Linda Emery Lee Cadwell (born March 21, 1945
) is a retired American teacher and writer. She is the author of the
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 ...
biography ''
Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew'', upon which the film ''
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story'' is based, as well as the founder, a former trustee of, and an unpaid advisor of the
Bruce Lee Foundation
Bruce Lee (; born Lee Jun-fan, ; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was a British Hong Kong, Hong Kong and American martial artist and actor. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy drawing from different comba ...
. Lee Cadwell is the widow of martial arts master and actor
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 ...
(19401973) and the mother of actor
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 ...
(19651993) and actress
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 ...
(born 1969).
Life and career
She was born in
Everett,
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
, the daughter of Vivian R. (née Hester) (1911-1998) and Everett Emery.
Her family was
Baptist
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...
and of Swedish, Irish, and English descent.
She met Bruce Lee while she was attending
Garfield High School, where Bruce came to give a
kung fu
Chinese martial arts, often called by the umbrella terms kung fu (; ), kuoshu () or wushu (), are multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Greater China. These fighting styles are often classified according to common ...
demonstration; he was attending the
University of Washington
The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington.
Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...
at the time. Eventually, she became one of his kung fu students when she was attending the University of Washington, studying to become a teacher.
They married on August 17, 1964. Linda was a few
credits short from graduation. They had two children,
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 ...
. Bruce Lee had opened his own kung fu school at the time and was teaching Jun Fan Gung Fu, Lee's modified version of
Wing Chun
Wing Chun (Chinese: 詠春 or 咏春, lit. "singing spring"), sometimes spelled Ving Tsun, is a concept-based fighting art, form of Nanquan (martial art), Southern Chinese kung fu and close-quarters system of self-defense. In Mandarin, it is ...
, which would later serve as the basis for
Jeet Kune Do
Jeet Kune Do is a primarily wing chun kung fu inspired eclectic martial arts philosophy heavily influenced and adapted by the Taoist personal life philosophy and experiences of martial artist Bruce Lee.
Overview and philosophy
Jeet Kune ...
. He died suddenly on July 20, 1973, of an
allergic reaction
Allergies, also known as allergic diseases, refer a number of conditions caused by the hypersensitivity of the immune system to typically harmless substances in the environment. These diseases include hay fever, food allergies, atopic derma ...
to an
analgesic
An analgesic drug, also called simply an analgesic (American English), analgaesic (British English), pain reliever, or painkiller, is any member of the group of drugs used to achieve relief from pain (that is, analgesia or pain management). It ...
.
Linda married Tom Bleecker in 1988, and they divorced in 1990. She later wed stockbroker Bruce Cadwell in 1991 and they lived in
Rancho Mirage, California
Rancho Mirage is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. The population was 17,218 at the 2010 census, up from 13,249 at the 2000 census, but the seasonal (part-time) population can exceed 20,000. Incorporated in 1973 and located ...
.
On March 31, 1993, her son Brandon was accidentally shot to death by a prop gun while filming ''
The Crow
The Crow is a supernatural superhero comic book series created by James O'Barr revolving around the titular character of the same name. The series, which was originally created by O'Barr as a means of dealing with the death of his fiancée at t ...
''.
Cadwell has continued to promote Bruce Lee's martial art Jeet Kune Do. She retired in 2001, and her daughter Shannon (who now heads the Lee family estate), together with son-in-law Ian Keasler, run the Bruce Lee Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching Bruce Lee's philosophy on martial arts and his writing on philosophy.
Books
Cadwell wrote the 1975 book ''
Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew'' (), on which the 1993 feature film ''
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story'' was based. She was portrayed by actress
Lauren Holly
Lauren Holly (born October 28, 1963) is an American actress. She has played the roles of Deputy Sheriff Maxine Stewart in the television series ''Picket Fences'', NCIS Director Jenny Shepard in the series '' NCIS'', Dr. Betty Rogers on ''Motive' ...
in the film adaptation.
She also wrote the 1989 book ''The Bruce Lee Story'' ().
References
External links
Bruce Lee Foundation website
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cadwell, Linda Lee
1945 births
Living people
American biographers
American women biographers
American people of English descent
American people of Swedish descent
Garfield High School (Seattle) alumni
20th-century American women writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
People from Everett, Washington
Writers from Washington (state)
American people of Irish descent
University of Washington College of Education alumni
Family of Bruce Lee