The transcript below is from the video “The Sad Life And Last Goodbye Of Brandon Lee” by Celebrity Reporter.
Celebrity Reporter:
There are a few stories in Hollywood that become infamous due to their tragic and unforgettable nature, such story is the saga of Bruce and Brandon Lee. A father and son team who both rose to great heights before experiencing great tragedy. Although they met their respective ends decades apart from each other. They are forever connected in the minds of fans everywhere for martial arts fans and those who follow pop culture. Bruce Lee and Brandon Lee are in a league of their own.
Celebrity Reporter:
Bruce Lee was born in 1940 and is widely considered to be the most influential martial artist of all-time. He worked as an actor, director, martial artist, and instructor. He first rose to fame in his home country of Hong Kong working on film sets with his father a Cantonese opera star. Moving to the United States to further his education and pursue a career of his own, once he settled in the United States. Bruce Lee began teaching martial arts, he notoriously worked with movie stars on their stunts for major film projects. His strength of presence and incredible athletic abilities paved the way for his Hollywood career.
Celebrity Reporter:
And by the late 60s, he had begun appearing in television shows and movies. Bruce Lee’s films including Enter the Dragon. Fist of Fury, and The Game of Death are considered to be master studies in martial arts and remain very popular to this day. Bruce Lee died at the height of his fame at the age of only 32. The circumstances around his death remain controversial to this day. In early 1973 Bruce Lee collapsed while working on a film and was rushed to the hospital. Doctors diagnosed Lee with cerebral edema and he remained hospitalized for several days until he stabilized upon his release. It was business as usual for Bruce Lee until a couple of months later when he was visiting a friend in Hong Kong.
Celebrity Reporter:
According to reports Bruce Lee had been complaining of ill health and went to lie down for a nap at his friend’s home. After a couple of hours his friend went to try to wake him, but Bruce Lee couldn’t be aroused. Paramedics were called to the scene and pronounced Bruce Lee dead. Coroner’s reports later noted that Bruce Lee had suffered the same brain swelling that had plagued him earlier in the year which could possibly have been exacerbated by drug consumption. Lee’s death made a huge impact on the world and fans everywhere mourned. No one was more heartbroken than Lee’s own family including his young son Brandon Lee who was only eight years old.
Celebrity Reporter:
When his father passed on Brandon Lee followed in his father’s footsteps and began a career in martial arts as well as in acting. After toiling in action films for the first few years of his career Brandon Lee scored the leading role in the 1993 film The Crow. Like his father’s, the passing of Brandon Lee is up there as one of the most tragic events of modern cinema. Not only was Brandon just starting to make it big in the industry, he was only 28 years old at the time, making the incident all the more devastating to his fans, friends, and family. But with multiple rumors that have surrounded both Brandon’s death and the litany of mishaps that occurred on the movie set where he died.
Celebrity Reporter:
People are wondering how did Brandon Lee actually die with just eight days left of filming. Brandon Lee walked on to the set of The Crow on March 31, 1993, ready to work as always. The young actor had gotten the role after big names like Christian Slater and Johnny Depp hadn’t worked out. And had been working himself to the little bone every day doing his own stunts and enduring long days along with a harsh working environment. But Brandon remained in good spirits throughout filming. The Crow was going to provide a career redefining role that would allow him to break free of only being known as Bruce Lee’s son.
Celebrity Reporter:
And just a week after filming was scheduled to end, Brandon was set to marry his girlfriend Eliza Hutton. But on that day during filming, fellow actor Michael Massey who played the character Fun Boy, aimed and shot a gun directly at Brandon as the script called for. However once the director yelled cut, everyone realized that Brandon was not moving, and was rapidly losing blood from a small hole in his abdomen. Brandon was rushed to new Hanover Regional Medical Center where he was operated on for six hours. Unfortunately, he didn’t survive, and was pronounced dead on March 31, at 1:04 am. There were a lot of conflicting reports that emerged right after Brandon’s death with the police.
Celebrity Reporter:
Film crew and production studio were all trying to figure out exactly what had gone wrong right after an investigation. It was discovered that the same gun used to fire at Brandon, had been used two weeks prior, but with live bullets that had been modified into blanks. One of the main differences between real bullets and blanks, is that blanks have cardboard tips, instead of lead ones, so that if there’s any impact with the bullet onset, the damage is minimal. When the gun had previously been used on the set of The Crow, a lead tip from one of the modified live bullets had gotten lodged in the barrel. So when actor Michael Mass fired what were in fact blanks at Brandon, the jammed lead tip became dislodged, and hit Brandon in the stomach, causing his death.
Celebrity Reporter:
While the death was ultimately ruled an accident and no criminal charges were filed, his mother Linda Lee Cadwell filed a civil suit against the studio, which was settled out of court. Brandon’s death was yet another great loss, not only to the Lee family, but to the world at large. He was said to be an amazing person, talented, gentle-hearted, and truly loved by those close to him. Brandon lee was buried next to his father and their joint grave site draws thousands of people every year. While the two stars are long gone, they are still remembered by people all over the world, including Brandon Lee’s sister, Shannon Lee.
