death was startling, but not terribly mysterious.
24:52There have been many conspiracy theories around Bruce Lee's death, but the cause was ruled
24:56as a cerebral edema, a swelling of the brain that appeared to have been caused by an allergic
25:00reaction to a painkiller.
25:02However, Matthew Pauly, Lee's biographer, suggests that heatstroke may have played a
25:06role in Lee's brain swelling.
25:08Pauly notes that Lee collapsed from heatstroke three months earlier after working in a hot
25:12editing room with no air conditioning.
25:14He had been sleeping and eating less.
25:17The sweat glands in his underarms had been removed, as Lee disliked sweat stains.
25:22On top of all that, the day Lee died was one of the hottest days in Hong Kong that year.
25:27As Pauly explained to CNN,
25:29If you haven't been sleeping, if you've lost a bunch of weight, if you remove sweat glands
25:34under the armpits, then you're less likely to deal with heat than you would have beforehand.
25:39Even a healthy man can die in those conditions.
25:41In 2002, Linda Lee Cadwell and her daughter Shannon started the Bruce Lee Foundation in
25:45honor of Bruce Lee's memory, and to share his art and philosophy with the next generation.
25:52Bruce Lee was an enigma, and when he suddenly passed away in 1973, he left behind plenty
25:58of unanswered questions.
26:00Here's a look into what the last 12 months of Bruce Lee's life were like.
26:05Lee was nowhere close to where he wanted to be.
26:08He was an achiever and envisioned greater successes for himself.
26:12While he was just getting started in mainstream cinema, he was also cultivating his personal
26:17brand in a bid to reach out to more audiences globally.
26:20He was, of course, also considered a martial arts expert, but he was looking for ways to
26:25expand his reach and influence, especially in relation to popular culture.
26:30He was still mostly anonymous in the U.S. and only really gained fame after Enter the
26:35Dragon made its way to international cinemas after his death.
26:39Author Matthew Polley, who wrote Bruce Lee, A Life, in a bid to offer readers and fans
26:44a deep dive into Bruce's journey, believed that Lee was just getting started on his path
26:50to becoming a household name.
26:52At the time of his death, Bruce had several projects up his sleeve, including an animated
26:57show, a clothing line, and offers from film studios.
27:00He was also set to make an appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
27:04Lee knew stardom was coming, and was ready to make the most of it.
27:10Martial artist Jackie Chan was at the beginning of his professional journey in the 1970s and
27:14got a chance to work with Lee.
27:16Their first film together, Fist of Fury, gave Chan a glimpse into Bruce's way of doing things.
27:22Chan found him incredibly inspiring to work with.
27:25Lee was insistent on treating all staff on set, including stuntmen, as equals, something
27:31that stayed with Chan long after work on the movie was completed.
27:36Bruce would often have his meals with the stuntmen and engage them in conversation.
27:40He was proactive and always willing to help with things like footing someone's medical
27:45expenses.
27:46Chan later called Lee one of his greatest influences, and not just because of martial
27:51arts.
27:52While filming a fight scene for Enter the Dragon, Bruce unintentionally whacked Chan
27:57in the face with the stick.
27:59Chan reflected on the incident later and described Bruce's reaction.
28:03Oh my God, he run to me and lift me up.
28:07I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
28:10Lee found himself at a crossroads in the final year of his life.
28:13Even though he was reasonably successful and was on his way to becoming world famous, he
28:18wished to be known for the man he actually was, and shatter records while he was at it.
28:25According to The Ringer, his 1972 movie Way of the Dragon did manage to gain popularity
28:30for Bruce's brawl with Chuck Norris and broke box office records.
28:35It was also the first Hong Kong production to be filmed in the West.
28:39However, he was still struggling to make an indelible mark in the West and to secure his
28:44individual identity as a martial arts genius, actor, and entertainer.
28:49While Lee didn't see international fame during his life, his individual identity gained cult-like
28:54status after Enter the Dragon.
28:57Even decades later, he retains an almost superheroic persona among many fans.
29:04When filming began for Enter the Dragon, the crew had to be flexible with Lee's demands.
29:09For instance, he wanted screenwriter Michael Allen to be fired.
29:14According to the South China Morning Post, Bruce was of the opinion that the film's story
29:18didn't represent his Chinese roots accurately and wanted to avoid bias.
29:23However, the tweaks he suggested to the story were dismissed, so he requested that Allen
29:29be replaced.
29:30Additionally, the movie had a fixed budget of $500,000, which was abysmally low, so the
29:36crew and the producers had to make do by compromising.
29:39Plus, while some crew members were from Hong Kong, others were from the U.S., which caused
29:45a bit of conflict when work first began on the film.
29:48Bruce was aware that this movie was a significant milestone for his career and wanted things
29:52to align with his vision, something that didn't go down too well with the producers.
29:57We need emotional content."
30:00Thankfully, Lee's vision for the film paid off.
30:05When it was finally released shortly after his death, Enter the Dragon was a massive
30:10success and drew cheering crowds in packed theaters in the United States.
30:15Despite all the production trouble, Lee was proven right about what fans wanted to see.
30:22Bruce Lee was, on account of his work and fitness regime, a fanatic when it came to
30:26looking after his health.
30:28His sudden death at such a young age prompted plenty of speculation about his health habits,
30:33but he reportedly stayed away from things like alcohol, tobacco, and even coffee throughout
30:38his life.
30:40Despite the speculation, he was by all accounts healthy and focused on fitness.
30:45According to Entertainment Weekly, Bruce once famously said in an interview with Fighting
30:49Stars magazine that he wasn't fond of alcohol at Hollywood gatherings, which he called,
30:55quote,
30:56"...many times senseless."
30:58His friends would later reveal that he suffered physical reactions after partaking in booze,
31:02including nausea, excessive sweating, and turning red.
31:06In other words, Bruce exhibited the alcohol flush reaction and couldn't tolerate most
31:11drinks.
31:12It's also worth noting that Bruce exercised diligently and made sure he worked on his
31:16strength as well as conditioning.
31:19He had a bit of everything in his regime, boxing, running, jumping rope, and weightlifting.
31:24He was also a huge fan of protein drinks and health supplements.
31:27Lee was extra conscious about his physique, because he needed to maintain it to make it
31:32big in cinema.
31:35What has made Bruce Lee continuously relevant after all these years is the fact that he
31:39was an enigmatic superstar who died far too young.
31:43He has since achieved much posthumous recognition in the West.
31:47During his lifetime, Bruce did manage to solidify his legacy by paving the way forward
31:52for Asian artists in Hollywood.
31:55His unique interpretation of martial arts earned him major props.
31:59Many fans embraced martial arts after learning about Bruce, whether through his movies or
32:04his famous personal system known as Jeet Kune Do.
32:07In Cantonese, Jeet Kune Do, the way of the intercepting fist.
32:13Even today, Lee's former students continue to teach his methods, and new fans continue
32:18to find his films.
32:20Asian and Asian-American filmmakers ranging from Jackie Chan to Justin Lin and beyond
32:25count him as a major influence, and his legend still looms large in the popular culture of
32:31both East and West.
32:35A new cause of death has been theorized for legendary martial artist Bruce Lee.
32:39The initial ruling was brain swelling, or more formally, cerebral edema, possibly caused
32:44by a painkiller.
32:45But what if the medication had nothing to do with his death and the headache was a symptom
32:50of his true cause of death?
32:52A new study suggests just that.
32:54In particular, it claims that he met his fate by drinking too much water.
32:58The study was published in Clinical Kidney Journal and notes that Lee's brain weighed
33:02about a half-pound more than the average human brain, which could have been the result of
33:06an excess of fluid.
33:08According to the researchers, excess water intake is a risk factor for hyponatremia,
33:12or acute water intoxication, which Mayo Clinic says occurs when, quote,
33:16"...the concentration of sodium in your blood is abnormally low."
33:20The study reads,
33:21"...we hypothesize that Bruce Lee died from a specific form of kidney dysfunction, the
33:26inability to excrete enough water to maintain water homeostasis, which is mainly a tubular
33:31function."
33:32The regulation of the human body's homeostasis depends on healthy water intake and subsequent
33:36excretion by the kidneys.
33:38If Lee was consuming more water than his kidneys could excrete, it could cause serious issues.
33:44The study reads,
33:45"...this may lead to hyponatremia, cerebral edema, and death within hours if excess water
33:51intake is not matched by water excretion in urine, which is in line with the timeline
33:56of Lee's demise."
33:57The researchers also noted that hyponatremia can be exacerbated by various factors, including
34:03prescription drug intake and organ injuries.
34:07The study concludes by pointing out the irony of one of Lee's most famous quotes, considering
34:11that he died of an excess of water.
34:13"...and water can flow, or it can crash.
34:18Be water, my friend."
34:19If the study proves to be accurate, Lee wouldn't be the only one to suffer this fate.
34:24In 2007, radio station KDND held a water drinking contest.
34:29The end result was the death of a 29-year-old mother, Jennifer Strange, who drank over 1.5
34:35gallons of water.
34:36The station was sued for wrongful death, and a jury ultimately found them responsible thanks
34:41in part to testimony from George Alan Kaysen, a kidney expert who outlined his view on the
34:46cause of Strange's death.
34:48Kaysen noted that excessive water consumption disrupts the body's homeostasis, particularly
34:52by causing dangerously low levels of salt.
34:55He said,
34:56"...if everybody in the courtroom drank that amount of water, a fraction of us would die
35:00from it."
35:01Water consumption certainly would impact their executive function, much the same way a person
35:06who was intoxicated would be impaired.
35:08Of course, these theories are all unsubstantiated, and time will tell whether the new findings
35:13will cement water intoxication as the cause of Bruce Lee's death in the annals of history.
35:20Bruce Lee's shocking and mysterious death on July 20, 1973 prompted plenty of discussion,
35:25on a day when there were major happenings going on in the world.
35:28The summer of 73 was a tumultuous time, to put it mildly.
35:32On the same day that Bruce Lee died, there was quite a bit of drama in the skies.
35:36Japan Airlines Flight 404 had taken off from Amsterdam for Tokyo via Anchorage, when Schiphol
35:41Airport's air traffic controller intercepted a secret code that indicated something was
35:45wrong.
35:46Five terrorists, four from the Palestinian Liberation Movement and one from Japan's extremist
35:50Red Army Group, had taken control of the plane and diverted its course, taking the 123 passengers
35:55and 22 crew members toward the Middle East.
35:58The terrorists struggled to find a place to land.
36:00They were rejected by both Beirut and Damascus airports, but were eventually allowed to land
36:04in Dubai.
36:05Then-Minister of Defense Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum entered into negotiations with
36:10the terrorists, during which Red Army member Osamu Maruoka demanded both refuge in Dubai
36:15and the release of Kozo Okamoto, who'd been apprehended for a deadly attack at Lode Airport
36:19in Tel Aviv the year before.
36:20There could be no negotiations with terrorists."
36:23The negotiations were unsuccessful, and all the skyjackers got was more fuel for their
36:28plane.
36:29They took off yet again, this time landing in Benghazi, Libya, on July 24th, at which
36:33point they released the hostages and bombed the plane, destroying it.
36:37If you're looking for infamous presidential scandals, look no further than Richard Nixon
36:40and Watergate.
36:42It began considerably earlier, with Nixon sending a team to bug the Democratic National
36:46Committee headquarters in D.C.'s Watergate office complex in 1972.
36:51But in July 1973, Nixon himself was dragged into the fray.
36:53"...I told the president that there was a cancer growing on the presidents."
36:58In 1971, Nixon had secretly installed a taping system in the White House, intending to use
37:02it to document policy decisions, yet believing its existence would never become public knowledge.
37:07Then the Watergate hearings began, broadcast live to the whole nation.
37:11On July 16th, 1973, Administrative Assistant Alexander Butterfield testified to the Senate
37:16about the secret taping system.
37:18Only two days later, Nixon ordered the system disconnected, and over the next few months,
37:22investigators tried to get their hands on the tapes, only for Nixon to repeatedly refuse.
37:26During that time, the suspicion surrounding Nixon only grew, as more and more people began
37:30to believe that the president himself was involved.
37:32This was, in fact, a correct assumption.
37:34Nixon was involved with the original break-in, as well as the subsequent bribes and cover-up.
37:38"...apart from the fact that what was wrong was stupid.
37:41And generally I'm called many things, but not often am I called stupid."
37:46From there, trust in the presidency fell apart.
37:49Nixon finally released the tapes in April 1974, before resigning the presidency later
37:53that year.
37:55At the 1972 Munich Olympics, members of the extremist Palestinian organization Black September
38:00snuck into the Olympic Village, taking members of the Israeli delegation hostage.
38:04"...our worst fears have been realized tonight.
38:08They're all gone."
38:09Ultimately, all of the hostages were killed, and the surviving terrorists went free.
38:14The Mossad wanted justice for their murdered Olympians, and began to plan Operation Wrath
38:17of God, a Mossad mission to kill the Black September members responsible for the attack.
38:22Over the next year, their revenge was brutally effective, but that changed in July 1973.
38:27While in Lillehammer, Norway, Mossad agents received intelligence that led them to believe
38:31they'd found one of their targets, Ali Hassan Salama, otherwise known as the Red Prince.
38:36"...part of the brief that was given to the leaders of the assassination campaign was
38:40that they had to turn the terror on the terrorists."
38:44They pulled off the hit on July 21st, shooting their target in front of his wife before scattering
38:48almost immediately, but later news reports proved they'd made a horrible mistake.
38:52The man they'd killed was in fact an innocent civilian named Ahmed Boushiki, who just so
38:56happened to resemble Salama and by sheer coincidence had been seen talking with a Palestinian courier.
39:01Six of the Israeli agents were apprehended in short order, and five went to trial the
39:05following year.
39:07Mossad officials immediately suspended Operation Wrath of God, although it took decades for
39:10them to offer compensation to Boushiki's family, albeit without ever taking responsibility.
39:16In the 1950s, a miracle drug called thalidomide entered the market, said to cure the symptoms
39:20of pneumonia, colds, and even nausea.
39:22"...a hypnotic, as the doctors call it, that was the answer to a prayer."
39:26Consequently, plenty of pregnant women suffering from morning sickness began taking the drug,
39:31which was distributed by the Distillers Company in the U.K. and said to have zero ill effects.
39:36The safety of the drug was hugely overestimated, however, and babies were born with serious
39:40birth defects.
39:41The link wasn't found until 1961, at which point the drug was pulled from the market.
39:45Some pharmaceutical companies were brought to trial, and in the U.K., Distillers reached
39:49a settlement with victims.
39:50But many U.K. victims didn't think it was enough, and began a well-publicized campaign
39:54against Distillers for further compensation.
39:57Following a protracted legal battle, another settlement was reached on July 30, 1973, ending
40:02a decade of strenuous negotiations.
40:04For the most part, the public viewed the plaintiffs as heroic, but Distillers denied any wrongdoing,
40:09claiming that the legal proceedings had only delayed financial compensation.
40:13True crime is a hot topic these days, but not every story about a serial killer is particularly
40:17well-known.
40:18One of England's serial killers has actually managed to slip from public consciousness
40:22— Patrick Mackay.
40:23Though, to be entirely fair, his list of crimes is a matter of debate.
40:27Mackay had several run-ins with the law when he was still a child, was clinically diagnosed
40:31as a psychopath when he was just a teenager, and was institutionalized in 1968.
40:36All the indications of future violent behavior were there, but he was released in 1972.
40:41For the next few years, he wasn't on law enforcement's radar, but the gruesome 1975 murder of Father
40:45Anthony Crean led investigators right to him.
40:48Upon being caught, he started confessing to a whole host of other crimes, and ultimately,
40:53he was convicted of three murders — Adele Price and Crean in 1975 and Isabella Griffiths
40:58in 1974.
40:59The phrase, cold-blooded killer, could have been invented for Patrick Mackay."
41:05That wasn't all he admitted to, though.
41:07He told investigators about eight other victims.
41:10The first was a young German woman named Heidi Milnoek, who was stabbed on a train and thrown
41:14to the tracks, where she was found on July 8, 1973.
41:18Weeks later, on July 20, a woman named Mary Hines was found violently beaten to death.
41:22Six more followed between then and 1975, though Mackay later retracted his confessions, and
41:27the cases officially remain unsolved, as he could never be conclusively tied to them.
41:32Greece was actually ruled by a monarchy until mid-1973.
41:36A little unexpected for the country that's often credited with creating Western democracy,
41:40right?
41:41Technically, the military staged a coup back in 1967, ousting the king who fled the country.
41:46Then, in early June 1973, the military government made a bold announcement.
41:50It had officially abolished the monarchy and was prepared to turn Greece into a republic.
41:55All it would take was for the Greek people to approve the decision in a referendum that
41:58would take place a few weeks later.
42:00During that time, however, there was a decent amount of discussion about what should be done.
42:04The exiled King Constantine II cast doubt on the intentions of the referendum, pointing
42:08to censorship and propaganda that had been perpetrated by the military government and
42:12claiming that asking people to vote for a regime that had seized power was strangely ironic.
42:16On the other hand, Constantine had never been hugely popular with the people.
42:19Sure, there was little open hostility toward him, but his lukewarm reception made it hard
42:23to actually determine his standing with the public.
42:25That said, the monarchy was dissolved as a political entity, with the military leadership
42:29following suit a year later.
42:31If you want to be technical, the space race more or less ended in 1969 when Apollo 11
42:36landed on the moon.
42:37That didn't mean space exploration stopped, however.
42:40There were plenty of space missions launched by both the U.S. and Soviet Union throughout
42:43the 1970s, even a few joint ventures as the decade progressed.
42:47Mid-1973 was actually a pretty busy time for both countries in the space department.
42:52On the American end, you had the Skylab missions, essentially the first attempt at a long-term
42:56space station, a precursor to the International Space Station in many ways.
43:00To get more specific, July 28, 1973 was the launch date of Skylab 3, which sent three
43:05astronauts to space for a record-setting amount of time, nearly 60 days.
43:10The Soviet Union wasn't slacking, either.
43:11While the U.S. was experimenting with long-term stays in space, the Soviets launched a number
43:16of Mars spacecraft.
43:17On July 25, 1973, Mars 5 was sent on its long journey through the cosmos.
43:22The actual probe wouldn't arrive in Martian orbit until February of the following year,
43:26and it malfunctioned after a few days, though it did return some atmospheric data and a
43:30few photos of the Red Planet's southern hemisphere first.
43:33The space race and the technology it produced is pretty heavily focused on the U.S. and
43:37the Soviet Union.
43:38They weren't, however, the only two countries in the game, and mid-1973 marked the time
43:43when Europe on the whole would officially enter the scene.
43:46Technically, Europe had started looking into space exploration slightly earlier, but as
43:50the 1970s rolled around, there was a need for new programs that would push the boundaries.
43:54European leaders wanted to become a serious presence when it came to space exploration
43:57and technology, rather than simply a contributor to foreign projects.
44:01The European Space Conference was held in the summer of 1973 to outline the exact trajectory
44:06for those goals, and there, they settled on three related projects by July 31st, one of
44:10which was a European space agency, known now as the ESA.
44:14The plan was that it would be ready to go by April 1st, 1974, and build on older organizations
44:19while promoting unity among the nations of Europe.
44:22And given that it's still around, with its 22 member nations all actively taking part
44:25in launches and missions to this day, it seems they've done decently well at that.
44:30In early July 1973, the American public was benefiting from a robust economy, but many
44:35people wondered whether it was just the calm before the storm.
44:38Sure, there was a lot of demand for consumer products, enough supply to meet that demand,
44:42and plenty of jobs for everyday folk.
44:44But there was a growing sense of dread that things would take a turn for the worse.
44:47This is unreal.
44:48Isn't this disgusting?
44:49Why doesn't anybody contact the president?
44:52Why is he letting this happen to us?
44:54For the most part, people expected that there was a recession on the horizon, even if they
44:58weren't sure how bad that recession would be.
45:00The public eye was on the numbers and on the government itself.
45:03After all, Watergate was also well underway, and the American people were less than confident
45:07in their leadership.
45:08And as it turned out, they were right to be concerned.
45:11Inflation went through the roof.
45:13People would come into my congressional office and they'd be crying.
45:16One of the issues was a general shortage of raw materials, including petroleum products
45:20— oil, in other words — an industry where the U.S. was heavily dependent on foreign
45:24imports.
45:25When the OPEC oil embargo hit a few months later, the U.S. was wildly unprepared.
45:29Heavy controls were instituted on oil, setting up the infamous long gas lines and odd-even
45:34rationing, and the economy tanked, leading to a severe recession that would last for
45:38several years.