Shannon Lee

There have always been frictions and legal disputes between Shannon and her father’s other siblings and their children over the rights to her father’s legacy. While she and her mother are based in the USA, the rest of her father’s family are traditionally Chinese. Though the two sides do not communicate much, Shannon has endeavoured to keep the relationship cordial.

When Bruce Lee died, his legacy was divided as 50% to his wife, Linda Lee and 25 % each to his two children, Shannon and Brandon. This became a bone of contention with rest of her father’s family who maintained that they were not kept informed.

Shannon Lee was born on 19 April 1969 in Los Angeles, California, USA to the famous martial arts expert and film star, Bruce Lee and his wife Linda Lee Cadwell. She had an elder brother named Brandon Lee. She is the granddaughter of Lee Hoi-Chuen, a renowned Cantonese opera singer. She is of Chinese, German and Swedish decent.

She lived in Hong Kong from 1971 to 1973 with her parents till her father died a sudden death at the age of 32. Her mother moved to the USA after the death of her husband and lived in Seattle, Washington with her children. Later, she remarried twice but always remained close to Shannon.

Shannon was four years old when her father died and did not fully understand the implications of his death. She was brought up with her brother in Rolling Hills, California and attended Chadwick School, from where she graduated in 1978. She went on to study voice at the Tulane University in New Orleans, from where she majored in music in 1991. During her University days she took part in numerous concerts, operas and musical shows.

Her brother Brandon Lee died of gunshot wounds due to an accident while shooting for a movie after which Shannon moved to Los Angeles in 1993 to pursue a career in acting. She was then 27 years old and wanted to carry on with the legacy of her father. She learnt the martial art called ‘Jeet Kune Do’ from Richard Bustillo, who was her father’s student and further improved her martial arts skills with serious training under another of her father’s pupil named Ten Wong.

She also learnt ‘Taekwondo’ and ‘Wushu’ under Dung Doa and Eric Chen respectively. Later, she mastered Kickboxing, which she displayed while shooting for her movie roles.

She made her debut in movies playing a small role as a singer in her father’s biopic titled ‘Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story'. This was followed by her appearance in the movies ‘Cage II’ and ‘High Voltage’ where she had a more significant role.

In 1998, she got a major break with her role in the Hong Kong action movie, ‘Enter the Eagles’, where she appeared with Michael Wong and Anita Yuen. The movie received positive reviews and her rating received a boost on the Hong Kong movie charts.

Her career on television includes a guest appearance in one of the episodes of ‘Martial Law’ with Sammo Hung in 1998 and an appearance in the telefilm, ‘Epoch’, which was broadcast on the Sci Fi Channel in 2001. She also hosted the first season of WMAC Masters that features choreographed martial arts fights on television. Her own training in martial arts gave her the confidence to host the show.

She also sang for the American noise pop band, Medicine’s album titled ‘The Mechanical Forces of Love’ in 2003 and the number ‘I’m in the Mood for Love’ for the film ‘China Strike Force’. She has made a number of other musical performances during her chequered career.

She was instrumental in establishing The Bruce Lee Foundation in 2002 to promote her father’s legacy. The family’s rights to her father’s franchisee were handed over to establish the Bruce Lee Enterprises, of which she is the CEO. This is an agency that licenses anything that is linked to the name of Bruce Lee. With her perseverance, the Foundation raised $ 35 million to build the Bruce Lee Action Museum in Seattle, USA.

Her movies include ‘Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story’ (1993), ‘Cage II’ (1994), ‘Enter the Eagles’ (1998), ‘Blade’ (1998), ‘Lessons for an Assassin’ (2001) and ‘She, Me and Her’ (2002).

She also hosted ‘WMAC Masters’, and appeared on ‘Martial Law’, ‘Epoch’ and ‘I Am Bruce Lee’ on television.