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 (1969-04-19) 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

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

  1. 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.
  2. Bruce Lee Foundation website; accessed December 10, 2014.
  3. Bellafante, Ginia (May 15, 2009). "The Hagiography of the Dragon, a Continuing Saga". The New York Times.

Further reading

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