What Was Bruce Lee?

[sensei8]

Some say that Bruce Lee was an actor, while others say that Bruce Lee was a martial artist. What do you say?

*Purposefully, I've left out the option of "Both" because, per this poll/discussion, Bruce Lee was either one OR the other...please!

[Jeffrey]

I have choosen martial artist. He was a martial artist long before he was an actor. He never stopped training.

[ninjanurse]

I heard today that he was a philosophy major in college (can't remember which one) and started a martial arts club on campus.....will have to investigate this unless someone here already knows.....?

[tallgeese]

I think it's pretty hard to deny he was a martial artist first. His mindset of training, if we discount all else, influnced a generation of martial artist interested in using ma's for self defence.

I think there's also good arguments to be made on other fronts as well. Including the removal of tradition that didnot meet the goals he set out to meet. Further, the methods of training and deliniating specific attributes and skills as well as defining methods of training each was pretty revolutinaly at the time.

So, before we even talk about specific tactics of a fight, which I think he's still on SOLID ma ground, the larger contributions to the arts can't be denyed.

[Nevinyrral]

For me Bruce was a martial artist. He was a legend, and I think that even in future if someone will talk about MA his name will come up.

[Jay]

I heard today that he was a philosophy major in college (can't remember which one) and started a martial arts club on campus.....will have to investigate this unless someone here already knows.....?

Yea he attended the university of washington for 2 years and received a major in philosophy (Wikipedia disputes this but im just going from the many Lee books I have). He did originally teach students of the uni and then got a more permanent venue in seatlle for the Jun Fan Gung Fu institute. This club is still in operation and is still taught by Bruce's assistant Taky Kimura.

If he was just an actor......... There are storys of him being challenged on the set of Enter The Dragon. One guy got kicked in the head (his teeth fell out and end of fight) and another got toyed with until Bruce got bored, dropped him to the ground and nailed him in the face until he gave up. There are actually still shots of this fight. They actually had the original footage on film but it got destroyed because it was felt pointless to keep. Little did they know Bruce was going to die and that footage could have been viewed to see just how good he was.

[ps1]

He was certainly a martial artist. Acting served him in many ways though. It was a good venue to showcase his skill and get out the word about his martial art. It allowed him to do what he loved (martial arts) and get paid well doing it. He was a little vein and acting appealed to that side of him as well. So acting was a vessel while martial arts was his way of life.

[isshinryu5toforever]

I voted that he was a martial artist first, and I'd say he was a born tinkerer. He loved to experiment. He was definitely a martial artist, not just an actor.

[sojobo]

Hello,

I voted actor.

Agreed; Mr. Lee was a martial artist also, however there were many talented martial artists around at the time (arguably some a lot better), who did not have the same exposure to the general public that Lee did as a result of his acting career.

The success of this exposure (and thus the perceived "super skill" of Mr. Lee) was as result of his abilities as an actor (and the opportunities that his film career gave him) first and foremost.

[edit] Combined with the limited ma knowledge/understanding of the cinema going public at the time.

Sojobo

[bushido_man96]

MAist, first and foremost. He lived and breathed it.