Bruce Lee poured himself into everything he did. When he discovered martial arts, he committed to a fitness regime 100 percent, avoiding drinking and smoking, plus taking vitamin supplements — and even drinking raw hamburger meat to build the perfect tone. When he found acting and wasn’t finding success in the United States, he moved to Hong Kong to establish his box office power to attract interest back home.
With that kind of dedication and control, his sudden death on July 20, 1973, in Hong Kong, at age 32 wasn’t just shocking — it was incomprehensible.
Initial investigations to determine the causes of his death were inconclusive and pathologists were flown in from around the world. “He was offered a prescription painkiller called Equagesic. After taking the pill, he went to lie down and lapsed into a coma. He was unable to be revived,” states BruceLee.com, run by The Bruce Lee Family Company. “The determination was that Bruce had a hypersensitive reaction to an ingredient in the pain medication that caused a swelling of the fluid on the brain, resulting in a coma and death.”
