O n Nov. 27, 1940, Bruce Lee was born in San Francisco to two traveling Chinese performers. The younger generation might only be familiar with Bruce Lee by name, but the martial artist and actor’s influence is present even today. His last film, “Enter the Dragon,” sparked a huge wave of martial art movies worldwide and broke a new glass ceiling for Asian-American actors, but it never would have happened if Bruce Lee left Hollywood. THEN CHANGED IT FOREVER An 80th Birthday Tribute to the Martial Arts Legend HOW BRUCE LEE ALMOST LEFT HOLLYWOOD —
Lee had a fairly successful career as a child actor in Hong Kong; he was featured in more than 20 films when he was young. Most of his roles were dramatic, and one film, “The Orphan,” made him quite a big
celebrity there. His performance was compared to James Dean’s in “Rebel Without a Cause.” When he was 18, his parents sent him back to California because Bruce kept getting into fights and slacking on his academic studies at home. He made a
living as a martial arts instructor and even started a few martial
These candied sweet potatoes will make your family beg for more! CINNAMON-SPICED CANDIED SWEET POTATOES
arts schools. Lee could have retired from acting, but he was
discovered by a TV producer, William Dozier. He cast Bruce Lee as sidekick Kato in “The Green Hornet,” which was a prominent role for an Asian-American actor and far from the norm in 1966. When “The Green Hornet” was canceled by 1967, there were no more roles in Hollywood for him to play. Lee wanted to create a heroic Asian male character, but that didn’t exist in American film … yet. He went back to Hong Kong, and producers were eager to put him on TV, where they had been playing “The Green Hornet” but calling it the “The Kato Show.” He made three more martial arts films, and they were all huge hits in Hong Kong.
INGREDIENTS
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4 lbs orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, peeled and cut crosswise into 2-inch pieces, then cut lengthwise into 1-inch wedges 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 tbsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cubed 4 (2-inch) cinnamon sticks
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DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. 2. Place sweet potato wedges in a 4-quart baking dish. 3. Sprinkle sugar, salt, and cloves over sweet potatoes. 4. Dot with butter and place cinnamon sticks around sweet potatoes. 5. Bake, turning every 15 minutes, until sweet potatoes are tender and the liquid is syrupy, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. 6. Remove from the oven and let stand for 10 minutes. 7. Discard cinnamon sticks and serve.
Finally, Lee reached out to a producer at Warner Brothers, and they developed “Enter the Dragon,” the first martial arts film produced by an American studio. “Without ‘Enter the Dragon,’ most of the video games that we associate now with martial arts, certainly all of the television shows and films that have come afterward ... would not be the same,” Jeff Yang, the writer and host of podcast “They Call Us Bruce,” told NPR. It’s a tragedy that Bruce Lee passed away a month before the release of “Enter the Dragon,” but his legacy won’t be forgotten by anyone who loves the incredible narratives inspired by his work.
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