PrimeWire

It wasn’t “stolen” from Bruce Lee. That’s a myth. Lee promoted a series that also had a Kung Fu artist traveling through the west, kicking butt. But that character wasn’t a monk, encouraging peace. Lee’s show was titled, The Warrior. The concept of the half-white Shaolin Monk coming to the U.S. west as a peaceful person was proposed years earlier by Ed Spielman in 1967. Lee auditioned for the role of Kwai Chang Caine but didn’t have the personality of a monk and his accent was too strong for the leading character. Also, the U.S. market in 1972 wasn’t “ready” for an Asian lead actor. Others, like George Takei and Mako also auditioned. Takei was the President of an Asian actors group and protested, but to no avail. But at least the show’s success created lots of work for the Asian acting community, more than any other show. There’s no way it would have succeeded with Bruce Lee in the leading role. His English wasn’t good, American audience was too white, and he had anything but a calm monk-like nature. It wasn’t stolen from him. Also, when Hollywood instead offered to make The Warrior with him separately, he wanted to wait and see how successful his latest full-length movies was. When it became successful, he declined the offer to make The Warrior - not wanting to be a TV actor when he could be a movie star instead.