Three-Legged Bruce Lee

Movie poster of Bruce Lee's first Hong Kong kung fu film "Big Boss" in 1971.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was Lee's martial art student in the US; he flew to Hong Kong to play opposite to Bruce Lee in one of his movies.





Here is another story about "three legs":

We all like rabbits that have "three legs"; we saw photos of a Greyhound that has three legs. "Three Legs" was also a description of late Bruce Lee in his early years.

Bruce Lee grew up and went to school in Seattle area in the 50-60s. In 1970, he was invited back to Hong Kong by Golden Harvest to make Kung Fu movies. The first one was "The Big Boss". Though he had some TV and movie work in the US, he was a brand new actor in Hong Kong. The initial director of "Big Boss", Wu, was also new. They did not get along well. In one fight scene Lee kicked three bad guys played by three extras down to the gournd, director Wu ordered the three extras to get up to fight again. Lee objected; he insisted if he were playing a kung fu expert, these minor bad guys would not be able to get up to fight again; he should concentrate in fighting the big baddies later on.

Director Wu said, "Are you a cat with three legs? Can't you fight?" Those in the studio laughed and started calling him the "three legged Lee". Director Wu eventually got fired and another director, Low, replaced Wu; but the "three legged Lee" nickname stuck with Bruce Lee.

The producer Chow was very worried about his new star being compared to a "three legged cat". Chow was the head of PR for Shaw Brothers, Inc. for many years before forming Golden Harvest, Inc. He thought of a way to get around it. He sent out a press release, "Bruce Lee kicks so fast and so fury that people see three legs when he does his kick, thus he is nicknamed the 'Three Legged Lee' ".

This story was told in Chow's recent interview in Hong Kong, 35+ years after Lee's death.