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60 free Bruce Lee trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Bruce Lee trivia quiz covers a life that lasted only 32 years and changed cinema and combat sports for good. It begins in San Francisco's Chinatown, where he was born during his father's opera tour, then moves to Hong Kong: the child-actor roles, Ip Man's Wing Chun school, the rooftop fights, the schools boxing title and the cha-cha championship he won the same year. From there it follows him to Seattle, the University of Washington, the first Jun Fan Gung Fu school, the one-inch punch at Long Beach and the private fight with Wong Jack-man that changed his thinking. The second half is about Kato and The Green Hornet, the students who included Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Sharon Tate and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the birth of Jeet Kune Do, the Kung Fu television dispute, and the five films: The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, The Way of the Dragon, Enter the Dragon and the unfinished Game of Death. It ends with the collapse in May 1973, the death in Betty Ting's flat, the coroner's verdict and the theories that have followed, plus his legacy in MMA and beyond. Difficulty runs from easy to expert and is shown on every question. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. Try our Jackie Chan and Martial Arts quizzes next.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which city was Bruce Lee born in November 1940?
San Francisco
His parents were on an opera tour of Chinatown; the family returned to Hong Kong when he was four months old.
Q 02Lee's father, Lee Hoi-chuen, was a star of what?
Cantonese opera
He introduced his son to the film world as a child; Bruce had appeared in 20 films by the age of 18.
Q 03Lee's Chinese screen name, Lee Siu-lung, means what?
Lee the Little Dragon
He was born in both the hour and the year of the Dragon in the Chinese zodiac.
Q 04Lee's birth name, Jun-fan, was chosen by his mother because it homophonically means what?
Return again
She felt he would go back to the United States when he came of age; she had first given him the feminine name Sai-fon, 'small phoenix', out of superstition.
Q 05Who is thought to have given Lee the English name 'Bruce'?
The hospital's attending physician
Dr. Mary Glover attended the birth; the family did not use the name much in Hong Kong.
Q 06Lee's first film appearance, in Golden Gate Girl, was in what role?
A baby carried onto the stage
His first leading role came at nine in The Kid (1950), based on the comic character Kid Cheung.
Q 07Which martial art did the seven-year-old Lee first practise with his father?
Tai chi
He learned the fundamentals of Wu-style tai chi long before Wing Chun.
Q 08Who introduced Lee to Ip Man in 1953?
William Cheung
Cheung had to speak up for him: Lee's mixed ancestry initially got him rejected under the rule against teaching foreigners.
Q 09Why did most of Ip Man's students refuse to train with Lee after about a year?
They learned of his mixed ancestry
He carried on privately with Ip Man and two of the senior students.
Q 10Besides the schools boxing tournament, what else did Lee win in Hong Kong in 1958?
The Crown Colony Cha-Cha Championship
In the boxing final he knocked out the previous champion, Gary Elms.
Q 11Why did Lee's mother suggest he move to the United States at 18?
Police warned he faced jail after one more fight
She had signed a police document taking responsibility for him after he knocked out a rival's tooth on a rooftop.
Q 12In Seattle, Lee worked as a live-in waiter at whose restaurant?
Ruby Chow's
Chow's husband was a co-worker and friend of Lee's father.
Q 13Lee's first student in Seattle, a judo practitioner, was who?
Jesse Glover
Glover showed him an osoto gari in their first session; Lee later folded judo throws into Jeet Kune Do.
Q 21Producer William Dozier first auditioned Lee for a pilot about the son of which fictional detective?
Charlie Chan
'Number One Son' never happened, but Dozier remembered him for The Green Hornet.
Q 22Lee played Kato in The Green Hornet. Who played the title character?
Van Williams
The pair also crossed over into three episodes of Batman, another Dozier production.
Q 23How many episodes did The Green Hornet run for?
26
One season, September 1966 to March 1967; the show's director wanted Lee to fight American-style with fists, and he refused.
What problem did the cameras have with Lee on The Green Hornet at first?
Q 14Per its alumni magazine, what was Lee's official major at the University of Washington?
Drama
Lee and many others said philosophy; he did take two philosophy and two psychology classes in his junior year.
Q 15Lee's second Jun Fan school was opened in 1964 in which city, with James Yimm Lee?
Oakland
James Lee, twenty years his senior, introduced him to Ed Parker, who invited him to Long Beach.
Q 16At the 1964 Long Beach championships, Lee did push-ups using how many fingers of one hand?
Two
Thumb and index finger, feet at shoulder width; he also demonstrated the one-inch punch that day.
Q 17Who was the volunteer knocked into a chair by Lee's one-inch punch at Long Beach in 1964?
Bob Baker
Baker later asked him never to do it again: the chest pain kept him off work.
Q 18Which taekwondo master, met at Long Beach in 1964, taught Lee the side kick in exchange for the 'non-telegraphic' punch?
Jhoon Goo Rhee
Rhee called it the 'accupunch' and later taught it to Muhammad Ali, who used it to knock out Richard Dunn in 1975.
Q 19Lee's controversial 1964 private match was against which martial artist?
Wong Jack-man
Lee said the Chinese community had demanded he stop teaching non-Chinese; accounts of the fight differ wildly.
Q 20How long did the 1964 private fight last, according to Lee, his wife and James Yimm Lee?
Three minutes
Wong and witness William Chen said 20 to 25 minutes; either way, Lee left unhappy and rethought his whole approach.
He moved too fast to be caught on film
He had to slow his movements down; the show became the first popular American series showing Asian martial arts.
Q 25Which judoka and stuntman befriended Lee on The Green Hornet and swapped grappling for striking lessons?
Gene LeBell
LeBell had learned catch wrestling from Lou Thesz and Ed Lewis; a LeBell-inspired neck hold finishes the villain of Lee's third film.
Q 26'Jeet Kune Do' translates as what?
Way of the intercepting fist
Founded in 1967, it took footwork from boxing, kicks from kung fu and technique from fencing; Lee later regretted giving it a name at all.
Q 27Which screenwriter, a Bruce Lee student, later wrote him into Marlowe and Longstreet?
Stirling Silliphant
With James Coburn, the three developed The Silent Flute and scouted locations in India; the plot became Circle of Iron in 1978.
Q 28In Marlowe (1969), Lee plays a hoodlum hired to intimidate the detective played by whom?
James Garner
His character, Winslow Wong, uses martial arts to vandalise Marlowe's office.
Q 29Lee's students included which actress, who trained with him for The Wrecking Crew?
Sharon Tate
Her husband Roman Polanski also trained with Lee, flying him to Switzerland, and briefly suspected him after the Manson murders.
Q 30Lee said Warner Bros. took his idea for a series he called The Warrior and turned it into which show?
Kung Fu
The Shaolin monk role went to non-martial-artist David Carradine; Warner said it had been developing the concept since 1969.