Bruce Lee Facts You May Not Know
In 2018, Jacob Oiler and SYFYWire presented From Bruce Lee’s Big Break to His Tragic Death: 8 Gems Gleaned from a New Biography. Although the article is no longer available, here are three of my favorites from it…
Lee likely died from heat stroke.
While there were many, many versions of Lee’s controversial death (in the bed of his mistress, Betty Ting Pei, no less), the typical assumption that an allergic reaction to a painkiller was the cause of his “death by misadventure” ignores the recent strides medicine has made in diagnosing heat stroke. A month before his death, Lee collapsed under similar circumstances, feeling dizzy and having seizures under hot and sweaty conditions. These symptoms, along with highly elevated body temperature (which past diagnosis had erroneously categorized as feverishness) and the fact that Lee had sweat glands surgically removed from his armpits weeks before his first collapse, point to one of the leading causes of death for young athletic men. That Lee was known to overwork, lose weight, and lose sleep when making films only bolsters the case that his death on July 20, 1973 (the hottest day during that Hong Kong summer), was likely caused by heat stroke.
Roman Polanski once suspected Lee of killing Sharon Tate.
Lee was a fight choreographer for some of Hollywood’s biggest names in the ‘70s and a regular in their party scene. He hobnobbed with Steve McQueen, Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate, and James Coburn. So when Charles Manson’s followers horrifically killed Tate, Sebring, and three others at a house Polanski was renting, the tragedy struck especially close to home for Lee. Tate and Polanski were clients, while Sebring was one of Lee’s closest friends in town. But when Lee mentioned to Polanski that he lost his glasses — the director knew that an unidentified pair of horn-rims were found at the house — Polanski grew suspicious and took the actor to buy a new pair. But when Lee’s prescription didn’t match that of the evidence at the scene, Polanski thankfully relented.
Batman and a hairdresser were responsible for Lee’s early Hollywood career.
Jay Sebring, Hollywood hairdresser and karate enthusiast, had seen Lee perform a controversial demonstration and speech at the 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championship. He also cut the hair of William Dozier, a TV producer looking to cast Charlie Chan’s son for a prospective James Bond-esque show titled Number One Son. Dozier loved Lee for the role and was producing the longshot Batman show at the time. The success of the campy superhero adaptation would determine whether the studio accepted his next project… and Lee. Batman was a hit and, though Number One Son was nixed, the success of Adam West’s detective meant that superheroes were hot — and The Green Hornet wasn’t far behind. That meant Lee could be Kato, who crossed over onto Batman for a few episodes. Lee and Burt Ward (Robin) even lived in the same apartment complex.
Rushed like crazy to see this. Very interesting and never before heard of the ‘suspected Lee of killing Sharon”…kind of insulting to me, from the author. However, might have happened w extra detail, only Bruce’s wife/widow may know about. but the first listed, i dont believe. I’ve read over a dozen books and watched almost that many documentaries, and NEVER heard of his sweat glands being removed. and mainly dont believe it is the professor Tere who was flown in to do autopsy, seen over hundreds of human brain specimens, concluded death was ‘allergic reaction’ w a leakage he already had in his brain and did indeed pass out a few months before in a studio…(but…we all were not there, so…it’s possible ‘heat stroke’) he did exhaust himself, that’s all that Norris, Jabbar etc ever talk about is Bruce did NOT know when to turn the engine off.
Yeah, I had never heard of the sweat gland removal or the Sharon Tate “murder” connection either. I just KNEW you’d be all over this post!