Photo:Jamie McCarthy/Getty ; Shannon Lee Instagram
Jamie McCarthy/Getty ; Shannon Lee Instagram
Bruce Lee’s daughterShannon Leeis continuing her father’s legacy.
Shannon was born on April 19, 1969, to Bruce and his wife Linda Lee Cadwell. She was just 4 years old when the martial arts legend died, but she has continued to honor his memory; as an adult, Shannon has written a book about her late father and even serves as the CEO of the Bruce Lee Family Company.
Shannon also studied Jeet Kune Do, the martial art her father developed, as well as Taekwondo and Wushu. And, like her father, she worked as an actor as well.
In 2019, she opened up to PEOPLE aboutlosing her father at a young age, explaining that she still has vivid memories of him. “When he focused his attention on you, it was like having the sun shine on you,” she said. “That feeling has stayed with me my whole life.”
Two years later, shespoke about her father’s legacyin response toQuentin Tarantino’s portrayal of him inOnce Upon a Time… in Hollywood, claimingthe director perpetuated Bruce as a “dispensable stereotype”
“If only he’d take the name Bruce Lee off his lips now,” she said, finishing with: “I’m really f—ing tired of White men in Hollywood trying to tell me who Bruce Lee was."
From her acting roles to her marriage and daughter, keep reading for everything to know about Shannon Lee.
She was born in Santa Monica, California, in 1969
Shannon Lee Instagram
Shannon was born at the Santa Monica General Hospital on April 19, 1969, to Bruce and his wife, Linda Lee Cadwell. She has an older brother,Brandon Lee, who was born in 1965 and died in 1993.
Per the officialBruce Lee website, she lived in Los Angeles and Hong Kong as a child before putting down roots in Los Angeles again in 1974.
She studied Jeet Kune Do and Taekwondo
Vivien Killilea/Getty
She studied Jeet Kune Do under Richard Bustillo — who studied under her father — before she began to practice it more seriously in the late ’90s. When training for roles in action movies, she studied with Ted Wong, another one of her dad’s former students.
As for Taekwondo, she worked with Dung Doa Lin. She also studied Wushu with Eric Chen and kickboxing under Benny “The Jet” Urquidez.
She attended Tulane University
Shannon went to Tulane University in New Orleans from 1987 to 1991. According to the Bruce Lee website, she earned a B.F.A. in vocal performance and also appeared in various musicals, operas and concerts during her time at college.
In 2020, she took part in a live chat withTulane Alumni, discussing her time at the university, her father’s legacy and her career.
She’s an actress
Emma McIntyre/Getty
Shannon earned her first acting role in 1993, making a brief cameo in the biopicDragon: The Bruce Lee Story.She went on to have a few different small roles throughout the ’90s and early aughts, including in movies likeHigh Voltage, Blade, Enter the EaglesandShe Me and Her.
In the mid-2000s, Shannon began to shift her focus to behind-the-scenes work, and her last on-screen role was in the 2012 short filmTekken: Reload.
She’s a producer
John Sciulli/Getty
“Technically, if we’re really starting from the beginning, the journey began 50 years ago with him,” Shannon explained in an interview withDeadline. “I’d always heard the story that he had created this and pitched it, but I guess I didn’t know for sure that the actual pages existed.”
She’s married and has a daughter
Shannon married Ian Keasler in 1994. With Keasler, she shares daughter Wren Lee Keasler, who was born in 2003. According to herInstagram, Wren attends Tulane University, following in her mother’s footsteps.
She campaigns against guns on film sets
Shannon’s older brother Brandon died after accidentally being shot with a prop gun on the set of the 1993 filmThe Crow, and she has campaigned against guns on film sets in recent years.
In 2023, sheendorsed an editorialcalling to ban guns on film sets after Baldwin was charged with involuntary manslaughter.
She’s the CEO of the Bruce Lee Family Company
Shannon is CEO of theBruce Lee Family Company, which she officially founded in 2011 when she was able to gain control of her father’s name and image — though she’d been looking after his legacy since 2000.
She is also president of theBruce Lee Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps people around the world, and also runs the Camp Bruce Lee summer program for children.
She wrote a book about her father
Shannon published the bookBe Water, My Friend: The Teachings of Bruce Lee. In the book, she shared previously untold stories from her father’s life and also shared some of his philosophies and teachings.
She also co-wrote the comic bookBruce Lee: The Dragon Risesin 2016 alongside Jeff Kline and Adam Beechen.
source: people.com
