History Lesson: Bruce Lee Passes Away

On July 20th, 1973 the martial-arts expert and actor Bruce Lee died in Los Angeles at the age of 32.  He died from a brain edema that was possibly caused by a prescription painkiller.

Jun Fan (Bruce) Lee was born on November 27, 1940 in California.  A year later Lee and his family moved to Hong Kong where he starred in roughly 20 Chinese films as a child actor.  Lee studied dancing and also trained in Wing Chun style of gung fu (also known as 'kung fu').  In 1959 Lee moved back to America where he went to the University of Washington and opened a martial-arts school in Seattle.

Lee moved with his wife and children to Los Angeles where he starred as Kato in the TV series The Green Hornet (1966-1967).  He later went on to make films in Hong Kong where he established himself as an action star in Asia.  His last film Enter the Dragon (1973) was released in the United States, but Lee tragically died one month before the film was released.