The transcript below is from the video “1973 李小龍 Bruce Lee – Funeral [ 4K HD ]” by Bruce Lee MANIA.

Bruce Lee MANIA:

When Bruce Lee passed away, the whole world saw him off. He first held a funeral in Hong Kong, then was transported back to the United States for a funeral, and then was buried in the Seattle Cemetery in the United States.

At Bruce Lee’s funeral, the streets of Hong Kong were in chaos, just to see him for the last time

At Bruce Lee’s memorial service, tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong flocked to the funeral just to see him for the last time. His tombstone is magenta, with a photo of him on it, and his English name is “BruceLee”. It is also stated on the tombstone that he is the founder of Jeet Kune Do. Under his tombstone, there is a black stone sculpture, which looks like an opened book. On the left page, there is a black and white Tai Chi picture engraved with two sentences in Chinese on both sides: There is law, and infinity is finite.

Bruce Lee MANIA:

Bruce Lee’s wife once said: He has always thought that he still has a long way to go, and he has more things to do. For the Chinese, it is only the beginning if they think about what the world shows. He has always been proud of being a Chinese. He hopes to show Chinese culture to the world through movies.

Bruce Lee had two funerals.

Though he had high hopes for a successful film career in America, Lee and his family were living in Hong Kong when he shot to superstardom as an actor. His hard work as a fight choreographer and actor in China paid off, but his life ended at 32.

Bruce Lee MANIA:

Lee passed away in Hong Kong, and much to the chagrin of his fans, his 28-year-old wife held two funerals: one in China and the other in America.

The first drew legions of mourners which numbered more than 10,000, all seeking to pay their respects to the young star. It took hundreds of policemen to manage the grieving crowd.

It was the last time they would get to be in his presence because his body was shipped back to the US to be buried in Washington state. Lee had a private, quiet ceremony, and it should be noted since Enter the Dragon wasn’t released yet, he didn’t achieve Hollywood success until after his death.

Bruce Lee MANIA:

McQueen arrived at the second funeral

Steve McQueen suffered a few losses within a certain span of time, but he was known to avoid funerals. He didn’t attend Sharon Tate’s after she was murdered (McQueen was friends with her and Roman Polanski) and he knew her for years.

When it was time for Lee’s service in Seattle, he flew from LA to attend. According to Polly, Coburn and the chairman of Warner Bros. also showed up. But it was McQueen’s presence that surprised them all.

Bruce Lee MANIA:

According to Polly, McQueen said, “I cared about Bruce. I felt like saying goodbye to a friend.” He and Coburn served as pallbearers along with some of Lee’s family members and other friends.

When the graveside service and burial concluded, he, Coburn, and the others tossed their white gloves into the grave with Lee’s casket as they said their final farewells.

Who was not a pallbearer at Bruce Lee’s funeral?

Jim Kelly appeared in the 1973 martial arts action film Enter the Dragon with Bruce Lee but he was not one of the pallbearers at Bruce Lee’s funeral.

Bruce Lee MANIA:

On July 20, 1973, Lee was in Hong Kong, to have dinner with actor George Lazenby, with whom he intended to make a film. According to Lee’s wife Linda, Lee met producer Raymond Chow at 2 p.m. at home to discuss the making of the film Game of Death. They worked until 4 p.m. and then drove together to the home of Lee’s colleague Betty Ting Pei, a Taiwanese actress. The three went over the script at Ting’s home, and then Chow left to attend a dinner meeting.

Later Lee complained of a headache, and Ting gave him an analgesic, Equagesic, which contained both aspirin and the tranquilizer meprobamate. Around 7:30 p.m., he went to lie down for a nap. When Lee did not come for dinner, producer Raymond Chow came to the apartment, but was unable to wake Lee up. A doctor was summoned, who spent ten minutes attempting to revive Lee before sending him by ambulance to Queen Elizabeth Hospital. By the time the ambulance reached the hospital, he was dead. He died at age 32.

Bruce Lee MANIA:

Lee’s wife Linda returned to her hometown of Seattle, and had Lee’s body buried in Lot 276 of Lake View Cemetery in Seattle. Pallbearers at Lee’s funeral on July 25, 1973, included Taky Kimura, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Chuck Norris, George Lazenby, Dan Inosanto, Peter Chin, and Lee’s brother Robert.

What Song Was Played At The Funeral?

When I Die’ by Blood, Sweat & Tears was played at Bruce Lees funeral was sang at Bruce Lee’s Funeral

After the funeral was held in Hong Kong, Bruce Lee’s body was transported to the Lake View Tomb in Seattle, Washington, United States. When the funeral was held in the United States, six big figures carried the coffin to see him off.

Bruce Lee MANIA:

The first “James Cobain”, he is the lover of the acting master Adler, and he practiced martial arts and filmed together with Bruce Lee. The two also went to India filming , I never expected that Bruce Lee would leave before the movie was finished, which is regrettable.

The second “Steve McQueen” who retired from the U.S. Marine Corps superiors. He admired Bruce Lee’s kung fu and worshipped him as a teacher. He was also a movie actor. Masterpiece There are “Fire Skyscraper “Wait, it’s America Six Seventies The famous Hollywood tough guy movie star, quite famous.

Bruce Lee MANIA:

The third father of American Taekwondo, “Li Junjiu”, met Bruce Lee at the 1964 Karate Competition, and taught Bruce Lee the “legs” for many years. Since then, he has become an irreversible friend in martial arts, and he often discusses together. He is very impressed by his friends. Almost “fallen”, Li Junjiu himself lived to be 86 years old.

Fourth place 菲律宾 The stick king “Ino Santo”, he is one of Bruce Lee’s proud disciples and the core figure who inherited Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do. He inherited the martial art of Jeet Kune Do, but he never expected that Bruce Lee would drive the school just 6 years after he founded the school. Hexigui.

The fifth “Peter Qin”, the most coffin bearer Mystery man Wu is also the only person who has nothing to do with Kung Fu. It is said that he has a personal relationship with Bruce Lee, but there seems to be different opinions about who he is. There is a saying that Peter Qin still has contacts with the Li family.

By: Matthew Polly
From: Bruce Lee A Life
Permission by: Simon & Schuster

Matthew Polly:

The crowd of mourners began gathering on the evening of July 24, 1973, outside the Kowloon Funeral Parlour in anticipation of the ceremony the next morning. As the appointed hour of 10 a.m. drew closer, their numbers swelled and multiplied until over fifteen thousand Hong Kong residents stood behind police barricades, looked down from balconies, or perched precariously on the city’s famous neon signs to catch a final glimpse of their idol’s coffin. Five days earlier Bruce Lee had died at the age of thirty-two. Several hundred extra police officers were detailed to control the crowd.

Wearing lime green shorts and short-sleeved shirts, black shoes, knee socks, and billed caps, the cops looked like overgrown Boy Scouts on a summer trip.The South China Morning Post described the scene as “a carnival.” When the crowd spotted one of Bruce’s celebrity friends entering the funeral home, they clapped and cheered. Wearing sunglasses to hide tears, the famous arrived one after another to pay their respects to the man who had put Hong Kong cinema on the world map: Shih Kien, the villain in Enter the Dragon; Nancy Kwan, the star of The World of Suzie Wong; Nora Miao, Lee’s longtime costar; pop singer Samuel Hui, a childhood friend; even Lo Wei, who directed two of Bruce’s films. One of the few famous faces to skip the event was Betty Ting Pei in whose apartment Lee had died. Much to the disappointment of the throng, Betty chose to stay home where she was reported to be under heavy sedation. She sent a wreath instead with a note, “To Bruce from Ting Pei.” Next to it a tearful six-year-old boy dropped a spray of flowers with a simple message, “From a little fan.”

Matthew Polly:

“For the scores of fans who had stayed the night, the saddest moment was the arrival of Lee’s wife Linda,” reported The China Mail. A black Mercedes pulled to the curb, and Raymond Chow, Bruce’s business partner and the head of Golden Harvest studios, opened Linda’s door and gave her a hand. Linda was dressed in all white—the Chinese color for mourning—a white double-breasted long coat down to her knees, white slacks, and a white turtleneck. Her light brown hair was cut short. Big round sunglasses covered her red eyes. She appeared dangerously thin as if she hadn’t eaten for days. Leaning on Raymond’s arm, Linda was surrounded by a group of Golden Harvest employees who helped push her through the crowd surrounding the front door. “Outside the crush was tremendous,” Linda later said. “I recalled the old newsreel shots of the funeral of Rudolph Valentino.”

The five hundred VIP mourners inside the cramped funeral home fell silent as the twenty-eight-year-old widow entered. At the front of the parlor was an altar with a movie-poster- sized photo of Bruce wearing sunglasses surrounded by a display of ribbons, flowers, and a Chinese banner saying, “A Star Sinks in the Sea of Art.” Three joss sticks and two candles burned in front of his picture. The walls were covered with thousands of tributes—Chinese calligraphy on strips of white silk.

Matthew Polly:

Raymond and Linda bowed before the altar three times before Chow escorted her over to the section reserved for family. Bruce’s older brother, Peter, and his wife, Eunice Lam, stood solemnly. Linda was helped out of her fashionable long coat and into a white, hooded, burlap mourning gown per Chinese custom. Her two children, eight-year-old Brandon and four-year-old Shannon, were brought in from a side entrance and dressed in white burlap as well. A white bandanna was tied around Brandon’s head. Shannon, too young to understand what was happening, played happily while Brandon glared angrily.

A Chinese band struck up a traditional funeral song, which sounded like “Auld Lang Syne.” Bruce’s HK$40,000 bronze casket was brought into the room. The top half of the coffin was opened. Inside was a protective enclosure of glass covering Bruce’s body to prevent anyone from touching him. Linda had dressed her husband in the blue Chinese outfit he had worn in Enter the Dragon and liked to wear around the house because it was comfortable. Beneath the glass, Bruce’s face looked gray and distorted despite heavy makeup. Friends filed past the open casket to see him one last time. Press photographers jostled with the invited guests to get a better angle; many simply raised their cameras above their heads and snapped away furiously. As Linda made her way to her husband’s side, she looked heartbreakingly close to collapse. Covering her face with a trembling hand, Linda burst into tears. “It was a frightful time,” she later confessed to friends.