Brandon Lee

Brandon Lee was the son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee
and Bruce's wife, Linda.
He was born on February 1st, 1965, in Oakland,California. His father wanted him to train in martial arts, and started teaching him from a very early age. When his father died, Brandon went with his mother and sister, Shannon, to live in Los Angeles. Linda tried to keep them out of the limelight, and so give them as normal a childhood as possible.

Brandon: "Since my earliest memories, I always wanted to
be an actor, and I pursued that from the time I was very young... I have really never felt that there were other paths for me."

Brandon took drama classes at high school, then went on
to attend acting classes with Lee Strasberg (who has taught
the likes of Marilyn Monroe) before studying acting at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusettes. After appearing on stage
with the American New Theater Company, he returned to California to train at the Inosanto Academy of Martial Arts, run by two
of his father's foremost students. It was here that he met
Jeff Imada, a fellow student in martial arts who became close friends with Brandon. Jeff later worked on The Crow as stunt
co-ordinator and collaborator on fight choreography.

Brandon's first professional acting job came when he was twenty, when he appeared in the television film Kung FU: The Movie (1986). His feature film debut was in Hong Kong in Legacy Of Rage (1988). Though he spoke fluent Cantonese at the time, Brandon's voice was dubbed in the film, which is standard practice for such assembly-line productions. Next came Laser Mission (1990) which was a low budget production filmed in
Nambia and starring Ernest Borgnine alongside Brandon. Showdown in little Tokyo (1989) was Brandon's American feature film
debut, but, despite his talent, he was still to be cast in a really challenging role, where the material he was using matched his acting ability. 20th Century Fox employed Brandon to star
in Rapid Fire, in a role that was written with Brandon in mind. Jeff Imada worked with him on the fight sequences, to make them look more natural and believable. This, with Brandon's screen presence, made Rapid Fire quite a popular action film. 20th Century Fox recognised Brandon's potential and signed him for
two more films. However, they weren't the only ones who thought that he could go the distance - The Crow producer Ed Pressman
put Brandon on his roster, and signed him for three films.

Production began on The Crow on February 1st, 1993, Brandon's 28th birthday. On 31st March, with eight days of shooting left, he was injured while filming in the loft set and died.

The film was finished in Brandon's absence, and released in 1994.



Many accidents are reported to have occurred during the filming of The Crow, but one stands out from the others - the
one that caused the death of Brandon Lee.

Several explainations have been put forward as to the exact circumstances of Brandon's death. Some say it was a freak accident, some say incompetence (on the part of several people) was to blame, and some even say it was murder...

Filming was taking place in the loft set. The scene in question is near the beginning of the film, when T-Bird, Funboy and the others 'pay Eric & Shelley a visit' and kill Eric. Funboy (Michael Massee) points a gun at Eric and fires. The shot injures Brandon Lee who later died. The camera is on Funboy throughout the gunshot. It's possible that Funboy taking the shot was re-filmed, but the shot that was seen to be fired in the film is probably the one that killed Brandon. There was also a camera behind Funboy, filming Brandon. The film shot by this camera (and any others that could see Brandon) was destroyed without being developed. There were eight days of filming left to complete when Brandon was killed, mostly involving the loft set. The majority of this was completed using digital effects.

Other reports on the death of Brandon Lee exist, including one that says that the bullet in the gun was simply a live one, instead of a blank... whatever happened, his death will probably always be shrouded in mystery.