7 actors who have played Bruce Lee in movies since the Enter the Dragon star’s death
There has been a Bruce Li and a Bruce Le, and ‘Bruceploitation’ films as many filmmakers and imitators looked to cash in on Lee’s popularity
There’s only one Bruce Lee. Or is there?
Star of hits like Enter the Dragon and Fist of Fury, the Chinese-American actor lived a tragically short life, dying in 1973 at the age of 33. Lee only starred in four completed movies but his outsize influence meant a host of filmmakers and imitators soon sprang up looking to cash in on Lee’s popularity, a trend that resulted in “Bruceploitation” films like The Clones of Bruce Lee and Re-Enter the Dragon (so while there may well be only one Bruce Lee there is also Bruce Li and Bruce Le).
As a result, numerous actors have portrayed The Dragon over the years. Here are the best of them.
Mike Moh in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
This most recent portrayal of Bruce Lee is also one of the most controversial. Director Quentin Tarantino has Moh play Lee as a swaggering, cocky star who is, for the most part, physically beaten by Brad Pitt’s stuntman, Cliff Booth.
An American actor, Moh had plenty of action experience before taking the role. He starred as Ryu in the web series Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist and he even got to act alongside his childhood idol, Jackie Chan, in the 2006 Hong Kong movie, Rob-B-Hood. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood wasn’t even Moh’s first attempt at portraying the Little Dragon. He auditioned for Birth of the Dragon only to lose out to Philip Ng Wan-lung …
Philip Ng Wan-lung in Birth of the Dragon (2016)
Ng should, by all accounts, have made for an excellent Bruce Lee. He was born in Hong Kong and was a student of numerous martial arts styles, including wing chun, taekwondo and hung ga. By the time of Birth of the Dragon he had already worked with some of the Hong Kong movie industry’s finest like Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Donnie Yen.
Unfortunately, Ng’s Bruce Lee biopic was another flick that was tarnished by accusations that Lee’s character was upstaged by a white co-star. Early screenings of the film focused more on Billy Magnussen, who played Steve McKee, a student of Lee’s. Fans were so enraged by this whitewashing that director George Nolfi was forced to re-edit the film so it focused more on Hong Kong’s hero.