'Be like water,' he said, did he die because he drank too much water: Who is Bruce Lee?

Lee was found dead in his bed on July 20, 1973, at the age of 32. An autopsy showed that Lee's brain had swelled a lot. This was thought to be due to taking a pain reliever called Equagesic before he died.

Scientists in Spain came up with a new idea about Bruce Lee's death. Nephrologists said the iconic actor may have died from drinking too much water.

The authors of the study, published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Clinical Kidney Journal, argued that the cause of death may be the inability of the martial artist's kidneys to process excess water.

In the study, signed by kidney disease experts such as Priscila Villalvazo, Raul Fernandez-Prado, and Maria Dolores Sánchez Niño, it was written that the cause of brain edema may be a decrease in the sodium concentration in the blood (hyponatremia).

In their paper, the scientists reviewed the known facts about Lee's death. The famous actor suffered from headaches and dizziness after drinking water with cannabis before he died. After taking Equagesic, Lee was found immobile two hours later.

The study's authors note that Lee used the drug after suffering from headaches and dizziness. According to experts, this suggests that the brain began to swell before the pill.

Scientists recalled the statements of Lee's wife and doctors. According to the statements, the actor stopped consuming solid foods and lived only on carrots and apple juice.

The allegations against Lee include that he used diuretics to remove sodium from his body and show his muscles better and that he started drinking 10-20 bottles of sake a day in the last period of his life. Sake made from rice is the national drink of Japan.

Drawing attention to all this, experts stated that Lee's body could not expel the water and therefore they thought that he died.

Who is Bruce Lee?

Bruce Lee, who is of Chinese descent, was born on November 27, 1940, at the Chinese Hospital Hospital in San Francisco. His real name is Lee Jun-Fan. His name was given by the doctor who was present at his birth. His father and mother were actors in Chinese opera.

When Lee was born, they were in the United States for a tour. His parents wanted him to learn Kung Fu at a young age. In 1954, as a student of the famous Kung Fu Master Yip Man, he decided to study the Wing Chun system.

This was because he was able to overcome his fear of being humiliated in a street fight. In the future, he started to add boxing studies to the Wing Chun system. He also had a great interest in dancing. He would not turn down those who wanted to dance. Much of the dance balance and footwork influenced Lee's later fighting style. He was chosen champion in Hong Kong in his favorite dance genre, Cha Cha.

He became notorious at the age of 19 due to his frequent street fights, and in 1959 his family sent Lee to the United States with their friends. While living in Seattle, he was allowed to stay as long as he was a waitress on the rooftop of a restaurant. He then attended the University of Washington, graduating from high school. He studied philosophy here. During this period, he continued to work at the restaurant at night. While attending school, he began to teach Kung Fu lessons, which until then was forbidden to be taught to anyone other than the Chinese, in order to explain the richness of Chinese Culture to the Americans.

For this purpose, he opened a school named Jun Fan Kung Fu, which bears his name. This sports school remained open until 1963, and he married the American Linda Emery in the same year. Lee later opened his second school in Oakland. Here he proved to a wide audience how broad and deep philosophy this art, which is foreign to Americans, has.

Bruce Lee made his international debut in 1964 with Ed Parkers. Then he started playing in the TV series Green Hornet. While he thought this would be a debut for him, the series was canceled after one season. He later got a small part in the movie "Marlowe" starring James Garner and starred in several episodes. However, this small role did not contribute to his career at all.

His first feature film; Big Boss is a movie shot with Golden Harvest, the newly founded film company of Chinese producer Raymond Chow. The film made a huge splash, shattering all box office records ever broken in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.

He then acted in the movie Fist of Fury, which deals with Asian nationalism. It is possible to see his unique style in these films of Lee. In the Hong Kong film industry, Bruce Lee's Hollywood experience and extraordinary choreography have added a new dimension to the moving scenes of adventure films.

Even the superstar of the time, Wang Yu, was willing to accept a role under him. Lee worked day and night while choreographing the fight scenes to make the movie look good. He would shoot long shots for action scenes, use high kicks, and use all the weapons of Escrima (armed martial art) such as Nunchaku, Bo, Kali, knives, and small Chinese arrows to decorate the fight scene with extraordinary artistic figures.

Lee brought a new dimension to the Kung Fu cinema industry with his quality. Escrima master Dan Inosanto said that Lee's original style, Jeet Kune Do, was definitely not a spectacle, but rather a very realistic, non-fantasy, function-appropriate body movement. He would vehemently argue that Lee was a complete athlete, and Jeet Kune Do was a very effective system in real combat. He also said that because Lee is a very good actor, he was able to present his martial arts to the audience as a fantastic show on the big screen.

Way of the Dragon is Bruce Lee's third film. In this movie, Chuck Norris, a seven-time karate champion in America, was seen as a supporting actor alongside Lee. In the final struggle of the movie, the struggle for the superiority between Karate and Kung Fu is exhibited.

Each of Lee's films stands out with its innovations. The movie that brought Bruce Lee to the top was the movie Game of Death, in which he starred with Dan Inosantio and Kerim Abdul Jabbar. But he died before completing this movie. Lee, who wanted to play a leading role in American films but could not do so, received an offer from American producers to play the leading role in his fourth film. Thereupon, the artist abandoned Game of Death and shot the Sino-American co-production Enter The Dragon.

Death

Bruce Lee, who had been seriously injured in his back recently, was told by his doctors to give up martial arts and stay in bed to recover. This was one of the worst periods in Lee's life. He was in bed on his back for 6 months. But he couldn't stop his brain from working. It was during this time that he began to write the book "Jeet Kune Do Tao". However, he died on July 20, 1973, in Hong Kong before he could finish it. His wife completed the book after his death.

Bruce Lee had gone to co-star Betty's apartment to meet his producer, Raymond Chow, to finish his "Game of Death" movie. Raymond left them to talk again in the afternoon and evening.

Betty gave Equogesic, an aspirin blend she always used, to Lee, who complained of a headache. Later, Lee went to the bedroom to lie down. When Raymond called them to find out why they didn't show up in the evening, Betty said Lee had fallen asleep. Raymond went to Betty's apartment and tried to remove Bruce, but was unsuccessful. They started to panic and Betty called a doctor. After many attempts to save him, the ambulance was called.

Lee was dead when he went to the hospital. The cardiac and respiratory intervention was performed in the emergency response. But there were no signs of life. How Lee died has been the subject of debate. It was said that his death may have been from a tumor in his brain. It is unclear whether this was congenital or later on.

With the death of Bruce Lee at a young age, Hong Kong was mourned, and thousands of people took to the streets and did not want to leave him alone on his last journey. Barricades were even erected by the police to stop the crowd.

Another tragedy is the death of his son Brandon Lee, shot in the stomach in front of the cameras, during the filming of "The Crow" in North Carolina, USA on March 31, 1993. Bruce Lee is buried in Lake View Cemetery in Seattle, USA. Later, on March 3, 1993, Brandon Lee was also buried next to his father. Every day, his and his son's grave is visited by people from all over the world.

Bruce Lee has licensed 4 of his students to become a Jeet Kune Do instructors in his lifetime. These are Taky Kimura, James Yimm Lee, Dan Inosanto, and Ted Wong.

His laconic words

• Knowledge gives us strength, but you earn respect with your character.
• The hardest wood is also the most easily broken wood. In contrast, bamboo and willow trees manage to survive by leaning against the wind.
• Do not wish for an easy life. Ask for the strength to endure the difficulties.
• Defeat is a way of thinking; No one is defeated unless they accept defeat as a reality.
• If you love life, don't waste your time. Because the essence of life is time.
• Knowing is not enough, we must act. Wanting is not enough, we must do.
• Clear your mind. Be formless, shapeless like water. Now, if you pour water into a glass, the water becomes a glass. Fill it into the teapot, then the water becomes the teapot. Look, water flows, spreads, drips, or crumbles. Be like water, man.
• I don't believe in the word 'master' in our world where there is an endless amount of things to learn.