{"id":95896,"date":"2018-08-03T15:59:41","date_gmt":"2018-08-03T20:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=95896"},"modified":"2026-10-02T10:15:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T15:15:50","slug":"bruce-lee-matthew-polly-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/bruce-lee-matthew-polly-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #428: The Life of a Dragon \u2014 The Untold Story of Bruce Lee"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"m_-2252525065104852066gmail-m_-4971203189868926953bloop_customfont\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">If you were like most boys, you probably went through a karate phase as a kid. When I went through my karate phase as a 5- and 6-year-old, I demanded that my family called me \u201cDaniel-san.\u201d Unfortunately, they did not comply.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">There\u2019s one man you can thank for your karate phase: Bruce Lee.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">As my guest will show us <span class=\"s2\">today<\/span>, Bruce Lee nearly single-handedly popularized martial arts in America thanks to his breakout Hong Kong kung fu movies in the early 1970s. My guest&#8217;s name is Matthew Polly and he\u2019s the author of the new definitive biography of Bruce Lee called&nbsp;<i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B075RTTLPF\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B075RTTLPF&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess&amp;linkId=FSXA3GZUT5SFDAZ4\">Bruce Lee: A Life<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><span class=\"s2\">Today<\/span> on the show, Matthew and I explore the creation of the legend that is Bruce Lee, starting with his unique family history that had him straddling Eastern and Western cultures his entire life. Matthew gives us vignettes into Lee\u2019s early life that show his fire, scrappiness, and love of martial arts, including his rise as a child star in Hong Kong and his love of street brawling. We then discuss how Lee started formal kung fu training as a teenager and how his ambition caused him to bump heads with his teachers. Matthew then shares how coming to America helped Lee refine and reinvent his martial arts practice, how Lee got his break in Hollywood, and how he ended up teaching kung fu to movie stars like Steve McQueen and James Coburn. Along the way, Matthew shares details of Lee\u2019s relentless fitness routine and talks about Lee\u2019s personal library of over 2,500 books that included a lot of philosophy and psychology. We end our conversation discussing Lee\u2019s legacy and how he changed not only cinema, but our idea of manhood in America.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you were like most boys, you probably went through a karate phase as a kid. When I went through my karate phase as a 5- and 6-year-old, I demanded that my family called me \u201cDaniel-san.\u201d Unfortunately, they did not comply. There\u2019s one man you can thank for your karate phase: Bruce Lee.&nbsp; As my [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":195469,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42376,42385,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-history","category-podcast"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/428-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/428-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/428-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/428-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/428-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"<!-- 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