Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee is presented as a formidable martial artist whose Hollywood career was still taking shape in 1966. Known on television as Kato, the Green Hornet’s sidekick, and in the industry as a teacher to wealthy and famous clients, he wanted more than the role of an instructor or supporting actor. His ambitions, confidence, and disregard for stuntmen converge in the fight with Cliff Booth, an encounter that injures Lee and permanently changes Cliff’s working relationship with Rick Dalton.

Identity and ambitions

At the time of the incident, Lee was not yet a movie superstar or legend. He was the actor playing Kato on The Green Hornet, a television series made to capitalize on Batman’s popularity. In Hollywood, he was also known as a “karate coach” to the rich and famous, though the book notes that this was the industry’s description of his work, not his own. Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Roman Polanski, Jay Sebring, and Stirling Silliphant took lessons with him at home.

Teaching was also a means of pursuing a larger ambition. Lee hoped to become a movie star and repeatedly tried to advance The Silent Flute, a screenplay he was developing with Stirling Silliphant. The proposed film would star James Coburn and Lee, with Lee playing four roles. He even accompanied Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate on a ski trip to Switzerland in an effort to secure Polanski’s commitment. Polanski liked and respected Lee, but Lee’s repeated pitches diminished him in Polanski’s eyes and made the director think about the way Hollywood brought out people’s worst qualities.

The book distinguishes Lee’s prospects from Charles Manson’s frustrated musical ambitions: unlike Manson, Lee possessed the ability to become a phenomenon. That success came later, through Hong Kong films with Lo Wei and then the Warner Bros. martial-arts film Enter the Dragon. In the period depicted around The Green Hornet, however, that future had not yet arrived; Lee was still trying to turn skill and access into a screen career.

Reputation among stuntmen

Lee’s reputation among American stunt performers was poor. He had little regard for them and made that disrespect apparent, including by striking them with flying fists and feet during fight scenes. He was repeatedly warned, but, as the book describes it, he answered criticism with excuses that made the stuntmen responsible. Some eventually refused to work with him.

That professional conflict shaped the encounter with Cliff Booth. Before Rick began his guest appearance, Cliff watched Lee and his co-star Van Williams film an outdoor fight scene at the Twentieth Century Fox lot. Lee’s quick kicks and high, agile leaps drew applause from the crew. Rick admired the performance, but Cliff dismissed it as dancing rather than fighting. His contempt was not a neutral assessment: he already disliked Lee, and he challenged the distinction between choreographed screen skill and the toughness required in a real fight.

The contest with Cliff Booth

The confrontation took place while Cliff was on The Green Hornet set, doubling for Rick. Lee was holding court with the crew when someone raised the familiar question of how he would fare against Muhammad Ali. Lee had studied 16mm films of Ali and noticed that Ali dropped his left. He knew Ali would beat him in a boxing ring, but believed a fight without gloves, in which he could kick, would change the terms. The exchange exposed both his study of fighting and the confidence with which he imagined himself able to defeat anyone under the right conditions.

Cliff publicly mocked Lee’s claims and argued that an actor’s fight ended with an injury, unlike a boxer’s bout. Lee answered that his hands were registered as lethal weapons and that he could go to jail if he accidentally killed Cliff. Cliff rejected that explanation as an excuse for avoiding a real fight. In front of Lee’s colleagues, the argument became a direct challenge. Lee offered a friendly contest, best two out of three falls, with neither man supposed to hurt the other; the object was simply to put the opponent on the ground.

Lee won the first exchange, knocking Cliff down to the crew’s applause. Cliff got up smiling and asked him to do it again. On the second leap, Cliff pivoted at the last moment, caught Lee, and swung him by the leg and belt into a parked car. Lee struck the vehicle hard, injuring his lower spine and catching his shoulder blade on the passenger-door handle. The difference in intent is central to the scene: Lee wanted to show Cliff up, while Cliff was willing to hurt him badly. Cliff was fighting an instinct to kill Lee, and the contest had moved beyond the friendly terms under which it began.

Consequences and narrative significance

The stunt gaffer’s wife broke up the third round just as it began. Cliff was promptly fired. He had been hired to double Rick during a guest role, not to stage a public defeat of Kato; moreover, stunt gaffer Randy Lloyd and his wife Janet already believed Cliff had killed his own wife and had been reluctant to hire him. His conduct in front of the crew gave them another reason to reject him.

The consequences fell heavily on Cliff’s livelihood. After the incident, he effectively stopped being Rick’s stunt double and became his gofer, driving him, doing odd jobs, and remaining available when needed. His salary was meager and was meant to be supplemented by stunt work, but the work had already dwindled amid suspicions that he was a murderer. The fight further damaged his prospects: the stunt community now had another reason not to employ him. Rick was angry, but ultimately kept Cliff because he still needed someone to drive him and handle practical tasks.

For Lee, the encounter reveals a contradiction between extraordinary screen-fighting ability and a professional relationship with stunt performers marked by disrespect. The book does not make the contest a simple test of who is the better fighter: Lee’s skill is visible, but the rules, the men’s unequal intentions, and the interruption before a third round prevent a clean resolution. The incident instead becomes decisive in Cliff’s story, turning a set conflict into a lasting change in his work and in his role beside Rick.