Shannon Lee
Shannon Emery Lee (born April 19, 1969) is an American actress, martial artist and businesswoman. She is the daughter of martial arts film star Bruce Lee and retired martial arts teacher Linda Lee Cadwell, the granddaughter of Cantonese opera singer Lee Hoi-chuen, and the younger sister of Brandon Lee.[1]
Shannon Lee | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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李香凝 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Shannon Emery Lee April 19, 1969 Santa Monica, California, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nationality | American | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Alma mater | Chadwick School Tulane University | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Occupation | Businessperson, actress, martial artist | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Years active | 1993–present | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Spouse(s) | Anthony Ian Keasler ( m. 1994) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Children | Wren Keasler (daughter) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parents |
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Family | Brandon Lee (brother) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Style | Jeet Kune Do Taekwondo Wushu Kickboxing | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Teacher(s) | Richard Bustillo (Jeet Kune Do) Ted Wong (Jeet Kune Do) Dung Doa Liang (Taekwondo) Eric Chen (Wushu) Benny Urquidez (Kickboxing) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Musical career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Also known as | Shan Shan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Associated acts | Medicine | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 李香凝 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Early life
Shannon was born on April 19, 1969, at UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica in Santa Monica, California.[2]She is youngest child and only daughter of martial arts film star Bruce Lee and Linda Emery. She is descendant of Charles Henry Maurice Bosman from her grandmother, Grace Ho.[3][4] In her youth she studied Jeet Kune Do, the martial art created by her father, under Richard Bustillo, one of her father's students. However, her serious studies did not begin until the late 1990s. To train for parts in action movies, she studied Jeet Kune Do with Ted Wong.[5]
She studied Taekwondo under Dung Doa Liang and Wushu under Eric Chen. She also studied under the tutelage of the director of Enter the Eagles, Yuen De, Jackie Chan's Chinese opera brother. Because the film Enter the Eagles required her to fight Benny Urquidez, Urquidez himself taught her in kickboxing.[5]
Career
Lee made her acting debut playing a cameo in her father's 1993 biopic film Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story as the party singer of the song "California Dreamin.'" She went on to appear in the direct-to-video films Cage II (1994) with bodybuilding veteran and actor Lou Ferrigno and High Voltage (1997) with Antonio Sabato Jr. In 1998, she starred in the Hong Kong action film Enter the Eagles, directed by Corey Yuen, co-starring Michael Wong and Anita Yuen.
On television, she guest-starred in an episode of the television series Martial Law alongside Sammo Hung in 1998 and appeared in the sci-fi television film Epoch, which first aired on the Sci Fi Channel in 2001. That same year, she played the leading role in the action film Lessons for an Assassin. She was also the host of the first season of the game show WMAC Masters. She sang on the band Medicine's album The Mechanical Forces of Love in 2003. She sang a cover of "I'm in the Mood for Love" for the movie China Strike Force (2000), which starred Leehom Wang and Aaron Kwok.
Lee is president of the Bruce Lee Foundation.[6] She was the executive producer of the 2008 television series The Legend of Bruce Lee, based on her father's life, and the 2009 documentary film How Bruce Lee Changed the World.[7]
In 2015, Perfect Storm Entertainment and Shannon Lee announced that the series Warrior, based on an original idea by Bruce Lee, would be produced and would air on the Cinemax and that filmmaker Justin Lin was chosen to direct the series,[8][9] scheduled to debut in 2019.[9]
Filmography
Film | |||
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Year | Title | Role | Notes |
1993 | Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story | Party Singer | |
1994 | Cage II | Milo | |
1997 | High Voltage | Jane Logan | |
1998 | Enter the Eagles | Mandy | Alternative title: Gwan Guen See Dam |
1998 | Blade | Resident | |
2001 | Lessons for an Assassin | Fiona | |
2002 | She, Me and Her | Paula Jemison | |
2020 | Be Water | self | |
Television | |||
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
1995 | WMAC Masters | Host | 13 episodes |
1998 | Martial Law | Vanessa Feng | Episode: "Take Out" |
2000 | Epoch | Pamela | Television film |
2012 | I Am Bruce Lee | Executive producer, herself | Television documentary |
2019 | Warrior | Executive producer | Television series |
References
- "Lee, Bruce, (1940–1973) Martial Arts Master and Film Maker", HistoryLink.org. Retrieved January 1, 2011.
- "Lee, Bruce (1940-1973)". www.historylink.org. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
- "Shannon Lee". geni_family_tree. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
- Polly, Matthew (June 4, 2019). Bruce Lee: A Life. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-5011-8763-6.
- Reid, Dr. Craig D. (1999). "Shannon Lee: Emerging From the Shadows of Bruce Lee, the Butterfly Spreads her Wings". Black Belt. 37 (10): 33.
- Bruce Lee Foundation website. Retrieved December 10, 2014.
- Bellafante, Ginia (May 15, 2009). "The Hagiography of the Dragon, a Continuing Saga". The New York Times.
- Andreeva, Nellie (May 21, 2015). "Cinemax Developing Bruce Lee-Inspired Crime Drama 'Warrior' From Justin Lin".
- Cecchini, Mike (August 22, 2018). "Warrior: First Teaser for Bruce Lee Inspired TV Series". Denofgeek.
Further reading
- Wolfe, April (September 6, 2016), "How Bruce Lee's Daughter Is Sharing His Philosophies With the Digital Generation", LA Weekly