Brandon Lee

"Brandon was a very very sweet guy. He wasn't the least bit pretentious. He had no ego whatsoever. A very caring sweet young man. The kind that would offer to cut your grass." This was a quote that James O'Barr, "The Crow's" creator, said about Brandon Lee.

Brandon Bruce Lee, was born on February 1, 1965 and died March 31, 1993. His parents were Jun Fan Bruce Lee and Linda Emery Lee Cadwell. He was born and raised in Oakland, California. He only had one sister named, Shannon Emery Lee. Brandon attended the private Chadwick school in Verdes, California. He was expelled due to misbehavior, so he received his diploma from the Miralste high school instead. Lou Diamond Phillips was one of Brandon's close friends and he stated that Brandon was like "a boiling mass of energy" (Lipton 82).

Brandon's father, Bruce Lee, died when Brandon was only eight years old. Bruce died at the age of 32 of what doctors now believe to have been a brain edema (Lipton 83). Bruce Lee died right after he had finished his death scene for the movie, "Game Of Death." More than 25,000 people attended his funeral (Sharkey 2).

Brandon always wanted to be known as more than just Bruce Lee's son. Brandon disliked the pressure of having to live up to the expectations he had, because his father was Bruce Lee. Brandon said many times that he felt like he was a little more than a comma: Bruce Lee's son, Brandon. But he still loved his father and had a huge posters of him all over his bedroom walls. Even in Bruce's death, Brandon was never able to completely break the link between him and his father. Brandon would have had to live to be 100 and made at least 3 films in order to take away the fact that he was, "Bruce Lee's son" ( qtd. in Sharkey 1).

Brandon studied his father. He even had a library filled with all of his father's books and long notes. Brandon's first real job as an actor was in the made for television movie, "Kung Fu: The Movie" (Sharkey 2).

James O'Barr was inspired to write "The Crow,' after his girlfriend was killed by a drunk driver when he was eighteen (O'Barr 2). "The Crow" was a movie about a musician, played by Lee, who was brutally murdered with his fiancée, Shelly. Lee comes back from the dead in order to avenge their murders. Brandon loved his part as Eric in "The Crow," because there were no set rules as to how a person rising from the dead should act (Teller 22). Brandon Lee's role in "The Crow," was the starring role he had dreamed of. It was a movie that would finally set him apart from his father (Ascher-Walsh 2). The character of Eric Draven knew exactly how precious each moment in life was, and so did Brandon. In Brandon's last interview a week before his death, he stated that he didn't know if he was destined to play the role of Eric Draven, but he knew that he was very fortunate to be able to (Teller 24). According to Brandon Inosanto, who taught Brandon martial arts, Brandon always said to, "live life as if it is your last day." Jeff Most remembers that Brandon was very pleased when they first reached Wilmington. Most remembers Brandon saying, "You know whatever happens with this project, nothing is as important as the fact that I am playing Eric Draven. This is my finest character" (qtd. in Sharkey 2).

The narration at the beginning of the movie was put there to sum up the feelings and the emotions of the actors finishing the film. It states, "People once believed that when someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead. But sometimes something so bad happens, that a terrible sadness is carried with it and the soul can't rest. Then sometimes, just sometimes, the crow can bring that soul back to put the wrong things right" (qtd. in Ascher-Walsh 3). Brandon also liked the movie, because it never exactly said where Eric and Shelly went after they reunited. All the audience knows is the fact that they are together in a "better place." It lets you decide. Brandon decided to lose some weight for his role, because he didn't feel that a dead person would be too, "healthy looking" ( qtd. in Teller 23). The stress of making "The Crow" had thrown Brandon's body into havoc. He joked around about how he worked 6 days a week, "and on the seventh day... I drink" (qtd. in Harris 16). Once Brandon filled a dozen bags full of ice and packed them around his body just to see how it would feel to be a corpse buried for a year, like Eric Draven (Lipton 82). Brandon was very focused and would work all day on one shot and everybody would be satisfied with it, but then he would say, " What if we did it this way" (qtd in. Ascher-Walsh 3)?

Brandon's childhood friend told a reporter that Brandon used to have a premonition that he would die suddenly on a movie set like his father had. Bruce Lee's Chinese name, is Lee Shao-Jung, which means little dragon. He bought a house shortly before his death in the Hong Kong suburb of Kowloon Tong or Pond of the Nine Dragons. The legend states that the wrath of the neighborhoods' resident demons. The curse is supposed to last three generations. Brandon Lee's death resembled a Kung Fu film entitled, "Game of Death." "Game of Death" had the last few scenes of Bruce Lee in which he plays an actor who is shot by mobsters that substitute a live shot for a fake bullet on a movie set. This brought up memories of the Lee family curse (Lipton 83). Bruce Lee had a dream that he had to save his young son, Brandon, from a demonic apparition (Appelo 3). "Enter the Dragon," was the movie Bruce made in order to introduce himself to American audiences. It wasn't released in America until three weeks after his death. "The Crow" was likewise Brandon's escape from the action genre, but was not even completed in his lifetime (Sharkey 2). Brandon never felt that the violence in any of the films he was in had as much justification as "The Crow." In fact he said that if that happened to him he would react in the same way (Teller 23).

Both Bruce and Brandon had a sense of their own mortality. Brandon even owned a vintage cadillac hearse (Ibid). Brandon, like his father, loved danger. Brandon performed most of his own stunts, but he was leery of some of the special effects scenes. On March 31, shortly after midnight, he was filming a scene for "The Crow," in which Eric Draven is shot. The gun was supposed to be loaded with blanks, but when he was shot something went terribly wrong (Dying 63). There is a scene in the movie in which Shelly, Eric Draven's fiancé, is raped. Brandon was supposed to carry in a bag of groceries onto the set and then be shot by Funboy, Michael Massey. The grocery bag contained an explosive blood pack to make it appear as if Draven had been shot (Victims 2). Instead Brandon was shot and he never got back up. He was rushed to the New Hanover regional Medical Center in Wilmington, North Carolina. The cast and crew of "The Crow," went there to be with him (Ascher-Walsh 2). He had sustained a shot to the abdomen from approximately twenty feet (Blank 1). Brandon was in surgery for five hours, but he lost a lot of blood and it would not clot (Lipton 84). He had sixty pints of blood transfused into his body, which is the equivalent of a full supply for five grown men (Harris 16). Brandon's entry wound was about the size of a silver dollar and went directly toward his spine. When an x-ray was taken it showed a metallic object lodged next to his spine (Blank 1). Later doctors removed what appeared to be a .44 caliber bullet from his spine (Negligence 1). After the excruciating surgery nothing else was able to be done and Brandon Lee was pronounced dead at 1:04pm (Dying 63). The reported cause of death was disseminated intravascular coagulopathy, otherwise known as unstoppable internal hemorrhaging caused by the blood's failure to clot (Harris 16). Brandon's surgeon, Dr. Warren W. McMurry, stated that all of the intestinal injuries were consistent with that of a bullet wound (Blank 1).

The scene in which Lee was shot was a scene in which a gun was required to be shot at the camera. The gun was loaded with caps, but no powder due to the close range of the shot. An empty cartridge was knocked into the gun's barrel after the props-master dry fired the gun (Victims 2). When the gun is refired with blanks only the harmless cardboard wadding is supposed to be ejected (Lipton 83). Authorities say that the tip of a "dummy" bullet had been lodged in the barrel of a .44 magnum gun during the filming of a previous scene a few weeks ahead of time. It somehow separated from the cartridge and was not observed as missing when the dummy rounds were unloaded. "Dummy" bullets are bullets that do not have explosive powder. They are used for close-up shooting by the camera. The dummies are then removed and replaced by blanks. The gun is then fired again, usually away from the actor, but makes it appear as if the gun was actually pointed at the actor being shot (Payne 2). "Dummy" bullets are supposed to be unable to be fired. The only way the "dummy" bullet theory could have happened is to have had part of the "dummy" separate and become lodged in the barrel. Then when the cap exploded behind it the tip of a real bullet would have been propelled through the air (Negligence 1). A second-unit crew member may have altered a "dummy" bullet that did not correctly fit the revolver by cutting off its ends and placing its lead tip in the chamber. When the close-up shot was done the gun may have been handed off to a prop person who refilled it with blanks and inadvertently left the lead tip deep inside one of the chambers. Then when Massee decided to fire the gun at Lee the lead tip would have come flying out, propelled by the blank, with almost the same amount of impact as a loaded .44 caliber gun (Harris 16).

Many gun experts were consulted and none of them had ever heard of a professionally made dummy bullet coming apart. This means that the bullet used that killed Brandon, may have been made quickly and incorrectly on the set (Negligence 1). Three weapons experts agreed that what the police stated about the dummy bullet could have never happened. A one in a million chance. Another weapons expert demonstrated that a "dummy' bullet would have traveled a few feet and then fallen to the ground. "If the projectile would have been propelled out, it would have either fallen down before it got to Lee or bounced right off of him," one weapons expert stated (qtd. in Payne 3).

Brandon was finally put to rest beside his father at Lake View Cemetery in Seattle, Washington, on Saturday April the third (Lipton 85). He was killed only eight days away from finishing the movie of his dreams and only a few weeks from his own marriage to Eliza Hutton (Bruce 6).

Nobody was ever blamed for Brandon's death. The district attorney ruled that Lee's death was due to negligence of the film crew and not foul play (Negligence 1). In the end the case remained unsolved (Bruce 6). There were many strange happenings on the set before Brandon was fatally shot and some eerie coincidences. First and foremost, the scene in which Brandon died in real life was also supposed to be the scene in which Eric Draven, his character, is brutally murdered (O'Barr 4). Another movie was being filmed during the same time as "The Crow" called "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story." This movie was to document Brandon's father's works and accomplishments. Both of the sets were plagued with strange incidents. Rob Cohen, "Dragon's" director, said that both the crow and dragon were touched by, "fate of the deepest sort." Jason Scott Lee, who played Bruce lee in "Dragon," also had many personal problems during the filming. His grandmother died and the actress playing Linda Lee lost her fourteen year old brother in a fire. Ms. DeLaurentiis had an uncle who passed away and Mr. Cohen had a heart attack, which almost caused him to quit filming (Sharkey 3). "The Crow" had its own strange happenings. The first day of shooting a worker touched a high-voltage wire and was electrocuted on a studio back lot. An upset employee ran his car through the studio's plaster shop. A construction worker slipped causing a screwdriver to go through his hand. The weather was also very uncooperative. It caused damage to some of the sets. One of "The Crow's" publicists was injured in a minor car accident. A drive-by shooting occurred just a few streets away from one of "The Crow's" locations (Blank 1). Due to all the strange occurrences the case was supposed to remain open. None of the accidents ever made Brandon want to quit. He actually enjoyed it. He said, "it gives a haunted quality that I really like" (Harris 4).

There were also many rumors that went around as to what exactly happened on the set. When Bruce Lee died of a brain edema at age 32 in 1973, many fans did not believe he died accidentally, but that he was murdered. There was a rumor that the Chinese Mafia had killed him, because of Bruce releasing ancient martial-arts secrets on film. Fans soon believed that this could have very well have happened to Brandon also. There was also a rumor that a group of Triads, an organized criminal group that was tied to the Hong Kong entertainment industry, were angry that neither Bruce or Brandon would perform in their movies. There is also the curse, which many people believe to be true since there were so many strange things going on and since both Brandon and Bruce died at such a young age (Ibid 3). A close friend of the family, stated that both Bruce and Brandon died, "as they were just beginning" ( Sharkey 1).

Jeff Imada was the stunt coordinator on the set. Brandon and him became very good friends while they were training under Bruce Lee's two foremost students, Danny Inosanto and Ted Wong (Bruce 6). Many people never realized how dedicated Brandon was to martial arts. He was one of only fourteen people worldwide certified to teach Thai Boxing (Sharkey 4). Jeff Imada was completely devastated at Brandon Lee's death. They were best friends (Lipton 85). Even when Brandon was slowly rising to be a star, his friends still viewed him as just another one of the guys (Sharkey 4).

A few days after Brandon's death the cast and crew met to decide "The Crow's" fate. Eliza Hutton, Brandon's fiancé, decided they should continue with the movie, because that is what Brandon would have wanted. Now the only problem was how were they going to finish the film... without Brandon. Since there had only been eight scheduled days left of shooting the major acting was completely finished. Mostly the flashback sequences were the only ones left. These scenes used stunt doubles in long shots. Jeff Cadiente and Chad Stahelski were the two major stunt doubles (Ascher-Walsh 2). There are a few scenes in which other things were needed to complete the look. When Eric is putting on his make-up in the mirror the person in the chair is a body double and the face in the mirror was digitally added. During the sequence when Sarah, another main character, visits the apartment, you never see Brandon's face. This is because that scene was completely shot with a body double. The scene in which Eric falls from the window was Brandon's face digitally imposed on a body double. When Eric enters his apartment for the first time after the accident, it is an image taken from him walking in an alley and then superimposing him in the doorway. Brandon was wet in the alley scene, so dripping water was added to the doorway to make Brandon not appear out of place. The last altered scene I know of is when Eric is walking towards the window with a crow upon his shoulder. The image of Eric was taken from another scene and then later the crow was digitally added (Victims 2). Jason Scott, who was one of "The Crow's" spokespeople, said that it would be a "fitting legacy to Brandon"(qtd. in Lipton 84).

There are a few more interesting tidbits that do not exactly make sense in the whole scheme of things. First of all, why wasn't Lee given a bullet proof vest? This is a standard requirement whenever an actor is within twenty feet of a gun aimed at him. Why did the bullet hit Brandon when all experts tell actors to aim there guns away from the target? Later on the film directors can make the shot appear as if it was dead on. Could there be a connection with the fact that most of "The Crow's" nonunion crew was working exceptionally long hours? The biggest question is, why given the potential danger to Lee from both the gun and the squib in the grocery bag, wasn't there a weapon's specialist on the set? Was it because the film's producers were trying to save money by reducing the number of days the specialist was paid (Harris 16)? I guess we shall never truly know. Brandon was to be married on April 17 after "The Crow," was finished filming. He was to marry Eliza Hutton who was a Hollywood casting agent. They shared a house together in Beverly Hills. Brandon fell in love with Eliza the first time he saw her. He even asked a friend of his if they had ever met somebody and once you exchanged greetings you hope they will be a part of your life for the rest of your life? This just goes to prove how much Brandon loved and cared for Eliza (Sharkey 5). He proposed to her on bended knee in Venice with roses and wine on hand (Blank 5). Linda Lee said that Brandon was very afraid of marriage, because he did not want to lose another he loved (Sharkey 4). Brandon said that if he ever died and came back a year later the person he would visit would be Eliza. This is what Eric wanted to, but could not have it. This added yet another tragic element to the character of Eric Draven (Teller 2). In the film there is a scene in the loft where Shelly is wearing the wedding dress she will marry Eric in, this wedding dress was actually Eliza's wedding dress. Brandon and Eliza thought it would be amusing to see Shelly in the dress before they were married (Victims 2).

Linda Lee had a conversation with her son shortly before his untimely death. Linda was in a shopping mall and saw a poster displaying "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story." There was a large group of kids standing near the poster and Linda overheard some of their conversation. One of the kids asked, "Who is Bruce Lee?." Another answered, "He's Brandon's Lee's dad." Brandon responded by saying to his mother "Mom when I was 17, this would've meant a lot to me. Now it doesn't make any difference." Brandon had learned how to make his own shadow now. Both Bruce and Brandon had finally realized the American Dream, but death took them both while they were on their way up the proverbial mountain (qtd. in Sharkey 3).

Linda kept poised during the funeral and kept everyone's spirits up. She said that Brandon would have wanted it to be a joyful occasion and that they were there to celebrate his life (Lipton 85). Linda said. "...they say that time cures anything. It doesn't. You just learn to live with it and go on" (Sharkey 5). Linda decide that in spite of Brandon's death that the release of "Dragon,' would still be on schedule. The only request she had was that it be dedicated to Brandon Bruce Lee and have a quote from St. Augustine. The quote stated, "The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering" (qtd. in Appelo 2). It takes a long time to realize how close death really is. The only time they realize it is when someone near them dies or they themselves have a near death experience (Teller 2). Mr. Cohen has nightmares that his own son is dying. He stated, "...if I could tell you why Bruce and Brandon died young, then maybe you could know how you could protect your children. But I can't" (qtd. in Sharkey 5).

Brandon Lee quotes a reference to Paul Bowles 1949 novel, The Sheltering Sky, in one of his last on screen interviews (Teller 1). This quote shows just how close Brandon knew he was to his own death.

"Because we do not know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. And yet everything happens only a certain number of times. And a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood? An afternoon that is so deeply apart of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more? Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless" (qtd. in Victims 2)

RETURN Appelo, Tim. "Tears of the Dragon." Entertainment Weekly 14 May 1993: 32 Ascher-Walsh, Rebecca. "How the crow flew." Entertainment Weekly 13 May 1994: 18 "Bird of ill omen." Time 12 Apr. 1993: 24 "Blank pistol Kills Actor, The Son of Bruce Lee." New York Times 1 Apr. 1993, sec. "Dying Young." People Weekly 12 Apr. 1993: 63 Harris, Mark, et al. "The brief life and unnecessary death of Brandon Lee." Entertainment Weekly 16 Apr. 1993: 16 Lipton, Michael. "Lethal Weapon." People Weekly 19 Apr. 1993: 80-84 "Negligence Is Seen In Actor�s Death." New York Times 1 Apr. 1993, sec. Shorkey, Betsy. "Fate�s Children: Bruce and Brandon." New York Times 2 May 1993, 2:1