Bruce Lee: The American Dream

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What is the American dream? To many people the American dream means something different. It could be gaining wealth, power, respect, fame or just simple liberty and freedom. The American dream is defined as “the belief that everyone in the US has the chance to be successful and happy if they work hard” (“The American Dream Definition”). Bruce Lee achieved this American dream through hard work and determination. Bruce was born into a Chinese family to a father that was a known Hong Kong opera singer and with a mother whose father was German and mother was Chinese (Burrows). Born in 1940 during one of his father’s tours to the United States in San Francisco, he was given the birth name Jun Fan meaning “return again” because she had a feeling…show more content…
After the show was canceled Lee went on to choreograph fight scenes, do guest appearances, and start doing private lessons with people such as Chuck Norris, Mike Stone, and Joe Lewis (Burrows). On a trip back to Hong Kong to move his mom with him to the US, fans rushed him when he landed not realizing how famous and known he truly was (Burrows). One of the first shows he did as a hollywood star The Green Hornet had been shown there as reruns under another name of Bruce lee’s character Kato (Burrows). At the peek of his career Bruce was to make his own movie Enter the Dragon where he collapsed during voice over recording and was taken to the hospital diagnosed with a brain enema and grand mal seizure (Burrows). During a script reading for The Game Of Death he complained about a headache and went to lay down bruce was supposed to go to a dinner be no one could wake him up and tried for 10 minutes before taking him to the hospital where he was pronounced dead (Burrows). The once small time Chinese man turned actor, dancer, philosopher, and martial arts master had two funeral services one in Hong Kong where 25,000 fans attended, and another in Seattle, Washington the pallbearers that honored Bruce Lee were Chuck Norris, Taky Kimura, Danny Inosanto, Peter Chin, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, and Bruce's brother, Robert Lee. James Coburn eulogized

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