Bruce Lee's death

“If I shall die tomorrow, it will not hurt me. I’ve done all what I have intended to do. One cannot expect more from life than that”.

On the 10th of May 1973 Bruce Lee was working at the Golden Harvest studio’s on the Hammer Hill Road. He was there to synchronize his new film “Enter the Dragon”.

That day was very warm. The ventilators in the studio were switched off because of the noise it would cause whilst filming. During the break, Bruce went to the toilet. After 20 minutes of not returning, a colleague went to check up on him. He found Bruce kneeling on the floor. He said that he had dropped his contact lenses and was looking for them.

Back in the studio Bruce collapsed and was sick. His body began to shiver substantially. Straight away, a colleague ran to Raymond Chow’s office and explained what has happened. In stead of ringing 911, he rang his own GP Doctor Langford from the Baptist Hospital. He told Raymond to get him to the hospital immediately.

Two of Bruce’s colleagues took him to the hospital. He had a high fever, was unconscious and responded to nothing. His breathing was heavy and he had problems with convulsions, explained Doctor Don Langford.

Dr. Langford got three doctors to come, one of which was neurologist Dr. Wu to check over Bruce because of the convulsions. During the check up they found a large swelling in Bruce’s brain. They gave Bruce Mannitol to decrease the swelling.

They also removed a small amount of hashish from his stomach. Straight after the incident at the studio Linda was informed. With haste she drove straight to the hospital. After an hour and a half Bruce came by and when he awoke Linda was at his side. His eyes rolled and he managed to speak but it was gibberish.

The next day Dr. Langford asked Bruce if he’s on drugs. He admitted to using hashish from Nepal. He also told Dr. Langford that he had chewed hashish the day before and afterwards fell unconscious. Doctor Langford warned Bruce about the danger of drugs from Katmandu (Nepal). He explained that they are very dangerous as the drug is pure. He went on to warn Bruce that if he continues to these drugs it would probably cost him his life.

Bruce ignored this advice because two weeks later on the 25th of May he travelled to the USA to get examined by Doctor Karpland. Bruce weighed 57kg, but still Doctor Karpland believed that he was in perfect health.

He referred him to neurologist Doctor Reisbord. His examination results concluded that Bruce was suffering from convulsions but the cause of this is unknown. He prescribed Bruce Dilantin. Dr. Reisbord’s final conclusion was that he also found Bruce to be in good health.

Friday the 20th of July Linda Lee went out for lunch with a close friend. Bruce had told her that he had an appointment at home with Raymond Chow at 14:00 hrs. They were going to work on the scripts of the film “Game of Death”.

That same evening he was not planning on coming home as he and Raymond were to meet up with George Lazenby in the Miramar Hotel.

They both worked through until 16:00 hrs and left his home. Linda came home roughly the same time. They had just missed each other by seconds. Bruce and Raymond drove to Betty Ting Pei’s apartment to ask her to play a part in the film “Game of Death”.

At 19:30 hrs that evening Bruce complained of having a headache. Betty gave him one of her own pain killers (Equagesic), that she had been prescribed from her doctor. Bruce went to lie down for a while on her bed. About 10 minutes later Raymond Chow left the apartment for their meeting with George Lazenby in the Miramar Hotel. At 21:00 hrs Raymond rang Betty to find out where they were and ask why they were not at the meeting.

Betty explained that she has tried to wake Bruce up at least two times but he hasn’t responded. Raymond told Betty that he would come to her apartment and half an hour later he arrived. It looked like Bruce was sleeping peacefully and Raymond couldn’t wake Bruce up either.

Being concerned Raymond decided to ring Betty Ting Pei’s doctor up, Dr. Eugene Chu. The telephone was constantly engaged but finally he got through to Dr. Chu. He immediately came to Betty’s apartment but after 10 minutes he still couldn’t wake Bruce up.

He called for an ambulance and Bruce was taken to the Queen Elizabeth’s hospital with howling sirens. At 22:00 hrs Raymond rang up Linda and told her that she has to come immediately to the Queen Elizabeth’s hospital. A quarter of an hour later the ambulance arrived where a team of doctors were waiting to help Bruce. The doctors tried everything but they all agreed that they could unfortunately not save Bruce’s life.

At 23:00 hrs Raymond Chow told the shocking news to the press.

Mourning was held for Bruce’s friends and fans on the 25th of July. There attended more than 25.000 people.

After the mourning Bruce was flown to America.

Just before the plane left Kai Tak Airport Linda told the following to the press.

"However the investigation is not yet closed to the death of my husband, I wish the press and the people of Hong Kong would stop speculating over the cause of death of my husband. I haven’t any suspicions than that Bruce has died naturally. I don’t blame myself or anybody else for that matter for his death. Our destination is unpredictable. The only irrelevant thing here is that Bruce has died and he will never return. He lives on in our memories and through his films. Please remember Bruce because of his talent, his art and the magic he gave us all.

For those of you who knew him better, his words and thoughts will always be with us and will have influence on us for the rest of our lives. I know, that the people of Hong Kong loved Bruce and are very proud of him because of what he has achieved, he had managed to get worldwide attention for Hong Kong. That’s why I’m begging you to please leave him to rest in peace and do not disturb his soul. These are my personal feelings and wishes and that of my closest friends. I would appreciate it if you would listen to me and respect our wishes".

On the 30th of July after a small second mourning in Butterworth funeral parlour in Seattle, Washington it is Taky Kimura, Danny Inosanto, Peter Chin, Steve McQueen, James Coburn and Robert Lee who bring Bruce to his last place of resting.

The utopist began the investigation into the cause of Bruce Lee’s death on the 3rd of September. They found a small quantity of cannabis in his stomach. On the 17th of September Linda confirmed that Bruce took cannabis now and again but Bruce didn’t show any signs of having side effects. The utopist gave his final verdict of the investigation on the 24th of September.

Bruce Lee’s death was a coincidence of unfortunate circumstances.

1. Most probably was Bruce hyper sensitive to the ingredients Equagesic, Doloxene and Dilantin that are found in the pain killers. He used the medicine Doloxene after he had back injury during his training in 1970.

2. Bruce had an extremely low level of body fat, just 1%!

3. In spite of his high intense training and always under high pressure Bruce wanted to do everything himself. He was a perfectionist, actor, director, script author and choreographer all at the same time.

4. Bruce’s drastic weight loss of 70 kilo’s to 60 kilo’s.

5. The people who had seen Bruce in the last weeks of his life confirmed that he looked unhealthy. He was terribly thin, looked confused, was forgetful, had rage attacks, was paranoid and was very depressed.

27 November 1940 – 20 July 1973

Rest in Peace.