Brandon Lee - Legacy

Legacy

After Lee's death, his fiancée Eliza Hutton and his mother supported director Alex Proyas' decision to complete The Crow. At the time of Lee's death, only eight days were left before completion of the movie. A majority of the film had already been completed with Lee and only a few scenes remained to be done. To complete the film, stunt double Chad Stahelski, who was a friend of Lee's at Inosanto Academy, served as a stand-in; special effects were used to give him Lee's face. Another stunt double Jeff Cadiente was also used to complete Brandon's parts for the movie.

The Crow was released in May 1994 and became a box office hit, grossing over $50 million in the U.S., and retaining a loyal cult following many years after its release. The film is dedicated to Brandon and Eliza.

In an interview just prior to his death, Lee quoted a passage from Paul Bowles' book The Sheltering Sky that he had chosen for his wedding invitations; it is now inscribed on his tombstone:

Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. And yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four, or five times more? Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless...

The quotation is not attributed to Bowles on his tombstone. The interview can be seen on VHS, DVD and Blu-ray releases of The Crow.

At the time of his death, his father's biopic Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story was ready for release. The film was released two months after Lee's death, with a dedication to his memory in the end credits. In the film, his father was portrayed by actor Jason Scott Lee (no relation).

Seven years after Lee's death, a direct-to-video Swedish film titled Sex, Lögner & Videovåld (Sex, Lies & Video Violence) was released in which Lee had a very brief cameo appearance. Lee had filmed his cameo appearance in 1992 at the time he was promoting Rapid Fire in Sweden, but the film was delayed for seven years before finally being released in 2000. It, too, was dedicated to Lee during the end credits.

In 2003, Lee's fiancée Hutton married and now resides in Los Angeles, after years of working with a nonprofit organization for abused and neglected children.