Lee Brandon

The early years

Brandon Lee was born in Auckland, California , in the family of Bruce Lee and Linda Emery . When Brandon was three months old, his family moved to Los Angeles . In 1971, the family decided to leave for Hong Kong . His mother, Linda Lee, was of Anglo-Swedish descent, and his father, Bruce Lee, was Chinese.

Brandon spent his childhood in Hong Kong , having learned the Cantonese dialect and having mastered the art of kung fu according to his father's system - jitkundo . At the age of five, he already knew how to walk in his arms and reached his father in a jump. After the family moved from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, Brandon began to go to school, in which his father had previously studied. The school required to wear uniforms, speak and write only in Chinese. Brandon had problems at college due to his son’s status as a star. Bodyguards had to accompany the little Brandon and his little sister Shannon to college to avoid the possibility of their abduction.

When his father died, Brandon was 8 years old. A mother took him and his sister to the United States , where they lived first in Seattle and then in California . After moving to Los Angeles, her mother enrolled Brandon at the military art school. The IMB Academy was then run by students of Bruce Lee, Dan Inosanto and Richard Bustillo, and was located in California.

As a child, Brandon loved to play chess , a trick-track, a pin, poker and table tennis .

Acting career

While still at school, he performed on the stages of small theaters. Upon graduation, Brandon Lee studied for an actor at Emerson's Boston College . Closed, tense, aggressive, dressed in a tattered denim suit, a black bandana and rude work boots - college comrades remembered this young millionaire.

Then Brandon also began to take acting classes at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York. Brandon was fond of music, played the guitar and composed music himself ^[4] .

Debuting in theatrical productions on the outskirts of New York , Brandon in 1985 went in search of luck in Hollywood . Initially, in Hollywood he was accepted as the son of a great actor, and not as an independent person. Therefore, after unsuccessful attempts in the films “The Crime Killer ” (1985), “ Kung Fu: A Movie Version ” (1986), Brandon leaves for China . There he gets his first major role in the film " Substitute " (1986). During the filming of the film "Substitute" he, as you know , preferred going to nightclubs with Michael Wong rather than sleeping, and he also got up early in the morning to practice martial arts.

But the picture, despite the success, comes out in theaters only in some cities in China. After this, Brandon again goes to Hollywood , where he gets a role in the series " CBS Summer Playhouse " (1987-1989), in which he played only in one series called " Kung Fu: The Next Generation " (1987), which was a parody of the film " Kung Fu: Movie Version ". Then the role in the TV series “ O`Hara ” (1987-1988), in which Brandon also played in a series called “ What is Lurking in the Name ” (1988). In the summer of that year, Brandon went to South Africa to star in the English-German film " Laser Mission ." The role of Kenji in this series was the only negative in the filmography of the actor.

1989 was a difficult year for Brandon, there was no shooting, and even the robbery of his house, in which Brandon put up fierce resistance. After the hospital, the house robber Lee was sentenced to two years in prison.

After the failure in Hollywood , Brandon began to depression ^[5] . BJ Davis helps her cope by inviting Brandon to play a major role in his new film, Operation Laser , (1990). The film did not become popular, but Brandon was talked about. A breakthrough in a big movie was for him a role in the action movie " Showdown in Little Tokyo ", in which he starred with Dolph Lundgren . After the success of Brandon in his next film " Quick Fire " (1992) he himself invents the scenes of all the fights.

In 1990, Brandon Lee met Eliza Hatton . Eliza worked as personal assistant to director Rennie Harlin . They met in one of the offices of the 20th Century Fox studio. In early 1991, they began to live together, and in October 1992 they announced their engagement.

In 1992, Brandon came to Sweden to promote and promote the film “Quick Fire”, where he starred in the film “ Sex, Lies and Violence on Video ”. However, the film was released only after 8 years.

Filming Raven and Death

Brandon Lee was supposed to finally consolidate the starry status of “ Raven ” - a film adaptation of comics on themes of honor and retribution, immersed in a dark, “Gothic” atmosphere. Initially, the River Phoenix or Christian Slater were planned for the role of Eric Draven.

Filming began on February 1, 1993 in Wilmington , and on the same day Brandon turned 28 years old. On March 31, at the first hour of the night (00:30), when shooting one of the final scenes where the protagonist was shot with a pistol, Brandon was wounded in the stomach. Actor Michael Massi , who played one of the villains (Fanboy), shot from a 44-caliber revolver. The stub stuck in the barrel was not noticed by the crew and flew out when fired by a blank cartridge . As a result, like a bullet, she pierced Brandon Lee's stomach and stuck in the spine, causing extensive hemorrhage. After 12 hours, he died in a hospital in Wilmington, North Carolina .

Doctors ascertained the death of Brandon Lee on March 31, 1993, at 13 hours 3 minutes, from ongoing hemorrhage. Surgeon McMurry tried in vain to stop the bleeding - after a long five-hour operation, the situation did not improve. The surgeon later said: “There was too much blood loss. Blood did not clot. She oozed from everywhere. " According to doctors, if they could save the actor, then most likely he would remain paralyzed for life.

Brandon died seventeen days before his own wedding. He and Eliza Hatton were already engaged and had to get married right after the filming was finished - April 17, 1993 in Mexico City .

The shots with the murder were not included in the film, this film was destroyed, and the scene was shot again with the participation of an understudy (Chad Stahelsky). Missing episodes of the film were edited using computer technology by overlaying Brandon Lee's face on the figure of an understudy.

On April 3, 1993, a closed funeral was held. Brandon Lee was buried next to his father in Seattle at Lake View Cemetery , 800 meters from Lake Union and 3 km from Lake Washington, in the place that Linda, his mother, had originally reserved for herself. After the mourning rite, about two hundred relatives and friends gathered to honor the memory of the deceased actor. When leaving, each of the guests took with him a photograph of Brandon Lee.

Finishing Raven

After the death of Brandon, producers Rosen and Pressman decided to still complete the film.

A month later, director Alex Proyas flew from Australia, where he went immediately after Lee’s death, to Los Angeles, where he and Pressman began rewriting the script of John Shirley and David Shaw. The decision not to use the original scenario. The bridge explains this: "We tried to bring a different point of view to the project." In the script, much more attention was now paid to the heroine Rochelle Davis , the little girl Sarah, and some other characters. Finally, Skull Cowboy, the grim character who brutally taunts Draven, was completely cut out.

Six weeks after his death, Lee Pressman phoned the cast and crew, making an appointment for them on May 26 in Wilmington, to begin work on completing the film.

The following scenes were shot after the death of Brandon Lee:

• Eric Draven enters the apartment after climbing out of the grave. Filming of Lee walking down the alley in the rain was digitally mounted in the scene where he walks into the house. Computer technology added dripping water from the ceiling to the house so that the water would not look inappropriately.
• Shooting of how Lee falls out of the window was made by combining Brandon's face and the understudy's body.
• The scene where Draven applies makeup was done with the help of an understudy. The face in the broken mirror was Lee, and the hands laying on the make-up were understudies.
• The scene where Eric comes out with a raven on his shoulder was also arranged - the body of the understudy and Brandon's face, visible when the lightning flashed.
• When Sarah enters the apartment, they do not show Lee's face, because it is an understudy.

Filming was completed on June 28, 1993, and it ended up without a distributor after Paramount refused to raise it. But on May 13, 1994 he was released, and the first lines were: “Dedicated to Brandon and Eliza” (“For Brandon and Eliza”).

The appearance on the big screens of the film “ Raven ”, which was completed after his death, brought huge box office success and made the actor, a little-known until that moment, truly a cult figure among young people.

Among the films in which Brandon did not have time to appear is “ Mortal Kombat ” and the sequel to “Quick Fire”.

Documentary Films

• 2012 - I - Bruce Lee (TV)

In 2000, the song "Brandon Lee" was released by the Finnish rock band The 69 Eyes (Album "Blessed Be").

• Bruce Lee
• Linda Lee Cadwell
• Shannon Lee
• List of Unusual Deaths

• Brandon Lee on the Internet Movie Database
• Brandon Lee fans site (rus.)
• Brandon Lee fans site (ital.)
• Brandon Lee website
• Bruce and Brandon Lee Autographs
• Brandon Lee Life and Creativity Information Portal
• Brandon Lee Information Site