Highlights
- Jackie Chan was inspired by Bruce Lee's work and legacy, continuing the trend of Kung Fu legends in cinema.
- Both Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan made significant impacts on Western and Eastern cinema through their martial arts talents.
- Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan shared a friendly and professional relationship, with Bruce Lee even mentoring Jackie Chan as a young actor.
Bruce Lee was arguably one of the best Kung Fu stars to appear on the big screen. His career was sadly cut short at 32 after he passed away from swelling of the brain.
After the loss of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan helped to fill in the void after his death. The actor's mix of action and slapstick was very different from Lee, but he helped fill the huge gap left by the Enter the Dragon star to continue his legacy.
While both Chan and Lee have carved their own legacy in Western and Eastern cinema, there is no doubt that Bruce Lee opened doors that helped other Kung Fu actors hit the mainstream.
In the following, we take a look at how Jackie Chan became the next Kong Fu movie legend after Bruce Lee and if Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee were friends. We also discuss how Bruce Lee's death emotionally impacted Jackie Chan.
How Jackie Chan Carried On Bruce Lee's Kung Fu Legacy
Over 50 years after his death, Bruce Lee remains Asian cinema’s biggest icon. His legacy led to the rise of other martial arts stars like Jackie Chan and Jet Li, Takuya Kimura and Jun Ji-hyun, alongside award-winning directors like Wong Kar-wai, Ang Lee, and Bong Joon-ho.
By introducing Chinese martial arts to American audiences, Bruce Lee revolutionized the way Asian men were portrayed in Hollywood. His films created a global craze that led to Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme trying to create his mix of action hero and combat sports star.
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Jackie Chan's stunt work with Bruce Lee in the 1970s compelled the star to become an actor. Jackie Chan's early appearance in Fist of Fury made him want to push himself to become a leading man. While Chan enjoyed stunt work, he had little interest in making someone else look better and instead "wanted to let people know it was me on the screen. I didn't want to be a double." Without that appearance in the iconic Bruce Lee movie, who knows where Jackie Chan's career would have gone.
At the time of Lee’s death, Jackie Chan was only nineteen years old. Like many Asian actors, Jackie Chan was set to become Lee’s successor but chose to create his own career path. During the 1970s, Chan developed a goofier persona in the martial arts genre, mixing his experience as a stunt double with his physical comedy.
Were Jackie Chan And Bruce Lee Friends?
Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee were bowling together just days before Lee passed away.
One of Jackie Chan's earliest jobs in the industry was as a stuntman in Bruce Lee's film Fist of Fury. Chan appeared as an extra and stunt double for the villainous Hiroshi Suzuki (Riki Hashimoto). He is noticeably the man who gets thrown through the window at the end of the movie after the character he doubles gets kicked in the throat.
The Rush Hour star also revealed that Bruce Lee had a massive entourage that he found very intimidating as a young stunt double. Despite his star status, Bruce Lee was kind and "very good to the low class people."
Jackie Chan would appear in another famous Bruce Lee film, Enter The Dragon, appearing as a henchman who is killed by Lee. Recalling Lee's kind behavior with all the artists present on the set, Chan revealed...
"He didn’t care about impressing the big bosses, but he took care of us.”
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Jackie Chan also shared Lee’s generosity towards him: “Bruce was great because he got me even more money by telling the stunt coordinator it was a dangerous stunt – but it wasn’t a dangerous stunt. He was just trying to help me get paid more, and that made me so happy.”
The confidence gained from this experience with Bruce Lee would help Jackie Chan throughout his long career.
While making a fighting sequence in Enter The Dragon, Bruce Lee fought more than a dozen villainous sidekicks, including the one played by Chan. Bruce Lee whipped Jackie Chan, slightly injuring him. As soon as the cameras stopped filming, Lee apologized for the unintentional hit. “Bruce threw away his weapon, ran over to me, and said, I’m sorry, I’m sorry and picked me up," explained Chan.
“I was behind the camera, and I would just see Bruce Lee. Then I ran, and suddenly it was all black in front of my eyes. He had hit just one stick right on my head. I felt dizzy, and I looked at Bruce Lee — he kept acting until the director said cut.”
Following the incident on the set of Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee invited his young co-star to go bowling with him. Chan explained the evening was “like a dream”. Fans soon flocked around Bruce Lee, trying to get autographs from the icon. “I’m such an important person,” Chan recalls feeling, as the pair bowled together. However, after two games, Lee said, “Jackie, I gotta go.” Only a few months after the completion of Enter the Dragon, and six days before its July 1973 release, Bruce Lee passed away.
How Jackie Chan Felt About Bruce Lee's Death
Bruce Lee's untimely death at the age of just 32 has sparked many a conspiracy theory over the years, and Jackie Chan has his own opinions on his former co-star's passing.
Jackie Chan explained on Sway's Universe that Lee "died in somebody's house," and that his boss picked him up and took him to a hospital. Lee was visiting the apartment of Taiwanese actress Betty Ting Pei when he complained of having a headache. He took a nap but never awoke.
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Jackie Chan refutes the conspiracy theories surrounding his death, including the actor being killed by triads and family curse.
“I think in the old days, 30 years ago, communication was not fast enough. There was no internet, nobody knows. He died in somebody’s house. That’s everybody knows. My boss pick him up, then sended him to the hospital, and that’s the truth. Hong Kong, google everybody knows what happened. Wherever I travel, people ask how Bruce Lee died? Did somebody murder? Curse? No, nothing, just normal dying in somebody’s house, that’s all.”
Bruce Lee's cause of death was officially listed as an allergic reaction to aspirin. The martial arts star had previously collapsed and was diagnosed with cerebral edema, also known as brain swelling.
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