Bruce Lee fights many memorable villains in his filmography, with many of them being incredible martial artists themselves. While Bruce Lee began as a child actor in Hong Kong, he began to rise to greater prominence in the late ’60s with his role as Kato on The Green Hornet. Bruce Lee later achieved greater notoriety through his roles in movies like The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, and The Way of the Dragon, though he sadly passed away before the release of 1973’s Enter the Dragon, which launched him to worldwide fame.
Bruce Lee’s five martial arts films have elevated him to become the greatest legend of the martial arts movie genre. Of course, achieving such status is impossible without overcoming some very challenging and formidable villains, and those faced by Bruce Lee are highly revered martial arts masters themselves. Here are the 13 martial artists who portray the villains of Bruce Lee’s filmography.
13 Tony Liu
Tony Liu appears opposite Bruce Lee in The Big Boss as Hsiao Chiun, the son of the movie’s main villain Hsiao Mi. Liu’s big fight scene against Lee in The Big Boss comes when he and his gang tries to corner Lee’s protagonist Cheng Chao-An in the ice plant, only for Cheng to fight his way through all of them. Liu also appeared in other Bruce Lee movies like Fist of Fury and The Way of the Dragon, and has been seen in other martial arts films from 1981’s The Duel of the Century to 2013’s The Wrath of Vajra.
12 Han Ying-chieh
Han Ying-chieh portrays the villainous Hsiao Mi in The Big Boss. With his ice plant in Bangkok really being a cover from his drug operation, Lee and Han fight in the movie’s final martial arts duel, with Lee’s Cheng emerging victorious. Han also appeared with Lee in Fist of Fury, and appeared in other martial arts films like New Fist of Fury and The Swordsman prior to his passing in 1991.
11 Robert Baker
Fist of Fury‘s villainous Russian martial arts master Petrov is played by Robert Baker, who faces Bruce Lee’s Chen Zhen in the movie’s climactic martial arts showdown. An exponent of Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do, Baker also appears in a minor role as a gangster in Lee’s directorial debut The Way of the Dragon, along with the 1974 movie Shuang long gu. Though Baker passed away in 1993 at the age of 52, his fight with Bruce Lee in Fist of Fury is one of the most famous in all of martial arts cinema.
10 Yi Feng
Fist of Fury‘s preliminary dojo showdown sees Chen Zhen take on the katana-wielding Yoshida, played by Yi Feng. Apart from Fist of Fury, Yi Fung also appeared in other martial arts films like Come Drink With Me, The Magnificent Trio, and others. His last movie was New York Chinatown in 1982.
9 Chikara Hashimoto
Fist of Fury‘s climactic fight also transitions to a katana vs. nunckau showdown when Chen Zhen takes on the movie’s other big villain, Hiroshi Suzuki, played by Chikara Hashimoto. Previously, Hashimoto was a baseball player for the Chiba Lotte Marines in his native Japan, later transitioning to movies after an injury in his baseball career. Apart from Fist of Fury, Hashimoto also appeared in movies like Fight, Zatoichi, Fight and Gamera vs. Viras. Jackie Chan was also Hashimoto’s stunt man on Fist of Fury, with the two later appearing together in Hashimoto’s final movie, 1986’s Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars.
8 Hwang In-shik
Hapkido master Hwang Ing-shik appears in Bruce Lee’s The Way of the Dragon as a Japanese fighter hired to defeat Tang Lung (Lee) by local gangsters in Rome, with Tang Lung nonetheless coming out on top. Hwang In-shik’s many other martial arts movie appearances include Jackie Chan’s The Young Master and Dragon Lord. He also featured in Hapkido and When Taekwondo Strikes with Lee’s Enter the Dragon co-star Angela Mao.
7 Bob Wall
Bob Wall is a recurring villain in numerous Bruce Lee movies, beginning with his role as Fred in The Way of the Dragon, in which he is hired alongside Hwang In-shik to defeat Lee’s Tang Lung, only to be defeated. Wall would later famously portray the vicious O’Hara in Enter the Dragon, the bodyguard of Han (Shih Kien) and man responsible for the death of Lee’s sister Sun-Lin (Angela Mao). Wall would also return in the version of Game of Death that was completed after Lee’s passing, having a fight scene with Lee’s double Yuen Biao in a locker room.
6 Chuck Norris
No other Bruce Lee movie villain has inspired as many memes and as much online humor as Chuck Norris. Having been a training partner of Lee’s previously, Norris appears in The Way of the Dragon as American karate champion Colt, who is hired to defeat Tang Lung with the two battling in the Roman Colosseum. Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris’s fight in The Way of the Dragon is widely seen as one of the best martial arts movie fights in history and among the personal best of both Lee and Norris.
5 Shih Kien
The renegade Shaolin monk-turned-crime boss Han is played by Shih Kien in Enter the Dragon. Having lost his left-hand some time prior, Han replaces it with a metal claw to give Lee a challenge to overcome in Enter the Dragon‘s final fight in Han’s trophy room and Hall of Mirrors. Before his passing in 2009, Shih Kien appeared in excess of 100 movies over the course of his career, including Jackie Chan’s The Young Master and Millionaire’s Express with Sammo Hung, Richard Norton, and Cynthia Rothrock.
4 Bolo Yeung
Han’s beefed up enforcer in Enter the Dragon Bolo is played by Bolo Yeung, and while he does not fight Bruce Lee himself in the film, he does make an unforgettable impression in his fights with Han’s excommunicated guards and Lee’s fellow protagonist Roper (John Saxon). Bolo Yeung is well-known for playing the heavy in action movies, and would later face Brandon Lee in 1986’s Legacy of Rage. His countless other martial arts movie appearances include My Lucky Stars and Breathing Fire opposite Everything Everywhere All Once‘s Ke Huy Quan. Yeung is also well-known for his villain roles opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme in Bloodsport and Double Impact.
3 Dan Inosanto
Dan Inosanto is one of the world’s foremost experts on Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do, having trained with Lee himself, and he also would play one of Lee’s on-screen adversaries in Game of Death, specifically a Kali master who pits his stick fighting skills against Lee’s nunchaku. Inosanto’s fight with Lee was only partially included in Game of Death, with the 2000 documentary Bruce Lee: A Warrior’s Journey including the Lee and Inosanto fight in its entirety. Inosanto has also appeared in other martial arts films like Big Trouble in Little China and Out for Justice.
2 Ji Han-jae
Lee’s second opponent in Game of Death is a Korean Hapkido master played by Ji Han-jae. As with Inosanto, Lee must adapt his fighting style to overcome the Hapkido throws Ji Han-jae employ, with Lee intending Game of Death as a vehicle for his philosophy of martial arts. Ji also appeared in a handful of other martial arts films, including The Dragon Tamers, Fist of the Unicorn, and Hapkido, with Ji also founding the Sin Moo Hapkido school.
1 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was also a close friend and Jeet Kune Do student of Bruce Lee’s, and appears as Lee’s third Game of Death opponent Hakim, with the two battling at the top of the movie’s pagoda setting. Jabbar’s fight scene with Bruce Lee is also somewhat truncated in Game of Death, but presented in its entirety in Bruce Lee: A Warrior’s Journey. In addition to his NBA career, Jabbar has also appeared in other movies like Airplane and the 1994 Stephen King mini-series The Stand.
