Obsessively driven, he accomplished more in his short 32 years than most do in their entire lifetime, his fame growing to an iconic level after his death in 1973. In 1999 he was named one of Time Magazine’s most influential people of the 20th century, and the awards, honours and accolades he received, both while living and posthumously, remain too numerous to name here.
He was also a philosopher and a poet. Though less well-known, this side of his personality undoubtedly played a large role in the near-mystical qualities many claim he brought to his life and work.
In the creation of Jeet Kune Do, his personal style of martial arts, Lee shed many of the traditional techniques of the fore-running schools in an effort to distill and improve upon the core elements therein, creating a style more in line with the flow of life itself.