All these years after his accidental death
in March 1993, Brandon Lee continues to fascinate fans both new and old. Son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, the
actor is best known for his truly haunting performance in the goth-tinged 1994 film The
Crow. "I see you've made your decision. Now let's see you enforce it." Here's everything you need to know about Brandon
Lee. In 1992, Brandon Lee told Deseret News, "I've always wanted to be an actor. From the time I was really young, it's just
what I've always wanted to do...but it was never my idea to become a martial arts action
actor." From a very young age, Brandon was trained
in his father's own unique style of kung fu, Jeet Kune Do, which incorporates a mix of
martial arts techniques. As Brandon said in a 1992 interview, "I started training with my dad really as
soon as I could walk. I mean, my dad was a really diligent trainer." According to Entertainment Weekly, Brandon
could destroy a wooden board with a single kick by the time he was six years old. Meanwhile, people were constantly training
with Bruce at home, making for quite the unusual childhood. "When I was a little kid, a lot of my friends
didn't want to come over to the house because there were always these men in the backyard
screaming and breaking things, you know?" Brandon was only eight at the time of his
father's passing in 1973. Following Bruce's death, the surviving Lees
returned to Los Angeles, where Brandon struggled to find his place. He was kicked out of two high schools and
dropped out of a third. After earning his GED, he went on to study
theater at Emerson College for a year before attending the famous Lee Strasberg Theatre
and Film Institute in New York. As he started getting more deeply involved
with acting, his life began to flow like water. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Brandon
turned down the opportunity to play his dad in the 1993 biopic Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. As Lee explained: "I was a little scared by the whole thing,
really. It's strange to play your own father, you
know? I couldn't really wrap my mind around it." That makes sense. If he'd played his dad, he would've had to
feign a romantic relationship with a woman pretending to be his mom Linda…which would
have been awkward. Actor Jason Scott Lee ultimately went on to
play Bruce in the film...but opportunity came knocking for Brandon in 1985 when he was cast
in the television film Kung Fu: The Movie, starring alongside veteran actor David Carradine. On the whole, it's very dramatic stuff. "A coward. A peasant. Who carries vegetables! An old woman who runs in the night from shadows." Soon enough, he began popping up in more and
more action films. In 1985, Brandon Lee made his first and only
film in Hong Kong, Legacy of Rage. Even though the film was in Cantonese, Hollywood
quickly took notice of the young star. Since he was as talented and photogenic as
his father, it wasn't long before Brandon landed his first English-language leading
role in 1989's entirely missable Laser Mission. Curiously, the action film also starred acting
legend Ernest Borgnine, but it's definitely not one of his most distinguished performances. "You're fond of birds." "Yes. Yes. I have an affinity for them." By the early '90s, Lee's star was on the rise. In 1991, he starred in Showdown In Little
Tokyo, which co-starred Dolph Lundgren of Rocky IV fame. "All right. Say it." "Asian task force. You're Kenner?" "Mm-hmm." "Nelson sent me." Thanks to that film, Lee was subsequently
offered a three-picture deal. One of those films happened to be the action
flick Rapid Fire. But it was his haunting and emotional performance
in Alex Proyas' The Crow that made his career, earning him a cult following that continues
to grow to this day. Unfortunately, the young actor wouldn't live
long enough to enjoy that success. Brandon Lee had a reputation as a reckless
daredevil. As his former fiancée Eliza Hutton explained
to People in 1992: "He's confident, intense and direct, and a
lot of people find that intimidating." In fact, Lee was so confident, he often rode
his Harley Davidson motorcycle with no helmet and his hands off the handlebars. He once said: "If I want to put my head in a brick wall,
it's my business." He even owned a Cadillac hearse, and used
to joke that it was good for taking on camping trips. In an interview with Jay Leno in 1992, Lee
talked about coming home to find a burglar in his home. Instead of calling the police, he confronted
the robber, who lunged at him with a knife and cut his arm. The two fought, and Lee finally called the
cops…after he separated the thief's shoulder and broke his arm. "The police came and took him away, and after
he got out of the hospital, he got two years for breaking and entering and attempted robbery." "Eh, there you are." It just goes to show that Lee was a major
risk taker, both onscreen and off. "You have the right to be dead." He could be super-intense when making movies. For example, Brandon used his method acting
training to prepare for The Crow by soaking in a tub full of ice. That way, he could feel how cold Eric Draven
must've been while lying in his grave. A producer berated him for this dangerous
stunt and told him to mind his health. Though it's hard to imagine anyone else in
the role, Brandon Lee wasn't the first choice to play Eric Draven in The Crow. At first, the producers wanted to cast an
actual musician for the role of the murdered indie rocker. Names like Michael Jackson and Charlie Sexton
were kicked around before the team realized there wouldn't be as much singing or performing
as originally planned. Even then, Lee's name wasn't at the top of
the list. Comic book writer James O'Barr wanted Johnny
Depp to play the dark superhero, but in the end, Brandon Lee's martial arts experience,
and his smoldering good looks, won him the role. "What are you supposed to be? A clown or something?" "Sometimes." He was heavily involved with the film even
before shooting began. According to The Independent, "He also helped shape the story, convincing
[director Alex] Proyas...to remove a subplot...because of its problematic Asian stereotyping." According to co-star Jon Polito, conditions
on the set of The Crow were terrible. Lee reportedly lost 20 pounds while filming. Plus, the dark tale of revenge and murder
was mostly filmed at night in North Carolina's freezing winter conditions. Lee was constantly getting drenched in water,
and filming was constantly interrupted to fix his make-up. Lee reportedly filed a formal complaint against
production conditions mere days before his death. In fact, things were so rough that his manager
called producers in a rage, accusing them of trying to kill Lee. "Creatures of the night, they never learn!" During the scene in which Eric Draven crashes
through the glass door of a pawn shop, Lee was cut badly by the prop glass, prompting
Polito to express concern about all the physical risks his co-star was taking. All sorts of on-set injuries occurred during
shooting. Speaking to Inside Edition in 1993, an anonymous
crew member stopped just short of saying the shoot was "haunted": "Nothing ever seemed to go right....There
definitely were some bad vibes on the set." One crew member reportedly drove a screwdriver
through his hand by accident. Another member was severely burned after the
crane he was operating came into contact with power lines. A stuntman reportedly fell through the roof
of a set during rehearsal, breaking a number of ribs. Meanwhile, a series of hurricanes tore through
North Carolina during filming, destroying a number of The Crow's sets. But the most tragic accident was yet to come. On March 31st, 1993, Brandon Lee was accidentally
shot in the abdomen by co-star Michael Massee with an improperly loaded prop gun. They were filming the scene in which Eric
Draven comes home to find his fiancée being assaulted. The tip of a dummy bullet, a mock round used
in close-ups, was lodged in the barrel in front of the blank. When Masse pulled the trigger, the blank sent
the fragment flying. Tragically, it lodged in the actor's spine,
and after six hours of surgery, Brandon Lee died in Wilmington, North Carolina. He was just 28 years old. His death was ruled an accident by negligence. Contrary to popular belief, Brandon Lee's
death is never seen in the final cut of the film. What we do see in the finished movie in a
body double. Brandon Lee's mother Linda and fiancée Eliza
Hutton were both in favor of director Alex Proyas finishing The Crow. However, Linda filed a lawsuit against the
production company, naming 13 people at fault for her son's wrongful death. The lawsuit was eventually settled out of
court. Sadly, Lee and Eliza Hutton were set to be
married just a couple of weeks from the day he died. When Brandon Lee died, he still hadn't filmed
all his scenes for the crow. As we mentioned earlier, filmmakers used a
body double to finish the film. In fact, it was future John Wick creator/director
Chad Stahelski who was hired as the stand-in for Lee. Stahelski filmed all of Lee's remaining scenes,
and Lee's face was subsequently superimposed over his own in post-production. The famous face-painting scene was one of
the most expensive scenes to complete, since Lee's face had to be digitally inserted into
the broken mirror. Seven years after his death, Brandon Lee could
be seen in a brief cameo role in the 2000 Swedish film Sex, Lies, and Video Violence. The film is a very low-budget, hard-to-find
horror movie satire about a young man who loves watching violent films. This truly bizarro movie references loads
of classic pictures, including Alien, A Clockwork Orange, and RoboCop. Somehow, even Mel Brooks makes a cameo…and
so does Brandon Lee. In his very brief appearance, Lee plays a
befuddled pedestrian who's clearly seen some very hardcore stuff go down. "He's got a gun? I just saw the guy. He's like over there." Before Bruce Lee died of a cerebral edema
in 1973, the martial arts star had two kids: Brandon and Shannon. Today, Shannon Lee is his sole remaining child,
and she's doing everything she can to preserve the memories of both her father and her brother. She runs the Bruce Lee Foundation and oversees
movies and documentaries about her dad's life. In 2018, on the 25th anniversary of Brandon
Lee's death, Shannon appeared on the Bruce Lee Podcast to talk about her beloved big
brother. She even shared some of Brandon's journal
entries for the first time. During the podcast, Shannon talked about how
Brandon would often prank her, but when it came down to it, he was her fiercest defender. Shannon recalls the time her aunt tried to
force her to stop using her comfort blanket just after Bruce Lee's death. "Brandon just, like, stood up for me. And he, like, put his hands on his hips and
was yelling." Long story short: Brandon triumphantly got
Shannon's blankie back. What a great brother. Shannon also talked about Brandon's love of
reading and books. He was apparently quite fond of curling up
with a dictionary to look up words he didn't know. "He knew the definition of everything." Brandon was a born showman, too. As a kid, he'd write down episodes of The
Twilight Zone by hand and perform them at school. Sadly, Shannon was supposed to be the best
man at her brother's wedding, but that never came to pass. Brandon Lee is still loved and missed by his
family, friends, and fans. Buried next to his father in Seattle's Lake
View Cemetery, the site has become a shrine to both legends, and it's visited by fans
from around the world. People leave flowers, notes, and other memorabilia
to pay their respects to the father and son who touched so many peoples' lives through
their work. Reflecting on The Crow twenty-five years later,
The Saturday Evening Post wrote that, "[The film] captured the angst of a generation." As Roger Ebert wrote in his 1994 review of
the film: “It is a sad irony that this film is not
only the best thing [Brandon Lee] accomplished, but is actually more of a screen achievement
than any of the films of his father, Bruce Lee.” Every time someone watches The Crow, they
help ensure that Brandon's unique legacy lives on. "It can't rain all the time." "Eric?" Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Looper videos about your favorite
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