Part 5
THE FINAL YEAR
(1973)
Posted from Kowloon, Hong Kong, on January 9, 1973, at 10:00 AM
January 9, 1973
Dear Jon,
How ironical it is to write you [that] I received a letter from James, that “lovable bastard?” on the day of Greg’s call.
He sent me a birthday card saying “Friends like you, comes once in a blue moon?” Well, what more can I say but I have lost one [dear friend]—who knows you ... understands you.
James was my student, yet he was more a friend. I am glad in one thing though, and this I know, since our friendship we both have benefited from our ups and downs. He was a man and I love him. You understand Jon, I have lost a brother. I, too, respect him with all his faults and good merits.
Let me know if I can be of any help. I can’t write further.
Bruce
P.S. He was a fighter. Consider the odds!! He kept blasting!
To Jon Y. Lee
Jon,
Thank you for your kind letter, Jon. James might be stubborn, but he was a good man in my book. He might not have been too neat or too orderly, but he never consciously meant harm. He had a temper but he knew what was right.
I, Bruce Lee, have another loss, and that loss is one I can never replace.
Bruce
To Jhoon Goo Rhee
February 9, 1973
Dear Jhoon,
I am at Mr. Chow’s office at the moment, and both Mr. Chow and I are waiting for the picture of your student that you have promised to send previously.
Mr. Chow has already told his associate to work on the script while I am very busy working in the Warner Brothers picture.
So would you please then rush me those photos so that I can present them to Mr. Chow along with whatever suggestions you would like to make on this possible project together.
Bruce Lee talks with his production partner Raymond Chow (right) during a break in liming The Game of Death, ca. 1972.
I am doing fine—no! I should say “excellent.” You know how it is. It’s so damned good that I cannot bear it. Lots of luck and take care of your knee. A Korean without a good knee is a dead Korean.
Warmest personal regards,
Sincerely yours,
Bruce Lee
To Ted Ashley
April 22, 1973
Ted,
Nowadays, my offers for doing a film have reached to the point which I guarantee you will both surprise as well as shock you.
Viewing from the angle of efficient practical business sense, I hope we will be fair and square and have mutual trust and confidence—I have had a bad experience doing a picture with some person or organization in Hong Kong. In other words, I was burned once, and didn’t like it.
Without Bruce Lee, I am sure that Warner Bros. will definitely and factually suffer no loss, and vice versa; therefore, and I sincerely mean it, that is from one human being to another, practical business or whatever it is, I sincerely hope that during this meeting, I will find a genuine and truthful friend, Ted Ashley.
As a friend, I am sure you agree with me that, after all, quality, extremely hard work, and professionalism is what cinema is all about. My twenty years of experience, both in martial arts and acting, has apparently led to the successful harmony of appropriateness of showmanship and genuine, efficient, artful expression. In short, this is it and ain’t nobody knows it like I know it. Pardon my bluntness, but that is me!
Under such circumstances, I sincerely hope that you will open up the genuineness within you and be absolutely fair and square in our transactions. Because of our friendship, I am holding up my money-making time—like ten offers from hungry producers—to look forward to this meeting. You see, Ted, my obsession is to make, pardon the expression, the fuckingest action motion picture that has ever been made.
In closing, I will give you my heart, but please do not give me your head only; in return, I, Bruce Lee, will always feel the deepest appreciation for the intensity of your involvement.
Bruce Lee
To Ted Ashley
Ted,
Thank [the] Lord that I talked to Dick Ma. A few current up to date thoughts and emotions:
(1) I’m ready for action—preparing several [projects] in the meantime, ready to go anytime, anywhere.
Bruce Lee giving directions to cast and crew on the set of Enter the Dragon, ca. 1973.
(2) I’m sending The Way of the Dragon for your advice whether or not or how it should be released.
All in all, I’m having a burden of nothing to do—raring to go. Whatever....
Talk to you later, but do think of the possibilities—they will be great!!
Bruce
To Taky Kimura2
May 1973
Taky,
In life there are the pluses and the minuses, and it is time for you to concentrate on the pluses. It might be difficult but fortunately for us human beings, we have self-will. Well, it is time to employ it.
Life is an ever-flowing process and somewhere on the path some unpleasant things will pop up—it might leave a scar, but then life is flowing on and like running water, when it stops, it grows stale. Go bravely on, my friend, because each experience teaches us a lesson, and remember, if there is anything at all I can help with, let me know.
Keep blasting because James Lee did, and life is such that sometimes it is nice and sometimes it is not.
Take care,
Bruce
To James Coburn3
June 13, 1973
Jim,
Missed you when I was in Los Angeles, but had left that super duper outfit at your house. Hope you like it. Everything is cool here. Spoke to Stirling and I told him that between you and him I’ll thrust our silent flute in your hands.
Might be coming back for the opening. We have that artist who did Dirty Harry and “Mission Impossible,” to score the music for the Warner Brothers picture.4 Also another added [piece of] good news is that we’ll have a summer release at the Chinese Grauman Theater.
Bruce Lee had planned to portray certain significant historical Chinese heroes in future films. He went so far as to be fitted for period costumes, such as the one shown here, ca. 1973.
All my best and keep cool
Bruce
P.S. Say hello to Beverly.
To Ted Ashley
Posted from the Hyatt Regency, Kowloon, Hong Kong
June 1973
Dear Ted,
Just a note to let you know that this “18 year old” has arrived safely.5
Do consider carefully in regard to the title of Enter the Dragon.
1. This “unique” dragon (the Chinese, the spiritual, etc.) is not one of those Won Ton Kung Fu flicks from H.K.
2. With the rightful publicity we can tell on the screen as well as outside that this dragon has broken the all-time record consecutively—like you said, “it comes across.”
I really think this is a good title and like I said, do think it over carefully because “Enter the Dragon” suggests the emergence (the entrance) of someone (a personality) that is of quality.
Time is pressing, Ted.
Do please send me the two scripts so I can work it over.
Warmest personal regards,
Bruce Lee
(The Dragon in Chinese, by the way)
To Run Run Shaw6
Dear Run Run,
As of now, consider September, Oct. & November, a period of three months, reserved for Shaw.
Specific terms [we] will discuss upon my arrival.
Bruce Lee
To Adrian Marshall—Bruce Lee’s last letter
Bruce Lee’s last letter was written to his attorney, Adrian Marshall. Bruce wrote it on the last day of his life and posted it several hours before his death. Due to the distance between Hong Kong and Los Angeles, the letter arrived on Marshall’s desk a week later. “It was an eerie feeling to receive Bruce’s letter seven days after he passed away,” Marshall says. “However, I thought readers might be interested in learning what promise the future had for Bruce at this particular period in his life.” In the missive, Bruce outlines his various business offers and plans for the future. To my (and Marshall’s) knowledge, this is the last letter Bruce Lee ever wrote.
Despite his hard-won success, Lee’s primary concern was always a full commitment to quality which explains why his films have withstood the test of time and have become classics of the genre.
July 20, 1973
Dear Adrian,
Will be arriving Los Angeles on Aug. 3rd, would like to sit down and hope you can leave open the weekend of Aug. 4th to 5th to discuss the following:
1/ the deal with Hanna Barbera
2/ Warner’s proposition
3/ Titanas from Italy
4/ Andy’s proposition from H.K. which I will explain to you when I see you in person.
All in all, it will be a hectic schedule with television shows, United Press interview, etc., spending one week in LA and leaving on Aug. 18th to New York for another week of publicity, maybe[the] “Johnny Carson Show” and so forth, etc. And then, my publicity tour will officially end on Aug. 24th and on Aug. 25th I will meet Linda at LA, ready to come back to H.K. hopefully in one piece.
In the meantime, if there is any preliminary discussions that you can start without my presence, go right ahead. However, I would prefer you and I sit down first and discuss the whole plan of the income tax situation before we proceed on. Also, I would like to meet with you first before meeting with Raymond Chow and then both of us will hear him out. By the way, there are also other propositions of books, clothing, endorsements, etc. At any rate, I will talk to you personally when I see you.
Take care my friend.
Very truly yours,
Bruce
P.S. Looking forward to a sincere open and honest relationship between you and I to really do something fair and square. By the way, Sy Weintraub had just called and will be flying here to H.K., supposedly to have devised a super plan for me. At any rate, I won’t sign anything until I and then maybe Raymond and/or Sy sit down and we all [have] talked. So get prepared!! See you soon.
1. Jon Yimm Lee was the brother of James Yimm Lee. This letter was written when Bruce Lee received news of James’s death from his son, Greg. As far back 1971, Bruce was growing increasingly concerned about James’s deteriorating health, and, indeed, deeply felt the loss of his friend and JKD comrade.
2. Bruce Lee wrote this letter when he heard that Kimura had recently split up with his wife. The original letter has been lost, but the passage reprinted here has been preserved by inclusion in several books published in the mid-1970s.
3. American actor James Coburn was one of Bruce Lee’s private students and had collaborated with him and Stirling Silliphant on the Silent Flute screenplay about the higher principles of martial art. Bruce Lee wrote this letter upon his return to Hong Kong from Los Angeles, where he had attended a rough screening of his final film, Enter the Dragon, at the Warner Brothers studios.
4. The artist is composer Lalo Schifrin.
5. Bruce Lee wrote this letter shortly after returning to Hong Kong from America, where he had undergone a battery of physical tests, was given a “clean bill of health,” and told he “had the body of an 18-year old.” Sadly, he passed away thirty days later from a cerebral edema.
6. Sir Run Run Shaw is the driving force behind Shaw Brothers Films in Hong Kong, which, until Bruce Lee put Golden Harvest Films on the map, was the undisputed leader of Southeast Asian filmmakers. Shaw had been courting Bruce Lee since 1971, but Bruce and Raymond Chow formed a successful partnership in 1972. Always interested in broadening his experience, Bruce contemplated making a variety of films with other producers. This letter indicates that he was intending to make at least one movie with Shaw Brothers in the fall of 1973.