Legend Bruce Lee?s Biggest Rival Finally Revealed

Shrouded in mystery, secrets from Bruce Lee‘s life keep getting unraveled even 50 years after his death. A martial arts giant whose reputation precedes him, Bruce Lee has set the bar for action in cinema at the highest level. While most people hail him as the ultimate competitor, Lee considered another Hollywood star as his biggest rival.

In a recent article, Bruce Lee’s biggest rival was revealed to be one of Hollywood’s biggest stars in the 1960s. Bruce Lee highly admired the ‘Bullitt’ star, known for his charming and antihero persona.

How Bruce Lee developed a rivalry-amidst-friendship with Steve McQueen

As per a SCREENRANT article, after Lee’s ‘The Way of the Dragon (1972)’ became a blockbuster, he phoned his hero to brag about his success. Steve McQueen, ever so charming, in response mailed Lee an autographed photo with a note calling Lee his “biggest fan”. Bruce Lee, however, was a fan of ‘The Great Escape’ star for a long time before that. Ironically, he also vowed to make McQueen his biggest rival.

Despite his martial arts skills already well-known in the mid-to-late sixties, Bruce Lee was still struggling to break into Hollywood. He was a big star in Hong Kong and only became popular in America in the early seventies. Nonetheless, in all those years of struggle, Bruce Lee focused on becoming a big movie star, but not just any star; someone bigger than Steve McQueen.

Steve McQueen was already on the rise in Hollywood then and often took Kung Fu Lessons from Bruce Lee. They were both good friends but also shared a healthy competition between them, which Lee was open about.

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In a slew of bigshot movie stars like Clint Eastwood, Charlton Heston, Sean Connery, Richard Burton, and Paul Newman, Bruce Lee struggled to find his own ground.

What fuelled Lee’s obsession with bettering McQueen?

He desperately wanted to surpass McQueen’s stardom, and one of the reasons that fuelled him was McQueen’s refusal to star in his movie. Bruce Lee was struggling to land any major role in a movie. He then decided to make his own martial arts film called ‘Th Silent Flute’. When Lee offered a role to McQueen, he flat-out refused it. The manner in which McQueen refused, infuriated Lee more than ever.

Bruce Lee eventually carved out his own name in the annals of Hollywood as one of the pioneers of martial arts and the biggest action star. Whether or not he is a bigger star than Steve McQueen remains up for debate. Especially because they reached their peak fame in different decades (the 60s and 70s). Bur Bruce Lee’s contribution to Asian communities and breaking barriers is invaluable.

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