"How did Bruce Lee die?" many are still suspiciously asking about a case that would normally be simple.
Perhaps it was all these regressions and contradictory claims of those who knew or said they knew who gave birth to one of the greatest mysteries of recent decades. Size Έλβις Πρίσλεϊ and Marilyn Monroe that is.
Maybe it's his fault again that morning of July 20, 1973, Bruce Lee woke up and was healthy, active and full of life. The 32-year-old star spent his day meeting with producers for his next film and then headed to a friend's house for an afternoon visit.
By the time it got dark, the greatest martial arts fighter of his generation would be dead on a mattress on the floor. Leaving people wondering for decades how he died the martial arts guru.
His tragic loss, at the very beginning of his film career in America, left people speculating. It was a sudden and completely unexpected death.
The unparalleled reputation he had found in Asia as a martial arts action movie hero would bring him to the US in just 2 years. In 1971 he starred for the first time in a film, in production Hong Kong "The Big Boss", and in 1973 had already returned to the American market the role that would make him a star in the West: "Enter the Dragon".
But before he even tasted the new glory that seemed to be waiting for him in Hollywood, he would die…
If there's one thing we've learned over the years, it's probably a small detail that summer day that may have taken Bruce Lee's life. A small decision with consequences that no one could have expected.
But let's go two months ago to unfold the story. On May 10, when Bruce Lee collapsed on the set of "Enter the Dragon." He was rushed to hospital after complaining of a terrible headache and his associates even reported convulsions.
Doctors recognized his symptoms cerebral edema, a condition characterized by an increase in fluid within the cerebral parenchyma and results in an increase in intracranial pressure.
The actor's symptoms agreed, as these non-epileptic seizures indicated. He was given mannitol and after a short stay in the hospital, he felt better.
"This is not the way Bruce Lee will die," he joked to his friends who went to see him. Leaving, he returned to his daily workouts, but also his strict diet with vegetables, rice, fish and milk.
By early July he seemed to have recovered surprisingly well from the cerebral edema, although he sometimes complained about his increasingly frequent headaches. However, no one around him seemed to have anything to worry about.
And so we arrived at the 20th of July, another busy day for the busy star. He was back in Hong Kong, shooting his films, and spent most of the day with producer Raymond Chow, discussing their new collaboration.
Before seeing Chow, he had met George Lazenby, the one-time Agent 007 in "In the Service of His Majesty" (1969), with whom he wanted to work on his new film.
Chow had revealed that Bruce Lee was buzzing with life that day, staging the scene with incredible energy, despite the cursed summer heat.
When the meeting was over, Bruce went to a friend's apartment. Of course, people close to him knew that the "friend" was the illegal one mistress his, Taiwanese actress Betty Ting Pei. "Friend" was only for his wife, Linda.
He spent the afternoon there. Chow even said that they talked at some point to have the three of them eat together at night and finalize the final terms of their agreement.
Bruce Lee negotiated hard for his involvement in "Game of Death", as he wanted not only complete artistic freedom, but also to sign and produce, acting as a protagonist and director.
At 7:30 pm, shortly before leaving for the meeting with the producer, he complained again of a headache. Ting Pei gave him a painkiller and a sedative and Bruce Lee went to bed.
She left the apartment, but returned a few hours later, as Lee had not gone to the scheduled dinner with the producer and herself. She found him unconscious. He called Chow, who rushed to the apartment and found that the actor was dead.
They called a doctor, who "spent another 10 minutes trying to bring him back to life", as the producer remembered, who died in 2018 at the age of 91.
Only then did they call ambulance, who transported him to a nearby hospital and was simply pronounced dead. He was only 32 years old.
An autopsy on his body showed that his death was due to severe swelling in the brain. The accumulation of fluid that had caused the swelling resulted in an increase of 13% in the size of his brain. "From 1.400 to 1.575 grams," he wrote at the autopsy.
Chow came out and declared his death Bruce Lee was the result of an allergic reaction to the painkiller and sedative cocktail. A statement that was partially confirmed by the forensic report.
The medical examiner officially concluded that the death was the result of a second cerebral edema caused by the painkiller. "Death by misfortune" he described in his report, a term which, unlike death by accident, indicated that Bruce Lee had taken an unnecessary risk.
People close to him were not convinced, however, and ordered new assessments from their own doctors. Even the top British medical examiner Donald Teare was brought to Hong Kong, following the recommendation of Scotland Yard, to examine the body.
The man who had performed more than 1.000 necropsies confirmed the medical examiner's findings. Bruce Lee died of cerebral edema due to an allergic reaction to the painkiller in his body.
Teare also amused the suspicions that the cannabis found in the actor's body caused the death. "It would be irresponsible and absurd to claim that cannabis may have triggered either the events of Bruce's collapse on May 10 or his death on July 20."
All independent necropsies confirmed the medical examiner's findings. Why then such a fever from conspiracy theories?
Chuck Norris' statements undoubtedly added fuel to the fire. The two had worked together in the movies and Chuck claimed they were good friends. He was the first to claim in 1975 that the painkiller reacted badly to the muscle relaxants Bruce Lee was taking, as well as an "antibiotic".
But if he was taking muscle relaxants without anyone knowing, what else was he taking? Tonic preparations to keep fit? Food supplements; And if he used it hemp, what other drugs was he taking?
The conspiracy fire had just ignited and nothing would have extinguished it.
Some came out to say that he was deliberately poisoned by Ting Pei. Why; You choose and you get, but the most popular theory circulating in Hong Kong was that he killed him on behalf of a secret sect that wanted him dead.
Why did she want him dead? Again you choose and you get. Because he revealed his secrets Kung Fu in the West, says a popular theory. Why did he say "no" to the protection that some people wanted to sell him, says another.
According to another well-known theory, it was not his mistress, but a prostitute who killed him, because Bruce Lee had become violent with her. In this scenario, the star had taken an aphrodisiac that made him lose control of his actions. The prostitute killed him in legal self-defense, they said.
Theories were now coming out with the scoop and blaming the Mafia, either Chinese or American (or, why not, both together). What the gangsters wanted from Bruce Lee, they never told us convincingly.
We were simply told that his mistress was also the mistress of the "godfather" of the Chinese Mafia. Bruce Lee's fight with him, for Ting Pei's eyes, subscribed to his loss. However, the proponents of this view have never provided any evidence or even evidence.
Still others were talking about the family curse, as at Lee's funeral in Seattle, people learned that he had an older brother who had mysteriously died before Bruce was born. Robert Lee, his younger brother, who was at the funeral, must have heard about the "family curse" with great surprise.
The "Li curse" was about to erupt 20 years later when the only son of Bruce Lee and also up-and-coming actor, Brandon Lee, secured the biggest role in his acting career so far in 1992.
The 28-year-old Brandon would play in "The Raven", the film that would make his career. He unfortunately would not live to read the reviews, as he was killed in a tragic accident on set.
The weapon that was to be shot for the shooting needs finally had one sphere inside him, which fatally wounded him in the abdomen.
Similar to his father's story, and despite police investigations and independent investigators attributing the tragic event to the production caretaker's criminal negligence, rumors soon surfaced of a murder.
How did Bruce Lee die? Sometimes the simplest explanation is the most likely. Even if it seems a bit ignorant for a myth…