Bruce Lee: Encyclopedia II - Bruce Lee - Death by misadventure

Bruce Lee - Death by misadventure

Bruce Lee's death was officially attributed to cerebral edema.

On July 20, 1973, Lee was in Hong Kong, due to have dinner with former James Bond star George Lazenby, with whom he intended to make a film. According to Lee's wife, Linda, Bruce met producer Raymond Chow at 2 pm at home to discuss the making of the movie Game of Death. They worked until 4 pm, and then drove together to the home of Betty Ting Pei (丁珮), a Taiwanese actress who was to also have a leading role in the film (and who was also Lee's mistress). The three went over the script at her home, and then Chow left to attend a dinner meeting.

A short time later, Lee complained of a headache, and Ting Pei gave him an analgesic powder. At around 7:30 pm, he laid down for a nap. After Lee didn't turn up for the dinner, Chow came to the apartment but could not wake Lee up. A doctor was summoned, who spent 10 minutes attempting to revive him before sending him by ambulance to Queen Elizabeth Hospital. However, Lee was dead by the time he reached the hospital. There was no visible external injury; however, his brain had swollen considerably, from 1,400 to 1,575 grams. Lee was 32 years old. On October 15, 2005, Chow stated in an interview that Lee was allergic to equigesic, one of the three ingredients in the pain-killing medication, whose generic name is Flunixin Meglumine. When the doctors announced Bruce Lee's death officially, it was coined as "Death by Misadventure".

However, the exact details of Lee's death are controversial. Bruce Lee's iconic status and unusual death at a young age led many people to develop many theories about Lee's death, such as a murder involving triads, gangsters, and so on — none of these have ever been proven.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Death by misadventure", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki