Lee Moon-shuen (; 4 February 1901 – 7 February 1965) known professionally as Lee Hoi-chuen, was a

Chinese opera Traditional Chinese opera (), or ''Xiqu'', is a form of musical theatre in China with roots going back to the early periods in China. It is an amalgamation of various art forms that existed in ancient China, and evolved gradually over more tha ...

singer and film actor in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. He was the father of

Bruce Lee Bruce Lee (; born Lee Jun-fan, ; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was a Hong Kong and American martial artist and actor. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy drawing from different combat disciplines that ...

, the father-in-law of

Linda Lee Cadwell Linda Emery Lee Cadwell (born March 21, 1945) is a retired American teacher and writer. She is the author of the Bruce Lee biography '' Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew'', upon which the film '' Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story'' is based, as well as th ...

, and also the paternal grandfather of

Brandon Lee Brandon Bruce Lee (February 1, 1965 – March 31, 1993) was an American actor and martial artist. Establishing himself as a rising action star in the early 1990s, he landed his breakthrough role as Eric Draven in the dark fantasy film ''The ...

and

Shannon Lee Shannon Emery Lee Keasler (born April 19, 1969) is an American actress and businesswoman. She is the only living child of martial artist Bruce Lee and retired martial arts teacher Linda Lee Cadwell, the granddaughter of Cantonese opera singer L ...

Family

Lee Hoi-chuen was born in

Jun'an, Guangdong Jun'an () is a town in Shunde District, Foshan prefecture-level city, Guangdong Province, southern China. Martial artist Bruce Lee's father Lee Hoi-chuen Lee Moon-shuen (; 4 February 1901 – 7 February 1965) known professionally as Lee H ...

Qing China The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu people, Manchu-led Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin (1616–1636), La ...

on 4 February 1901. He moved to

British Hong Kong Hong Kong was a colony and later a dependent territory of the British Empire from 1841 to 1997, apart from a period of occupation under the Japanese Empire from 1941 to 1945 during the Pacific War. The colonial period began with the Briti ...

and became a

Cantonese opera Cantonese opera is one of the major categories in Chinese opera, originating in southern China's Guangdong Province. It is popular in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Macau and among Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. Like all versions of Ch ...

actor. There, he met and married

Grace Ho Grace Ho (; 1907 – 24 June 1996) was the mother of Bruce Lee. She and her husband Lee Hoi-chuen were the parents of Bruce as well as Peter Lee Jung-sum, Peter Lee, Robert Lee Jun-fai, Robert Lee, Phoebe Lee, and Agnes Lee. Biography Grace H ...

(1907–1996) who was of half-Cantonese and half-English descent and a daughter of Ho Kom Tong. They had two daughters, Phoebe and Agnes, and three sons,

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

Bruce The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been a ...

and

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

. Lee and his wife were on a one-year US tour with the Cantonese Opera Company in 1940 when their second son

was born in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. They later returned to Hong Kong when Bruce Lee was three months old. Soon after, the Lee family led an unexpected four-year hard life as Japan, in the midst of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, launched a surprise attack of Hong Kong in December 1941 and ruled for four years. Their youngest son Robert Lee, who was born in 1948, would go on to become famous in Hong Kong during the 1960s as the lead singer and founder of a popular beat band, The Thunderbirds. Lee died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

on 7 February 1965, three days after his 64th birthday and six days after the birth of his grandson

. He was buried at St Raphael's Catholic Cemetery at

Cheung Sha Wan Cheung Sha Wan is an area between Lai Chi Kok and Sham Shui Po in New Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is mainly residential to the north and south, with an industrial area in between. Administratively it is part of Sham Shui Po District, which also ...

Kowloon Kowloon () is an urban area in Hong Kong comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. With a population of 2,019,533 and a population density of in 2006, it is the most populous area in Hong Kong, compared with Hong Kong Island and t ...

In popular culture

Lee Hoi-chuen was portrayed by

Ric Young Ric Young is a Malaysian-born British character actor. He is best known for his role as Dr. Zhang Lee in the TV series ''Alias'' (2001–04) and as the henchman Kao Kan in the Steven Spielberg film ''Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom''. E ...

in the 1993 film '' Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story'' and by

Tony Leung Ka-fai Tony Leung Ka-fai (; born 1 February 1958) is a Hong Kong actor who is a four-time winner of the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor. As he is often confused with actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Tony Leung Ka-fai is known as "Big Tony," while Tony Leu ...

in the 2010 film ''

Bruce Lee, My Brother ''Bruce Lee, My Brother'' (, also known in the United Kingdom as ''Young Bruce Lee'') is a 2010 Hong Kong biographical martial arts drama film directed by Raymond Yip, and also written, produced and directed by Manfred Wong, and also storied, pr ...

''.

References

External links

*
Bruce Lee:The Divine Wind Bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Hoi-chuen 1901 births 1965 deaths Hong Kong male Cantonese opera actors Hong Kong male film actors People from Foshan Male actors from Guangdong Singers from Guangdong 20th-century Hong Kong male actors 20th-century Hong Kong male singers 20th-century Chinese male actors Family of Bruce Lee Chinese emigrants to British Hong Kong