November 27, 1940: Bruce Lee Jun-fan is born in in San Francisco. He starts his acting career at three months, playing a female baby in Golden Gate Girl. 1946: Moves to Hong Kong with his parents, where he appears in 20 films as a child and attends La Salle school. 1953: Takes up kung fu after losing a street fight. 1959: Lee's parents, worried about him getting in too many street fights, send him back to San Francisco, where he begins teaching martial arts in backyards and city parks. 1963: Starts the first Jun Fan Kung-fu Institute in Seattle. At a high-school demonstration, he performs the 'one-inch punch' that would make him famous. 1964: Marries Linda Emery, whom he met at a kung fu class, and they move to Oakland, California, where he starts his second kung fu institute. 1965: Creates the early concepts of jeet kune do, 'the way of the intercepting fist'. 1966: Appears as Kato in TV series The Green Hornet and opens his third institute in Los Angeles. 1967-1971: Gives private lessons to Hollywood stars such as Steve McQueen, James Garner and Roman Polanski. 1970: Lee is injured during training and his doctor says he will never kick again. He recovers. 1971: During a visit to Hong Kong, Lee is offered the lead role in The Big Boss by Raymond Chow, owner of a new production company, Golden Harvest. July 1971: The Big Boss starts shooting in Thailand. The film opens in Hong Kong later that year, taking $3.5 million at the box office in less than three weeks. 1972: Fist Of Fury is released, grossing more than The Big Boss and making Lee a superstar in Hong Kong. Later that year, Way Of The Dragon - which Lee writes, directs and stars in - is released. February 1973: Filming begins on Enter The Dragon, the first collaboration between the US and Hong Kong film industries. July 20, 1973: Lee is pronounced dead at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. He had taken painkillers at actress Betty Ting Pei's home after complaining of a headache. An autopsy confirms cerebral oedema (swelling of the brain) as the official cause of death. Enter The Dragon is scheduled to open at cinemas that day, but is delayed for four days. His funeral is held on July 25 at the Kowloon Funeral Parlour. July 30, 1973: Lee is buried at Lakeview Cemetery in Seattle.
