A Curse on Your Family
For a time, everyone seemed to have a theory about what caused the swelling. Both Raymond Chow and Chuck Norris, who was a close friend of Lee’s, felt that his death was caused by an allergic reaction to ingredients in the painkiller Equagesic. As plausible as this might be, modern researchers of the tragedy have other ideas.
Forensic pathologist Michael Hunter believes Lee suffered from an “adrenal crisis” thanks to an overdose of cortisone, which Lee took for back pain. Most recently, author Matthew Polly determined that, following the surgical removal of Lee’s sweat glands in 1972 to prevent unsightly sweating on camera, the intensely physical actor likely suffered a deadly heat stroke. But there were even darker whispers.
Wikimedia Commons Bruce Lee Statue in Hong Kong
Some of the most panicked observers at the time felt that the dangerous Triad crime syndicate had somehow caught up with Lee. Others suggested there was a sinister curse hovering over the Lee family—which was made all the more poignant after his son Brandon Lee’s own infamous, premature death in 1993. Still others noted something else entirely: that Lee’s cold body was found in the house of a very attractive woman who was not his wife. This, at least, is explicable: in 2013, Ting Pei finally admitted that she was Lee’s mistress, though she denied any intimacy on the day of his death.
Ting Pei’s confession laid to rest one nagging question about the case, but so many more remain—and these are secrets we may never know.
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The Last Fight
Officially, Bruce Lee died of cerebral edema on July 20, 1973, just before the release of the film that would make him a household name on both sides of the Pacific What caused his brain to swell, however, is still a mystery. Nonetheless, whether through an allergic reaction to drugs, overheating, or something else entirely, Bruce Lee was still irrevocably dead, and the world lost one of its most talented action stars. Rest in peace, Bruce.
