Shannon Lee
| Shannon Lee | |
|---|---|
| Chinese name | 李香凝 (traditional) |
| Chinese name | 李香凝 (simplified) |
| Pinyin | Lǐ Xiāngníng (Mandarin) |
| Jyutping | Lei5 Heong1 Jing4 (Cantonese) |
| Birth name | Shannon Emery Lee |
| Born |
April 19, 1969 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Business person, actress |
| Years active | 1993–present |
| Spouse(s) | Anthony Ian Keasler (m. 1994) |
| Children | 1 |
| Parents |
Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Linda Lee Cadwell (born 1945) |
| Ancestry | Shunde, Guangdong, China |
| Shannon Lee | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese | 李香凝 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Shannon Emery Lee (born April 19, 1969) is an American actress, martial artist and businesswoman. She is the daughter of martial arts film star Bruce Lee and Linda Lee Cadwell, the granddaughter of Cantonese opera singer Lee Hoi-Chuen, and the younger sister of Brandon Lee.[1]
Personal life
Shannon Lee was born on April 19, 1969 as the second child to Bruce Lee and Linda Lee Cadwell and her family lived in Hong Kong from 1971 to 1973, after which her mother moved back to the United States following the death of her father. Together, they lived in Seattle, Washington and Los Angeles. Shannon grew up in Rolling Hills, California.
Graduating from the Chadwick School in 1987, Lee then attended Tulane University in New Orleans, where she studied voice and graduated in 1991. She moved back to Los Angeles in 1993 after her brother's death to pursue acting. She married lawyer Anthony Keasler in 1994, and later gave birth to their daughter, Wren Lee Keasler. In her youth, she studied Jeet Kune Do, the martial art system invented by her father, under Richard Bustillo, one of her father's students. However, her serious studies didn't begin until the late 1990s. To train for parts in action movies, she studied jeet kune do with Ted Wong.[2]
She studied taekwondo under Dung Doa Liang and wushu under Eric Chen. She also studied under the tutelage of the director of Enter the Eagles, Yuen De, Jackie Chan’s Chinese opera brother. Because the film, Enter the Eagles, required her to fight Benny Urquidez, Urquidez taught her kickboxing.[2]
Career
Lee made her acting debut playing a cameo in her father's 1993 biopic film Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story as the party singer of the song "California's dreaming." She went on to appear in the direct-to-video films Cage II (1994) with bodybuilding veteran & actor Lou Ferrigno and High Voltage (1997) with Antonio Sabato Jr. In 1998 she starred in the Hong Kong action film Enter the Eagles, directed by Corey Yuen, co-starring Michael Wong and Anita Yuen.
On television, she guest-starred in an episode of the television series Martial Law alongside Sammo Hung in 1998 and appeared in the science-fiction television film Epoch, which first aired on the Sci Fi Channel in 2001. She was also the television host of the first season of WMAC Masters. Lee is currently the president of the Bruce Lee Foundation.[3]
She sang on the band Medicine's album The Mechanical Forces of Love in 2003. She sang a cover of "I'm in the Mood for Love" for the movie China Strike Force (2000), which starred Leehom Wang and Aaron Kwok. She is the executive producer of the 2008 television series The Legend of Bruce Lee, based on her father's life. She is also an executive producer of the 2009 documentary film, How Bruce Lee Changed the World.[4]
Filmography
| Film | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
| 1993 | Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story | Party Singer | |
| 1994 | Cage II | Milo | |
| 1997 | High Voltage | Jane Logan | |
| 1998 | Enter the Eagles | Mandy | Alternative title: Gwan Guen See Dam |
| 1998 | Blade | Resident | |
| 2001 | Lessons for an Assassin | Fiona | |
| 2002 | She, Me and Her | Paula Jemison | |
| Television | |||
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1995 | WMAC Masters | Host | 13 episodes |
| 1998 | Martial Law | Vanessa Feng | Episode: "Take Out" |
| 2000 | Epoch | Pamela | Television film |
| 2012 | I Am Bruce Lee | Executive producer | Television film |
References
- ↑ "Lee, Bruce, (1940–1973) Martial Arts Master and Film Maker", HistoryLink.org, accessed January 1, 2011.
- 1 2 Reid, Dr. Craig D. (1999). "Shannon Lee: Emerging From the Shadows of Bruce Lee, the Butterfly Spreads her Wings". Black Belt. 37 (10): 33.
- ↑ Bruce Lee Foundation website; accessed December 10, 2014.
- ↑ Bellafante, Ginia (May 15, 2009). "The Hagiography of the Dragon, a Continuing Saga". The New York Times.
Further reading
- Wolfe, April (September 6, 2016), "How Bruce Lee's Daughter Is Sharing His Philosophies With the Digital Generation", LA Weekly