10 facts about Bruce Lee that you might not know
Without a doubt, Bruce Lee was and is a true legend of cinema and martial arts. A lot of articles and even books have been written about his personality, willpower, and extraordinary abilities. Bruce Lee is the superman of his time, who tirelessly overcame all obstacles on the way to success. Thanks to his perseverance, he was able not only to master kung fu perfectly but also to become the world's first international Chinese superstar, overcoming the barriers of race and nationality. Below are a few facts from the biography of this amazing person that may surprise you.
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1. He left the US, among other things, to avoid legal trouble.
Bruce Lee grew up on the streets of Hong Kong in the 1950s and as a child was in a gang called the Junction Street Tigers. Once, he even beat up the son of a prominent Triad member. In the end, his parents decided that it would be better for him to leave the country and sent him to the United States.
2. Bruce Lee defended his right to teach kung fu in a duel.
In 1964, Bruce began teaching martial arts in California. While other teachers only taught kung fu to the Chinese, he believed that knowledge should be shared with everyone, regardless of race. As a result, one of the members of the Chinese community, Wong Jack Man challenged Bruce Lee. The conditions of the duel said: that if Bruce Lee loses, he will forever be forbidden to teach kung fu to non-Chinese. Of course, he won and continued to teach his martial art to everyone he accepted as students.
3. His overly intense training once led to a spinal injury.
Bruce Lee's training was difficult and dangerous, even if done with all the precautions. But one day, without warming up, he performed an exercise with a barbell weighing 45 kg and at the same time received serious damage to the vertebral nerve. Despite the prediction of doctors, Bruce Lee fully recovered from the injury and managed to become even faster and stronger than before.
4. There were quite a few celebrities among his clients.
Among the students of Bruce Lee were such famous people as Steve McQueen, Joe Lewis, Chuck Norris, James Coburn, and others. Despite the fact that Bruce Lee tried to get rid of celebrities by repeatedly raising the price of lessons, the flow of applicants did not dry up. Once he even flew to Switzerland to give private lessons to Roman Polanski.
5. He was too fast for the cameras.
The operators repeatedly asked Bruce Lee to strike more slowly so that the cameras could capture his movements.
6. Bruce Lee was part German.
Bruce Lee's grandfather was half German.
7. He was faster than any of the people.
Bruce Lee came up with this trick: someone holds a coin in an open palm and quickly clenches the palm into a fist. In these fractions of a second, Bruce Lee managed to replace the coin with another.
8. He once accidentally injured another actor during filming.
While filming Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee accidentally broke actor Bob Wahl's arm.
9. He could do push-ups with just four fingers.
Bruce Lee's workouts included push-ups, in which he rested on the floor only with his thumbs and forefingers.
10. Bruce Lee mastered the "one-inch punch" technique.
He excelled at this technique at the 1964 Championships in Long Beach when he knocked down his sparring partner by moving his fist only 2.54 cm.
Keywords: Facts | Bruce Lee | Legend of cinema | Martial arts | Extraordinary abilities | Master kung fu | Biography | Actors