Kung fu legend's death linked to epilepsy (Bruce Lee)

[The Straight Story]

Kung fu legend's death linked to epilepsy


AMONG mysterious celebrity deaths it is up there with JFK and Elvis. But the myth surrounding the demise of Bruce Lee in Hong Kong in 1973 may finally have been solved. "The death of Bruce Lee, coming at such a young age and in the peak of physical fitness, has given rise to much speculation," said James Filkins, at Cook County medical examiner's office in Chicago. "Almost as soon as Lee died rumours began to surface."

The official cause of his death was recorded in the autopsy report as cerebral oedema, or brain swelling. This was supposedly due to his hypersensitivity to a painkiller called equigesic he had taken that day. But further research suggests the kung fu idol may have died from an epileptic condition first recognised more than 20 years after his death.

The theories began on July 20 - the day he died - when he had been planning to meet his producer, Raymond Chow, and the Australian actor George Lazenby, of James Bond fame, to try to persuade Lazenby to appear in his new film, Game of Death. He never made it to dinner.

Some speculated that Hong Kong triads had killed him for refusing to pay protection money, or that US gangsters did so because he refused to work in Hollywood. A starlet, Betty Ting Pei, was rumoured to be Lee's mistress, something she has always denied. But some suggest he died making love to her.

http://smh.com.au/news/world/kung-fu-legends-death-linked-to-epilepsy/2006/02/27/1141020020338.html