It's pretty hard to be a fan of fighting (real or otherwise) without encountering Bruce Lee (1940-1973) in some context. He's inspired too many martial arts students to count in both the U.S. and abroad, and will probably continue to do so.
It's also hard to imagine the Asian martial arts industry without its first true international superstar. Sure, there were other "chop socky" flicks making their way to our shores during the 60s and 70s, but "The Little Dragon" still stands head and shoulders above the rest (Names like Alexander Fu Sheng or Gordon Liu are still known only among die-hard fans). Jackie Chan himself had to work hard to escape Lee's shadow, and only did by going completely in other direction by incorporating acrobatics and slapstick comedy. Without Lee, there would arguably have been no Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Donnie Yen or Stephen Chow (actor/director/star of "Kung-Fu Hustle"). Outside of Hong Kong, Lee inspired the careers of70s Japanese Karate star Sonny Chiba (most recently seen as the sword-making sushi chef in "Kill Bill: Part I"), Chuck Norris and countless others.
Part of Lee's appeal then as well as now is definitely the fact that he was the real deal, probably more so than any of the other stars around. He was an extremely skilled student of traditional Chinese martial arts, embodied by his mastery of Wing Chun kung-fu under the teaching of Master Yip Man. However, he also had a history as a street brawler who was able to handle his way on the mean streets of post-WWII Hong Kong. He was also an iconoclast and innovator, incorporating modern Western ideas about diet, calisthenics and weight lifting into his training, and branching his martial arts training to embrace concepts drawn from Western fencing, boxing, wrestling and (horror of horrors) Japanese martial arts. This culminated in his development of Jeet Kune Do ("Way of the Intercepting Fist") which is usually identified as a 'new' martial art, but is more accurately Lee's philosophy towards fighting (summed up by the idea that one use use what is useful, and discard what is not).
Moreover, Lee was truly philosophical about the path he had chosen. His status as a martial arts moviestar notwithstanding, he really did work as hard as he could to promote the spiritual and ethical dimensions of studying fighting. When he could, he tried to bring these ideas into his movies (The famous/cheesy teaching scene in "Enter the Dragon" [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDW6vkuqGLg ] is a good example, as earnest and genuine as it is bit hokey dramatically).
There's not much I can say that accurately describes what impresses me about Mr. Lee. The best thing would be to listen to his own words.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW37eD5i24Q
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