Died: 31 March , 1993

Born: 1 February , 1965

Cause of death: Accidental gunshot wound from faulty prop revolver

Death Summary: Brandon died at the same time as filming the movie "The Crow". He was doing a scene were the actor Michael Massee was supposed to kill him using blanks. Something went wrong and a real bullet came out of the gun that shoot Brandon.

Who was : He was the son of the late legendary martial arts film star Bruce Lee and was an american actor.

On March 31, 1993, the film crew filmed a scene in which Lee's character walked into his apartment and discovered his girlfriend being raped by thugs. Actor Michael Massee, who played one of the film's villains, was supposed to fire a gun at Lee as he walked into his apartment with groceries.

Because the movie's second unit team were running behind schedule, it was decided that dummy cartridges (cartridges that outwardly appear to be functional, but contain no gunpowder) would be made from real cartridges. A cartridge with only a primer and a bullet was fired in the pistol prior to the scene. It caused a squib load, in which the primer provided enough force to push the bullet out of the cartridge and into the barrel of the revolver, where it became stuck.

The malfunction went unnoticed by the crew, and the same gun was used again later to shoot the death scene, having been re-loaded with blanks. However, the squib load was still lodged in the barrel, and was propelled by the blank cartridge's explosion out of the barrel and into Lee's body. Although the bullet was traveling much more slowly than a normally fired bullet would be, the bullet's large size and the nearly point-blank firing distance made it powerful enough to mortally wound Lee. As the scene was being filmed, Brandon Lee was killed after the gun was fired at Lee as intended. When the blank was fired, the bullet shot out and hit Lee in the abdomen. He fell down instantly and the director shouted "CUT!," but Lee did not respond. The cast and crew filming rushed to him and noticed he was wounded. He was immediately rushed to the hospital where the doctors fought to revive him for five hours. It was too late however and he was pronounced dead at 1.00am.

His funeral was held several days later; he was buried next to his father in Lake View Cemetery, Seattle. The following day, a memorial service was held in Los Angeles.

The shooting was ruled as an accident, although many fans suspected foul play. (Bruce Lee's own death in 1973, at the age of 32, apparently from a reaction to an analgesic he had taken, was also considered suspicious.) The theory of the Lee "family curse" was also carried over from Bruce Lee's death to Brandon's death as he had died almost 20 years after his father and before the release of the film which could have potentially catapulted him to stardom.

At the time of his death, he was allegedly in talks with filmmakers about making sequels to Rapid Fire and The Crow.

Source : www.wikipedia.org