The 1972 role Bruce Lee was “devastated” not to be cast in: “He was passed over”
More than 50 years after his death, Bruce Lee remains arguably the single most iconic figure in the history of martial arts cinema, which speaks volumes about the legacy that he left behind.
Of course, there was a hint of irony and more than a little tragedy involved. The release and subsequent global success of Enter the Dragon catapulted him to international fame and cinematic superstardom, making him the first big-screen martial artist to cross over into the mainstream, but he couldn’t capitalise.
Had he not passed away on July 20th, 1973, at the age of only 32, Lee would have continued taking Hollywood by storm. Not that he was an overnight sensation in the American market, though, with the Hong Kong actor facing the expected issues that came with having leading man aspirations in the States.
Although he was born in San Francisco, which legally made him an American citizen from day one, the prejudices in the industry at the time saw many studios and executives unconvinced that audiences would be interested or invested in the idea of high-profile movies and TV shows with an Asian leading man.
Lee’s first notable Stateside gig came when he was cast as Kato in The Green Hornet, and while he had his frustrations with the creative process, most famously when he refused to lose a fight to Burt Ward’s Robin in a crossover with Adam West’s Batman series, it opened several doors that had previously remained shut.
However, he was still effectively the sidekick in The Green Hornet to Van Williams’ title character, and when the opportunity arose to play the lead in a TV show where the protagonist’s martial arts experience was the backbone of every episode, he was overlooked in favour of a guy from Los Angeles.
When David Carradine was first hired to play Kwai Chang Caine in 1972’s Kung Fu, he didn’t have any experience in the titular discipline, or any other discipline, for that matter. He learned eventually, but that wasn’t the point. Linda Lee Caldwell, Lee’s widow, even suggested that he’d devised the idea for the series, only for it to be taken away from him and made without his involvement.
“When he was passed over for the lead role in Kung Fu, it was just devastating,” she recalled. “It was like, ‘This is just the old Hollywood all over again.'” In a 1971 interview, he confirmed that he’d pitched the concept of a martial artist traveling the American West, which is basically Kung Fu in a nutshell.
At the time, he admitted that “business-wise, it is a risk” to cast him in the lead role, but he said he didn’t blame Warner Bros for hiring Carradine instead. However, according to his widow, it crushed him more than he let on in public.
