Jason Scott Lee

Jason Scott Lee
Jason Scott Lee, Hawaii, 2003
Born	(1966-11-19) November 19, 1966 Los Angeles, California
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1987–present
Spouse(s)	Diana Chan (2008–present)

Jason Scott Lee (Chinese: 李截; pinyin: Lǐ Jié, born November 19, 1966) is an American actor and martial artist. Lee is well known for portraying Bruce Lee in the 1993 martial arts film Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, and for portraying Mowgli in the 1994 live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book.

Personal life

Lee was born in Los Angeles, California.^[1] He was raised in Hawaii and is of Chinese and Hawaiian descent.^[2] He attended school at Pearl City High School and is a friend of Carrie Ann Inaba, of Dancing with the Stars, whom he dated briefly.

Career

Lee started his acting career with small roles in Born in East L.A. (1987) and Back to the Future Part II (1989). He played his first leading role portraying Bruce Lee in the biopic Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story in 1993.^[3] Lee has trained in Bruce Lee's martial art Jeet Kune Do since portraying Lee and continues to train and is now a certified instructor under former Bruce Lee student Jerry Poteet. He played leading roles in other films such as Map of the Human Heart (1993) and Rapa-Nui (1994). He starred as Mowgli in the 1994 live-action adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. Lee was originally considered for the role of Liu Kang in the 1995 film Mortal Kombat; Lee turned down the role and was replaced by Robin Shou. Lee played Caine 607 in the 1998 film Soldier, along with Kurt Russell and Mortal Kombat film director Paul Anderson, in his last theatrical release film until 2007's Balls of Fury. In 2000 he played Aladdin in the miniseries Arabian Nights.

Apart from voice-over work for the Disney animated film Lilo & Stitch (2002), he went on to appear in several direct-to-video films such as Dracula II: Ascension (2001), Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision (2003), and The Prophecy: Forsaken (2005).

Lee is among the actors, producers and directors interviewed in the documentary The Slanted Screen (2006), directed by Jeff Adachi, about the representation of Asian and Asian American men in Hollywood.

Lee performed as The King of Siam in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I in a production at the London Palladium in 2000 opposite Elaine Paige.^[4] Lee made his operatic debut in the non-singing role of Pasha Selim in Hawaii Opera Theatre's production of Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio at the Blaisdell Concert Hall in Honolulu in February 2009.^[5]

Lee was also to perform as The King of Siam in the 2014 Opera Australia production of The King and I in Melbourne across from Lisa McCune, but was injured, and Lou Diamond Phillips had to take his role.

Filmography

Honors and recognition

In recognition of Lee's positive impact on the image of Asians in America through his physical, attractive roles, Goldsea, the Asian American magazine website, placed him at Number 7 on its compilation "The 130 Most Inspiring Asian Americans of All Time".^[6]

References

External links

• Jason Scott Lee at the Internet Movie Database