Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee
Author: Matthew Polly
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Total Pages: 656
Release: 2019-06-04
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1501187635

The “definitive” (The New York Times) biography of film legend Bruce Lee, who made martial arts a global phenomenon, bridged the divide between eastern and western cultures, and smashed long-held stereotypes of Asians and Asian-Americans. Forty-five years after Bruce Lee’s sudden death at age thirty-two, journalist and bestselling author Matthew Polly has written the definitive account of Lee’s life. It’s also one of the only accounts; incredibly, there has never been an authoritative biography of Lee. Following a decade of research that included conducting more than one hundred interviews with Lee’s family, friends, business associates, and even the actress in whose bed Lee died, Polly has constructed a complex, humane portrait of the icon. Polly explores Lee’s early years as a child star in Hong Kong cinema; his actor father’s struggles with opium addiction and how that turned Bruce into a troublemaking teenager who was kicked out of high school and eventually sent to America to shape up; his beginnings as a martial arts teacher, eventually becoming personal instructor to movie stars like James Coburn and Steve McQueen; his struggles as an Asian-American actor in Hollywood and frustration seeing role after role he auditioned for go to a white actors in eye makeup; his eventual triumph as a leading man; his challenges juggling a sky-rocketing career with his duties as a father and husband; and his shocking end that to this day is still shrouded in mystery. Polly breaks down the myths surrounding Bruce Lee and argues that, contrary to popular belief, he was an ambitious actor who was obsessed with the martial arts—not a kung-fu guru who just so happened to make a couple of movies. This is an honest, revealing look at an impressive yet imperfect man whose personal story was even more entertaining and inspiring than any fictional role he played onscreen.

Unsettled Matters

Unsettled Matters
Author: Tom Bleecker
Publisher:
Total Pages: 228
Release: 1996
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780965313209

Striking Distance

Striking Distance
Author: Charles Russo
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2016-07
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0803290519

In the spring of 1959, eighteen-year-old Bruce Lee returned to San Francisco, the city of his birth. Although the martial arts were widely unknown in America, Bruce encountered a robust fight culture in the Bay Area, populated with talented and trailblazing practitioners such as Lau Bun, Chinatown’s aging kung fu patriarch; Wally Jay, the innovative Hawaiian jujitsu master; and James Lee, the Oakland street fighter. Regarded by some as a brash loudmouth and by others as a dynamic visionary, Bruce spent his first few years back in America advocating for a modern approach to the martial arts, and showing little regard for the damaged egos left in his wake. The year of 1964 would be an eventful one for Bruce, in which he would broadcast his dissenting worldview before the first great international martial arts gathering, and then defend it by facing down Wong Jack Man—Chinatown’s young kung fu ace—in a legendary behind-closed-doors showdown. These events were a catalyst to the dawn of martial arts in America and a prelude to an icon. Based on over one hundred original interviews, Striking Distance chronicles Bruce Lee’s formative days amid the heated martial arts proving ground that thrived on San Francisco Bay in the early 1960s.

Bruce Lee The Tao of Gung Fu

Bruce Lee The Tao of Gung Fu
Author: Bruce Lee
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2015-09-08
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1462917887

In the months leading up to his death, Bruce Lee was working on this definitive study of the Chinese martial arts--collectively known as Kung Fu or Gung Fu. This book has now been edited and is published here for the first time in its entirety. Bruce Lee totally revolutionized the practice of martial arts and brought them into the modern world--by promoting the idea that students have the right to pick and choose those techniques and training regimens which suit their own personal needs and fighting styles. He developed a new style of his own called Jeet Kune Do--combining many elements from different masters and different traditions. This was considered heretical at the time within martial arts circles, where one was expected to study with only a single master--and Lee was the first martial artist to attempt this. Today he is revered as the "father" of martial arts practice around the world--including Mixed Martial Arts. In addition to presenting the fundamental techniques, mindset and training methods of traditional Chinese martial arts, this martial art treatise explores such esoteric topics as Taoism and Zen as applied to Gung Fu, Eastern and Western fitness regimens and self-defense techniques. Also included is a Gung Fu "scrapbook" of Bruce Lee's own personal anecdotes regarding the history and traditions of the martial arts of China. After Lee's death, his manuscript was completed and edited by martial arts expert John Little in cooperation with the Bruce Lee Estate. This book features an introduction by his wife, Linda Lee Cadwell and a foreword from his close friend and student, Taky Kimura. This Bruce Lee Book is part of the Bruce Lee Library which also features: Bruce Lee: Striking Thoughts Bruce Lee: The Celebrated Life of the Golden Dragon Bruce Lee: Artist of Life Bruce Lee: Letters of the Dragon Bruce Lee: The Art of Expressing the Human Body Bruce Lee: Jeet Kune Do

Bruce Lee's Fighting Method

Bruce Lee's Fighting Method
Author: Bruce Lee
Publisher: Black Belt Communications
Total Pages: 132
Release: 1977
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 9780897500531

Part of the Bruce Lee's Fighting Method series, this book teaches how to perform jeet kune do's devastating strikes and exploit an opponent's weaknesses with crafty counterattacks like finger jabs and spin kicks.

The Boy who Became a Dragon

The Boy who Became a Dragon
Author: Jim Di Bartolo
Publisher: Graphix
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020
Genre: JUVENILE FICTION
ISBN: 9781338134117

Graphix's first biography -- telling the astonishing story of martial arts legend Bruce Lee.

Chinese Gung Fu

Chinese Gung Fu
Author: Bruce Lee
Publisher: Black Belt Communications
Total Pages: 116
Release: 1987
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780897501125

This new edition of Bruce Lee's classic work rejuvenates the authority, insight, and charm of the master's original 1963 publication for modern audiences. It seemlessly brings together Lee's original language, descriptions and demonstrations with new material for readers, martial arts enthusiasts and collectors that want Lee in his purest form. This timeless work preserves the integrity of Lee's hand-drawn diagrams and captioned photo sequences in which he demonstrates a variety of training exercises and fighting techniques, ranging from gung fu stances and leg training to single- and multiple-opponent scenarios. Thought-provoking essays on the history of gung fu, the theory of yin and yang, and personal, first-edition testimonials by James Y. Lee, the legendary Ed Parker, and jujutsu icon Wally Jay round out this one and only book by Lee on the Chinese martial arts. -- from back cover.

Bruce Lee, Woodstock and Me

Bruce Lee, Woodstock and Me
Author: Fred Weintraub
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre: Motion picture producers and directors
ISBN: 9780984715206

Fred Weintraub is the Hollywood legend you've never heard of. This visionary showman founded the landmark club The Bitter End in Greenwich Village; started the careers of Bill Cosby, Joan Rivers, Woody Allen and Neil Diamond; championed the making of the "Woodstock" film (saving Warner Bros. Pictures in the process); discovered the martial arts sensation Bruce Lee and produced the classic film "Enter the Dragon," along with forty other motion pictures with such stars as Steve McQueen, George C. Scott, Robert Duvall, Kirsten Dunst and dozens of others. In his insightful, funny, bawdy memoir, Weintraub bangs heads with foreign dictators; mobsters; movie executives; difficult stars; and red-baiting producers—and bangs headboards with a lusty succession of Sexual Revolutionary women on his fifty-year journey through the entertainment business. It's a trip you won't want to miss.