Shannon Lee told The Guardian she and Brandon Lee were teenagers when they had a change of heart about the craft their father dedicated his life to mastering. “Martial arts was so important to my father and we felt we’d have a closer connection if we took it up,” she explained. The martial arts discipline her father developed, jeet kune do, was just one of the fighting styles Shannon learned before landing starring roles in the 1998 action thrillers “High Voltage” and “Enter the Eagles.”
However, Shannon’s heart was not really into acting after the 1993 death of her brother, who was killed on the set of “The Crow” when a prop gun malfunctioned. She told ESPN that Brandon had been looking forward to helping her with her own acting career. While she was struggling with her grief, she started reading some of her father’s writings. Through them, Bruce imparted his profound wisdom to his daughter long after he was gone. “About two years after Brandon’s death, my father helped me. He helped me in the form of his words, his philosophies,” Shannon said.
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Shannon credits her father’s extensive collection of thought-provoking quotes with inspiring her to create a nonprofit called the Bruce Lee Foundation, and she’s made it her mission to carry on her dad’s legacy. One way the foundation does this is through its summer camps, where children learn about Bruce’s philosophy and train with martial arts instructors.
