Profile of the Day: Bruce Lee

Today we remember Bruce Lee, who was born on this day in 1940.

Image: Bruce Lee / Wikimedia Commons

Born on November 27, 1940 in San Francisco, California, Lee grew up in Hong Kong before moving back to the United Staes at the age of 18. His father was one of the leading Cantonese opera and film actors of the time. Like his father, Lee had a knack for performing and appeared in several films as a child. After joining a street gang in his teens, Lee was sent to study martial arts under the tutelage of Kung Fu master, Ip Man. He would later open his own martial arts school in the U.S.

Lee’s later film productions are credited with elevating the traditional Hong Kong martial arts film to a new level of popularity and acclaim. Shortly before the premiere of his last film, Enter the Dragon, Lee died at the age of 32. It was later determined that the cause of death was a cerebral edema. The 1973 movie would become one of the year’s highest grossing films of the year and cement Lee as a martial artist legend.

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