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Bruce Lee came from an entertainment family.
How many times in a [Hollywood] film is a Chinese required?
Lee later explained toEsquire.
And when it is required, it is always the typical houseboy or pigtailed coolie stuff.
I said To hell with it.
Instead he decided to become the Ray Kroc of kung fu, franchising dojos along the West Coast.
But the one constant in almost all his performances was his ease in front of the camera.
Its as if he was born into it.
24.Game of Death(1978)
This is the flick Bruce Lee fans love to hate.
The whole thing is a distasteful mess.
He wanted to touch everything from the cameras to the sound equipment.
The newspapers followed suit, calling him Wonder Kid.
The son would spend the rest of his life determined to outshine his old man.
Based on this performance, he had his work cut out for him.
21.Thunderstorm(1957)
Adolescence proved a tricky transition for Lees career.
His character is proper, naive, dutiful, and rich and in love with his familys housemaid.
Critics panned the movie, singling out his performance as rigid, artificial, and over-eager.
Mercifully, this was his only attempt to play the refined gentleman.
His mother was flustered to see her delicate child so transfigured for the camera.
That lived experience led to a sharp performance in an otherwise tedious film.
Blink and youll miss his grinning face in this largely decorative role.
14.Darling Girl(1957)
Fun fact: Lee was once the cha-cha champion of Hong Kong.
Want to see Bruce Lee as a fashionable, sweater-vest-wearing toff as he cha-chas in a nightclub?
This is the movie for you.
It may be the only known instance of Lee running away from a fight.
(1952) about a successful singer who is forced to retire and marry a man she despises.
Lee plays her son a dance tutor.
Yet the real humor comes from watching the King of Kung Fu stammering and twitching like a fool.
When Lees character grows up, he discovers the cure for blindness.
The movie ends with a direct-to-camera plea: Every child can be just like him.
Poor handicapped children are waiting for your love, for education and nurturing.
In the fifth story line, Lee plays the youngest son in a family of struggling street performers.
Its utterly charming and one of the best scenes of Lees career.
The movie flopped at the box office and was panned by critics.
At just 10 years old, Lee shows off a range of emotions and raw charisma.
(It didnt, but they eventually let him continue acting anyway.)
He plays Chen Zhen, the student of a famous kung fu master in 1930s colonial Shanghai.
When Chen Zhen discovers his master was killed by the Japanese, he unleashes his furious fists.
It doesnt quite work, but Lees fight choreography is so riveting it doesnt matter.
He was a very simple, straightforward guy.
Like if you told him something, hed believe you, Lee explained.
Then, when he finally figures out hes been had, he goes animal.
His primal performance is the movies primary pleasure.
He rips through his enemies with lustful glee.
Hong Kong audiences were blown away.The Big Bossturned Lee into the biggest star in Southeast Asia.
Lee plays Tang Lung, a naive bumpkin sent to Rome to protect a Chinese restaurant from the Mafia.
Enter the Dragon(1973)
This cheaply-made James Bond ripoff was supposed to be Lees entree into superstardom.
Instead, his death a month before its release left it the high-water mark of his career.
The result was a performance so intense he seems to vibrate off the screen.
