Brandon Lee was the son of legendary martial arts film star Bruce Lee and Linda Emery, and achieved success as an actor in a number of films before his untimely death in an accidental shooting on a film-set.

Lee was born on February 1, 1965, in Oakland, California, and the family moved to Los Angeles when he was three months old. With film offers for his father becoming more limited, they moved to Hong Kong in 1971, where Bruce Lee made three films. When Brandon was eight years old, his father died suddenly from a cerebral edema.

After Bruce Lee’s death, the family returned to the United States, first to Seattle and then back to Los Angeles. Brandon Lee attended Emerson College in Boston, and after one year moved to New York, where he took acting lessons at the Lee Strasberg Academy. Lee learned martial arts, but was much more interested in acting.

In 1985, he returned to Los Angeles and worked as a script reader, before making an appearance in a made-for-TV movie called Kung Fu: The Movie. He traveled to Hong Kong to make one feature film called Legacy of Rage, before returning to California, where he made several television and film appearances. His first major studio role was in the 1991 film Showdown in Little Tokyo, and his first starring role was in 1992’s Rapid Fire.

In 1992, Lee was cast as Eric Draven in The Crow, a feature film adaptation of a popular comic book. Filming began on his 28th birthday, February 1, 1993. He played an undead rock star avenging the murder of both his fiancee and himself. On March 31, they were filming the scene where Lee’s character was shot. They had been using blanks with dummy cartridges, but because they were behind schedule, began using real cartridges, but no gunpowder. Before the scene was filmed, the gun was fired, but unbeknownst to the crew, a bullet became stuck in the barrel of the revolver. When the scene was later being filmed, actor Michael Massee fired the gun at Lee. The bullet became dislodged from the gun barrel, and struck Lee in the abdomen. He was rushed to hospital, but was declared dead later that day. At that point, the film was near completion, with only eight shooting days left. The family and filmmakers decided to complete the film, using previously filmed scenes along with new scenes shot with a stunt double.

Brandon Lee was scheduled to be married to Eliza Hutton on April 17, 1993, just 18 days after his death. The Crow was released on May 11, 1994, and became a hit, grossing $94 million dollars (U.S.) worldwide. Many believe this film would have made Lee a major Hollywood star, and he had already agreed to film two sequels to The Crow. He was buried next to his father at Lake View Cemetery in Seattle.