Bruce Lee Fans Celebrate What Would Have Been The Martial Arts Legend's 80th Birthday

Born on this day in 1940, Bruce Lee would go on to become one of the best-known martial artists in [...]

By Russ Burlingame

Born on this day in 1940, Bruce Lee would go on to become one of the best-known martial artists in modern history and a trailblazing figure for Asian and Asian-American representation in Hollywood. Lee starred in more than 30 films before he died at 32 in 1973. He also appeared as Kato in the American TV series The Green Hornet. Lee is also credited with founding his own form of martial arts, Jeet Kune Do, and with a series of philosophical and practical quotes that flooded Twitter when users realized that he would have been 80 today and remembered Lee's contribution to pop culture, cinema, and martial arts.

Prior to his movie career fame, Lee took up martial arts under the Wing Chun teacher, Yip Man, in 1954. He would go on to popularize Kung-fu in the Western world with his movies and eventually create Jeet Kune Do, and train some of the best-known American martial artists as well as celebrity students like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Steve McQueen.

Lee passed away following a cerebral edema in 1973. Months before his death, he had a seizure and was diagnosed to the hospital, where they found an edema. The same happened again on the day of his death, after he complained of a headache, was given an unfamiliar medication, and left to take a nap.

His iconic life and young death fueled a never-ending enthusiasm for his work, as well as conspiracy theories surrounding his death. These continue to this day, and are only further fueled by the tragic passing of Lee's son Brandon, who was killed by a malfunctioning stunt weapon on the set of the comic book movie The Crow.

We gathered up a number of responses to Lee's 80th birthday, which you can check out below.

Forever an inspiration

"A real life anime character"

We're not even sure what that means, but it sounds good.

A pretty cool bass

Filmed in slow motion

A sketch

Remembering some favorite moments

Cultural context

Middle school art project

Yes, there's a Mandalorian connection

(Spoilers!)

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