Who Was
Bruce Lee?
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Penguin Young Readers Group
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Text copyright 2014 by Jim Gigliotti. Illustrations copyright 2014 by Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Published by Penguin Workshop, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. PENGUIN and PENGUIN WORKSHOP are trademarks of Penguin Books Ltd. WHO HQ & Design is a registered trademark of Penguin Random House LLC. Printed in the USA.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014939727
Ebook ISBN 9780399540066
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Contents
Who Was
Bruce Lee?
The spectators at the International Karate Tournament of 1964 in Long Beach, California were amazed. They were watching a twenty-three-year-old young man named Bruce Lee give a demonstration in martial arts. The martial arts are ways of fitness, fighting, and self-defense. Many of them began hundreds of years ago in Asia, in places such as China, Japan, and Korea.
First, Bruce did some push-ups. But these werent ordinary push-ups. Bruce did them with only one hand. Not only that, he did them using only two fingers of one hand. Push-ups are hard enough to do with two hands. Theyre almost impossible with two fingers. But Bruce had no trouble. Up, down, up, downperfect form. What strength Bruce had!
Then Bruce showed what he called a one-inch punch. His opponent stood directly in front of him. Bruce pulled his hand back just one inch. He thrust it forward with such force that the other man fell backward into a chair. The other man couldnt stay standing, even though he knew what was coming. What power Bruce had!
Finally, Bruce stood with his opponent right in front of him. Bruce stood perfectly still. Suddenly, Bruces hands flashed and were in the other mans face before he could react. Bruce didnt hit him or even touch him. He was just showing how quick he could be. What speed Bruce had!
News of Bruces amazing performance that day reached a Hollywood producer. He thought Bruce might be the right actor for a new television series. The part needed someone who could be a superspy, like a Chinese James Bond. So the producer asked Bruce to come in for a screen testa tryout for television or the movies.
Bruce was a natural in front of the camera. He had a lot of experience acting when he was growing up in Hong Kong. He also had confidence, charm, and good looks. He did so well in his screen test that he got the part! He was no longer just a martial-arts star. He was going to be a TV star, too.
Bruce accomplished many other things during his lifetime. He was also a teacher and an author. Most of all, though, he became known around the world as an action-movie star. He used his martial-arts skills in the movies to fight the bad guys and save the day.
Then suddenly, Bruce was gone. Even before his most successful movie was shown in theaters, he died. He was only thirty-two years old.
That was in 1973. Bruce Lee is even more famous now than he was then. Other actors and actresses have portrayed martial artists in the movies. But no one ever did it with the strength, power, and speed that Bruce did.
Chapter 1
Birth and Childhood
From the very beginning, Bruce Lee was constantly in motion. When he was a little boy, he was a bundle of energy. He was always playing, running, or jumping. He bounced around his familys apartment so much that his parents and brothers and sisters nicknamed him Mo Si Ting, which means never sits still.
Bruce was born in Chinatown of San Francisco, California. His given name was Jun Fan. The Chinese custom is to put the last name first, so his full name was Lee Jun Fan.
Bruce was born on November 27, 1940, in what the Chinese calendar considers the year of the dragon. The Chinese calendar also considers the hour he was born as the hour of the dragon (between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m.). So Bruce was sometimes called the Dragon or, when he was young, Little Dragon. The dragon is an important symbol in Chinese culture. It is a sacred creature that brings power and good luck. One of the nurses at the hospital in San Francisco gave Lee Jun Fan his Americanized name, Bruce.
Bruces dad was named Lee Hoi Chuen. He was a well-known actor in a traveling Chinese opera that was in California at the time his son was born. He had also appeared in many movies in China. Bruces mom was Grace Ho. The Lee family included Bruces older sisters, Phoebe and Agnes, his older brother, Peter, and his younger brother, Robert, who was born in 1948.
When he was just a few months old, Bruce and his family returned to Hong Kong, where his parents had been born. His dads job meant Bruce was around the performing arts at a young age. He loved to go to work with his dad, and he soon appeared in movies himself. He had natural charisma on-screen and was in twenty films as a youngster.
Bruce didnt have quite the same enthusiasm for school, however. He was a smart kid, but he didnt try very hardor he couldnt sit still long enough to try! When he was twelve years old he entered secondary school. All of his classes were in English. That was a new language for him. At home, his family spoke only Chinese. One day, Bruces mother got frustrated with his performance in school. She asked him how he ever expected to make a living when he grew up.
