Brandon Lee
Brandon Lee
01.02.1965 - 31.03.1993 (28 years) (Oakland, California, USA)
Brandon Bruce Lee (February 1, 1965 – March 31, 1993) was an American actor and martial artist. Lee is also known for his accidental death on the set of The Crow, and being the first child of martial artist and film star Bruce Lee. As a child from visiting his father's sets, who at the time was a major martial arts film leading man, Lee developed the desire to become an actor. Lee was 8 years old when his father died, becoming an iconic figure of both the art and the film genre he specialized in. Lee pursued his goal of being a thespian, he then studied the craft at the Emerson College and the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. Lee wanted to escape his father's image to become a dramatic actor, but he figured that acting in action oriented films would eventually lead him to other types of roles. After a stint doing local theater, Lee made his screen debut opposite David Carradine in the 1986 ABC's television film Kung Fu: The Movie, a spin-off of the 1970s television series Kung Fu, where he received second billing and starred in his first leading role in Ronny Yu's Hong Kong action film Legacy of Rage that same year. Shortly after, on television, Lee played a lead in the pilot Kung Fu: The Next Generation (1987), guest starred in an episode of the television series Ohara (1988). Following this, Lee was the lead in the low budget action film Laser Mission (1989), the US direct to video release of it proved to be financially successful. In the 1990s, he started working with major Hollywood studios and his first American theatrical release was the Warner Bros' buddy cop action film Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991), directed by Mark L. Lester and co-starring Dolph Lundgren. By critics described it as an overwhelmingly silly action film and didn't like it upon release, but found appreciation in retrospective for that same reason. This was followed with the leading role in Dwight H. Little's Rapid Fire (1992) produced by 20th Century Fox, where Lee also did the fight choreography. While some critics liked the film, most felt the script was too simple, however almost all described Lee to be charismatic, in a slick Hollywood action film. In 1992, he landed his breakthrough role as Eric Draven in Alex Proyas' The Crow (1994), based on the comic book of the same name, which would be his final film. On March 31, 1993, only a few days away from completing the film, Lee was accidentally killed after being shot on the set of The Crow by a prop gun that fired a bullet from a dummy round that was accidentally lodged in the chamber. With the blessing of Lee's family, and very few scenes to shoot, the film was completed by re-writing the script, using early CGI technology and stunt doubles. Released a year after, the film is known to present Lee's dramatic abilities, in which he had less of chance to show in his previous films. It was a commercial success, and now considered a cult classic. Upon release, the film received great critical acclaim and made $50 million at the box office and was also a success overseas. Many saw parallels between Lee and his father comparing their careers as action film leading men who passed young, prior to the release of their breakthrough film, with the difference that his father demonstrated high martial arts skills, while Lee showed a strong dramatic performance.