What was Bruce Lee’s first movie as an actor?
When one thinks of martial arts on screen, one can’t help but think of Bruce Lee. Through the likes of The Big Boss, Enter the Dragon, and Fist of Fury, he wowed audiences across the world with his comic book physique and mastery of his own body as a weapon. He changed the way in which action films were made, as well as how Asian people were depicted in Western media, and did it all in a headlining career that only lasted a handful of years.
Lee’s death in 1973 at the age of 32 cut short one of the most promising careers in Hollywood at the time. He had introduced himself to American audiences just seven years earlier with the TV show The Green Hornet and was just hitting his stride as a leading man when he was intervened. Many of the films that he would become synonymous with weren’t released until after his passing.
You might think that this would make it easy to track down Lee’s first film, but he had made quite a career for himself in his homeland prior to his American excursion. Born in 1940 in San Francisco, he moved with his parents back to Hong Kong at an early age. His father, Lee Hoi-chuen, was a Chinese singer and actor who found success in Cantonese opera. Hoi-chuen’s connections in show business opened many doors for his son, and opened them a lot earlier than you might be expecting.
Technically, Bruce Lee’s first movie is the Hong Kong drama Golden Gate Girl. It is the story of a Chinese-American woman (Tso Yee-man) who falls pregnant with the child of a Cantonese opera singer, shockingly not played by Bruce’s father, but rather by Hok Sing Wong. Given that the film came out the year after Bruce was born, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that his role was as the couple’s newborn baby and that he wasn’t even credited for his work. Once again, the film industry takes advantage of a naïve youngster. Makes you sick, doesn’t it?
Following his breakout role as an uncredited infant, Lee would have a few more background roles in other Hong Kong movies. He was working on his martial arts skills from the age of seven, practising tai chi, all of which built towards his real debut. In 1950, he co-starred with his father for the second time in a movie called The Kid. A nine-year-old Bruce stars as Ho Cheung, an orphaned boy living in a slum. After returning a necklace stolen from a wealthy factory owner (Hoi-cheun), Ho gets hired as his new secretary, changing his life forever.
He might not have even turned ten yet, but this was Lee’s first proper role. Even at such a young age, he dominates the screen with his presence, carrying the action on his back as a roguish, but lovable urchin. Based on this performance, it makes perfect sense that he went on to have the career that he did.
Trying to track down copies of The Kid is a thankless task, especially in the West. It’s a shame that it isn’t more readily available, as it holds a crucial place in the history of cinema as the proper arrival of one of its most emblematic figures.
