Random Famous Students Who Studied Under Bruce Lee (10 items)

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  (#7) James Garner

  • Dec. at 86 (1928-2014)

  While on set for Marlowe (1969), Lee trained James Garner in preparation for their two fight scenes - one in Garner's office, the other on the roof of the Occidental Building in Los Angeles. This was also Bruce's first appearance in a Hollywood full-length motion picture. The office scene where Lee threatens Garner by wrecking his office became a hit, with Lee pushing himself to make the front jump-kick that knocks out the ceiling lamp.

  "That was the hardest stunt in the whole movie," Lee said. "I had to jump real high, and didn't have any help either - just a small running space to get my body up there." 
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  (#9) George Lazenby

  • 76

  George Lazenby, also known as Bond - James Bond - in the 1969 bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, owes his career revival largely to Lee. Despite Lee's untimely death, he saved Lazenby's career by plucking him off the street in Hong Kong. 

  “I was there in the middle of the street clinging onto a telephone pole when Bruce Lee’s car drove up, he told me to get in,” said Lazenby to the Sydney Morning Herald. “He gave me $10,000 and opened a bank account for me. Bruce died three days later.'” 

  Lee intended to revive Lazenby's career with a sort-of sequel to Enter the Dragon (1973) called Game of Death. The two met with producer Raymond Chow (head of production company Golden Harvest) to discuss the script and film over lunch and planned to meet again for dinner that night. Lee never showed. 

  Lazenby, however, eventually shot three films with Golden Harvest: Stoner, The Man from Hong Kong, and A Queen's Ransom.
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  (#1) James Coburn

  • Dec. at 74 (1928-2002)

  Known back in the day for his role in the 1960 mega-hit, The Magnificent Seven, James Coburn began training with Bruce Lee during his study of far eastern philosophy. "The perfection he achieved was awe-inspiring," explains Coburn. "He was the fastest moving person you've ever seen."

  The couple used to workout at Lee's place where he had a 700-pound punching bag on his patio. "He would kick that thing and double it over," Coburn recalls. "I would kick it, and it would double me over."

  When Coburn showed Lee his new 100-pound punching bag, Lee remarked it looked a little too hard for Coburn, saying he'd soften it up. His flying kick to the bag actually broke the 75-pound chain that it hung from.

  Over the course of five years, the two trained often with each other. "I'd have to go away on location sometimes," Coburn explains, "but each time I came back I was astonished to observe how Bruce had evolved even further. The steps he had taken were really giant steps." 
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  (#2) Brandon Lee

  • Dec. at 28 (1965-1993)

  The apple never falls far from the tree, and such was the case in both life and death for Lee's son, Brandon. Groomed since childhood to be a master martial artist like his dad, Brandon could shatter wooden boards with a side-kick by age five, Bruce's brother, Robert, explains.

  "Bruce would hold [the board] like that...and say 'c'mon Brandon, do it with a killing instinct," Lee recalls. "And he would run right to the board and kick it with a side-kick and break it."

  And like his father, Brandon died unexpectedly at the beginnings of his burgeoning film career. Rumors of a curse and gang-related activity circulated after his fatal accident on the set of The Crow (1994) where he was accidently shot. He was only 28.  Production was taking longer than usual, investigators found, and "both dummies and blanks... had hastily been fabricated by taking out the gunpowder from real bullets because of the time pressure crew members were under." It resulted in a "hideous fluke" when the lead tip of the bullet managed to perforate Lee’s navel at the stem of the aorta.
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  (#3) Chuck Norris

  • 78

  Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris's epic fight-to-the-death scene in the Way of the Dragon (1972) was just as mental as it was physical. They spent a good two-and-a-half minutes 'prepping' for this fight, while the infamous cat watched. The cat, by the way, was used to mimic Chuck Norris's way of toying with Bruce, whom we all know, wins the fight. In fact, when Lee reached out to Norris about filming Way of the Dragon, he said didn't just want to beat the world champ, he wanted to kill him. 

  The two spent a large amount of time working out together, punching and kicking and beating up on that good 'ol bag all martial artists learn to love. And when the time came to choreograph the fight in the Way of the Dragon, it was more of a meeting of the minds. "It was a mental thing between he and I," Chuck Norris explains. "That made it work... it was all the little nuances that made the fight." 
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  (#6) Sharon Tate

  • Dec. at 26 (1943-1969)

  If you're a fan of Austin Powers (1997), then you'll surely appreciate Phil Karlson's The Wrecking Crew (1968), starring Dean Martin and Sharon Tate. While prepping for her fight scene against Nancy Kwan, Sharon trained with Lee, who also trained her husband, Roman Polanski. And even if you haven't seen her other '60s films, you may remember Sharon from the Manson Murders.

  Polanski, unhappy with investigators, took it upon himself to investigate his late wife's murder and "dressed all in black, crept around different LA neighborhoods swabbing his friend’s Lamborghinis and Porches for signs of blood," reports say. When Lee mentioned losing a pair of glasses, Polanski became suspicious since another pair of specs showed up at the crime scene. However, they were not the same frames Lee had lost.

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