?I Can?t Kill Bob?: Bruce Lee Made a ?Face-Saving Excuse? After Bizarre Rumors Erupted to Hype His Movie Once

Before becoming a superstar in Hollywood, Bruce Lee rose to fame in Hong Kong in the 1970s. His films Fist of Fury and The Big Boss were massive hits. Moreover, in 1973 the master was making his third super hit film, Enter the Dragon. Although the film did well, during the shoot, Lee experienced an injury that spread strange rumors about him killing his co-actor, Bob Wall.

An excerpt in Lee?s biography, Bruce Lee: A Life, reveals the time when the master was injured while shooting a fight scene with actor Bob Wall in Enter the Dragon. Moreover, to nullify the rumors, Lee made a face-saving excuse and later took his revenge on Wall.

What happened on the sets of Enter The Dragon?

Accidents were quite common in action movies. However, Lee?s injury during the climactic scene of Enter The Dragon made it to the pages of his biography. The scene required Bob Wall to break two glass bottles and jab one at Lee. Moreover, Lee was supposed to retaliate by kicking the bottle out of Wall?s hand and following up with a punch to his face.

However, even after several rehearsals, Wall missed dropping the bottles which led to Lee slamming his hand into the jagged edge of the bottle’s wall. The master?s fist began bleeding profusely, and he was immediately rushed to the hospital. Lee knew that his injury would take him a week to recover which would mean the production to stop for that period. This made him furiously say, ?I want to kill him.?

However, his statement was tweaked and interpreted as ?Wall purposely injured Lee and Lee intended to murder Wall? by the people working on the film. This piece of information was fed to the Hong Kong press to hype the movie. The rumor spread like wildfire giving the film a great amount of spotlight before its release. However, when Lee returned to the set, his stuntmen expected Lee to retaliate against Wall in some way. Afterall Chinese honor expected Lee to exact revenge.

Chinese-American martial arts exponent Bruce Lee (1940 – 1973), in a still from the film ‘Enter The Dragon’, directed by Robert Crouse for Warner Brothers, 1973. (Photo by Fotos International/Archive Photos/Getty Images)However, as Polly puts it, Lee came up with a “face-saving excuse” and he told the stuntmen, ?I can?t kill Bob, because the director needs him for the rest of the movie.? However, when it was Lee?s turn to kick Bob Wall in the chest in the fight scene, he made the most of the opportunity. Lee insisted on 12 takes and began kicking Wall who had confidently removed the padding on his chest. The actor did not see what was coming for him. The force of Lee?s kick was so great that Wall flew into the crowd, breaking a stuntman?s arm.

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Lee made loads of memories with his stuntmen on his sets. Global star Jackie Chan revealed a heart-touching incident while shooting for Enter The Dragon.

Bruce Lee was an icon to stuntmen on his set

Jackie Chan worked with Bruce Lee in two films – Fist of Fury and Enter The Dragon. While shooting the latter, he acted in a scene where he had to fight Lee. In that scene, Lee whipped at Chan?s face with his nun chucks by mistake.

Chan revealed that the pain was unbearable. Ideally, any actor would not care to ask stuntmen after hurting them by mistake. However, after the director said a cut in the fighting scene Lee did the most unexpected thing. Chan revealed, ?As soon as the cameras were off, Bruce threw away his weapon, ran over to me, and said, ?I?m sorry, I?m sorry!? and picked me up.?

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Although, Lee would help his stuntmen with food, medicines, and money. But after this incident, Chan began to admire Lee more for his kindness.