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Without a doubt, Bruce Lee holds a place as the single most influential figure in martial arts cinema. Born on this day in San Francisco in 1940, the actor and athlete became a favorite among Western audiences starting in the 1970s, though in fact he’d been involved in moviemaking since childhood. With his breakout hit, Wei Lo’s Fist of Fury, Lee became an instant success and later went on to star in such films as Robert Clouse’s Enter the Dragon, Way of the Dragon, which he also directed and William Beaudine, Norman Foster and E. Darrell Hallenbeck’s The Green Hornet.

Filmstar Factoid: Lee died unexpectedly at age 33 of a cerebral edema, reportedly triggered by a negative reaction to medicine taken to alleviate a headache.

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