Martial Artist, Actor, Motion Picture Director. Balancing martial arts theory and film performance, Bruce Lee remains the most recognized martial artist of the twentieth century. Though born in San Francisco, Lee would move to Hong Kong with his family while still an infant and would act in several films there as a child. After losing a street fight in 1953, he would also study Wing Chun Kung Fu, a style emphasizing economy of movement. He would quickly become one of the most feared street fighters in Hong Kong, in addition to, ironically, becoming the Crown Colony Cha-Cha dance champion in 1958. His street reputation led to several problems with the police, who took a dim view such things, and Lee's parents convinced him to return to the United States in 1959, a trip largely financed by giving Cha-Cha lessons to first-class passengers aboard the ship to America. Working odd jobs and teaching Kung Fu, Lee entered the University of Washington in 1961, eventually earning a degree in philosophy. His reputation as a martial artist grew, and in 1964 he was invited by Kenpo Karate pioneer Ed Parker to do a demonstration at the Long Beach International Karate Championships. His performance became the sensation of the martial arts world, and Lee opened his first formal school in Oakland, California later that year. Within a few months, rival instructor Wong Jack Man, taking umbrage at Lee's policy of teaching all students regardless of ethnicity, challenged Lee to a fight with the loser closing his school. By all accounts, Lee won the no-holds-barred contest handily, but his difficulty in forcing his opponent to submit caused him to seriously rethink his approach to martial arts. Lee would eventually devise a new style called Jeet Kune Do (The Way of the Intercepting Fist). While retaining the economy of motion embodied in Wing Chun, Lee's new style did away with strict conceptions of form and freely incorporated techniques from a wide variety of styles, including the top Kung Fu schools as well as boxing, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, Philippine Boxing, and even some ideas from fencing. In 1966, Lee starred as Kato in the television series "The Green Hornet". Though modestly received in the United States, "The Green Hornet" was a huge success in Hong Kong. After establishing a fantastically successful martial arts school in Los Angeles that catered to several celebrity clients, Lee capitalized on his Hong Kong popularity, returning to the city in 1970 to do a series of martial arts films, including "Fists of Fury" and "The Chinese Connection". These films became popular worldwide, earning Lee a fanatically devoted following. He followed these with the higher-budgeted "Enter the Dragon" and "Return of the Dragon", directing the latter himself. In 1973, after experiencing a series of headaches, Bruce Lee died of a cerebral edema. Though many still speculate that the incongruous death of "the fittest man alive" may have been a martial arts-connected murder of some sort, the prevailing medical opinion remains that Lee died from an unfortunate combination of medications.