July 20th, 1973 - actor and martial arts expert Bruce Lee dies in Hong Kong at the age of 32.
Bruce Lee had died just six days before the premiere of “Enter the Dragon”, a film
that would make him the first Chinese actor to become a Hollywood star. But how come that
such a powerful and strong man, who many people believed was an immortal super human, could
have died so early and so unexpectedly? Rumors started quickly spreading across Hong Kong,
that the Bruce’s family is hiding something and that there was a trace of a woman and
drugs… OK, so how did Brue Lee actually die? Sit tight as we’re going back to the
summer of 1973 to uncover the real circumstances of Bruce Lee’s death and we'll show you exactly
HOW IT WAS.
1973… Bruce Lee and his family were spending the first half of the year in Hong Kong where Bruce was busy with two things –
finishing up “Enter the Dragon” and shooting the new film “Game of Death”.
The producer of those two films was Raymond Chow, founder of Golden Harvest,
a film production company based out Hong Kong. Raymond and Bruce were the best of friends.
On July 20th at around 8:30 AM Bruce Lee woke up and did his routine morning exercises for
about 45 minutes. He would typically stretch, do some cardio on a home-made stationary bike,
practice Jeet Kune Do and lift weights. His mornings were intense but never too exhausting.
10:30 A.M. Lee arrived at Golden Harvest to work on the script of Game of Death with Raymond Chow
Somewhere around that time, Lee ate a small amount of hash, as he believed cannabis
expanded his consciousness. In 1970s and 80s chewing cannabis was “the thing” in Hong
Kong, especially popular among the wealthy people.
1 P.M. Bruce Lee jumped into his red Mercedes Benz and drove away to 67 Beacon Hill Road,
where on the second floor in a one-bedroom apartment lived his mistress, Betty Ting Pei,
a 26-year old Taiwanese actress introduced to Bruce by Raymond Chow. Apparently, in Hong Kong
not many people knew about the relationships that Bruce was having on the side. According
to the book, Betty wrote after Bruce Lee’s death, that day when he arrived they had sex
and some more hash. Later in the evening, Bruce and Betty had a dinner appointment with
Raymond Chow and George Lazenby, a Hollywood actor who Bruce wanted to invite as a guest
star for his new film “Game of Death”. 6 P.M. Bruce complained of a headache when
Raymond Chow arrived at Betty’s apartment to pick up Bruce and Betty for the dinner.
At 7:30 PM it was time to leave but Bruce’s headache only got worse. Betty gave Bruce
equagesic pill, a quite common prescription pain medication and Bruce said that he would
like to rest. 7:45 P.M. Raymond Chow departs for the dinner
with George Lazenby alone as the three agreed Bruce and Betty will join them as soon as
Bruce feels better. In between 8:15 and 9:30 P.M. from the restaurant Raymond telephoned
Betty’s number twice asking when they were planning to join them. First time Betty said
that Bruce was sleeping. Second time she said that Bruce was still sleeping, but she was
about to wake him up. Afraid of disturbing him, Betty opened the door slowly, crept into
the bedroom kneeled down beside him, and whispered, “Bruce, Bruce.” He didn’t respond.
She pushed his shoulder and said a little louder, “Bruce, Bruce,” but he still didn’t wake up.
Panic rising, she shook him and shouted, “Bruce! Bruce!”
Betty called Raymond back at the restaurant in hysterics — she couldn’t wake him up
Raymond told her to calm down and raced across town to Betty’s apartment. When Chow
arrived at the apartment, he found almost naked Bruce lying flat on Betty’s mattress
not breathing. Chou realized that it was too late. His star was already dead. OK, at this point
let’s try to imagine what was going on in the head of Mr. Chou…
The most famous man in Hong Kong was dead in his mistress’s bed, and the two of them
were the only witnesses. The scandal would consume them. The press would blame them.
It could end their careers, maybe even put them in legal jeopardy. If Raymond’s original
goal was to save Bruce’s life, now his immediate goal was clear: Bruce Lee had to die somewhere
else besides his mistress’s apartment. Chou told Betty to call her personal physician,
Dr. Chu. When Dr. Chu arrived, he tried to revive Bruce for ten minutes without success.
It seems likely that Raymond explained to Dr. Chu the gravity of the situation and pleaded
with him to drive Bruce’s body to Baptist Hospital, where Dr. Chu worked at the time
and which was only half a mile away, in order to limit the number of witnesses. Instead
Dr. Chu decided to call an ambulance to treat a person who had “collapsed” and insisted
that the “patient” be taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which was twenty-five minutes away,
rather than the much closer Baptist, presumably because he didn’t want to bring this radioactive
scandal to his place of employment. It took seven minutes for the two paramedics
and the ambulance driver to arrive at the scene around 10:30 P.M. The paramedics couldn’t
find a pulse and the patient wasn’t breathing. They performed CPR and gave him artificial
oxygen. There was no change in the patient. The paramedics carried Bruce to the ambulance.
Raymond Chow and Dr. Chu jumped in back with them…”
A little after 11:30 p.m. telephones across Hong Kong started ringing with the news: Bruce
Lee was dead at the age of thirty-two. The cause of death was unknown. The autopsy report
will later show that Bruce Lee had died of cerebral edema, swelling of the brain, presumably
caused by an allergic reaction to the equagesic, given to Bruce by Betty. The funeral ceremony
in Hong Kong was attended by twenty-five thousand people and three days later Linda,
Bruce Lee’s wife berried her husband in Seattle, where they fell in love and started
their journey together, when life was simple and where they were happy the most.
So this is the real story of Bruce Lee’s death. This is how it was.