Roman Polanski thought Bruce Lee was the one who killed Sharon Tate

The Details…

In 1969, Bruce Lee was Hollywood’s martial-arts instructor to amongst others Roman Polanski, Steve McQueen and celebrity hairdresser Jay Sebring. Through these connections Lee taught Sharon Tate Gung Fu for her movie “The Wrecking Crew” with Dean Martin. That summer, Bruce Lee was around 29 years of age and Polanski briefly considered him a suspect in the appalling murders of Tate, Sebring and others.

Friendship

Jay Sebring was Bruce Lee’s hairdresser friend. Sebring got Bruce Lee noticed in Hollywood and an introduction and first job on TV as Kato in the Green Hornet. Sebring was also close to his ex-girlfriend Sharon Tate. Tate invited Lee over for dinner and correctly predicted that he and her director-husband Polanski would “get along like a house on fire.” The two became friends, and Lee became his personal Gung Fu trainer.

Murder

Tragey struck while Polanski was away researching a project in London. Tate, Sebring, writer Voytek Frykowski and coffee heir Abigail Folger were brutally killed in a seemingly motive less murder in their home on 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon.

Police were initially clueless, Polanski, meanwhile, believed it was an inside job. In grief stricken desperation he looked for any clues as to who might have killed his wife and unborn child and his friends. When he discovered the prescription for a pair of glasses found at the crime scene, the director obtained a pricy lens-measuring gauge. For months, he surreptitiously checked friends’ prescriptions to see if they matched.

One possible killer clue: Glasses

Shortly after the murders, Lee was training Polanski in the Paramount Studios gym when he mentioned that he had recently lost his glasses and needed to replace them.

Polanski set in motion a potential trap. “Very coolly, Polanski said to Bruce, ‘On the way home, we can stop at my ophthalmologist for glasses. It will be my gift to you.’ Much to Polanski’s relief the prescriptions did not match.”

Perhaps out of guilt, Polanski later picked up the tab for Lee to join him in Gstaad, Switzerland. Officially, the actor was there as Polanski’s trainer, earning $10,000. Unofficially, it was a busman’s holiday for Lee who complained of being bored with all the skiing and cocktails.

In September 1969 members of the Charles Manson ‘cult’ group we arrested and convicted of the motiveless murders.

The actions of Bruce Lee are dramatically portrayed in Quentin Tarantino’s new movie Once upon a time in Hollywood out in U.K cinemas 15 August 2019. It’s here right now on Blu Ray; Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

The Wrecking Crew

The Wrecking Crew stands out for martial artists because of the involvement of Bruce Lee in the film and in training the actors. In 1968, Stirling Silliphant recommended Bruce Lee to be the fight choreographer for Columbia Pictures’ upcoming film – “The Wrecking Crew” (1968) which starred Dean Martin, Elke Sommer, Sharon Tate and Nancy Kwan. Directed by Phil Karlson.

The fourth and final film in a series of Matt Helm adventures with Dean as the comedy super spy (An early Austin Powers). As with the previous three Helm spy movies “The Silencers,” “Murderers’ Row” and “The Ambushers”, they were based loosely upon Donald Hamilton’s 1960s novels.

In The Wrecking Crew Bruce Lee was credited as “Karate Adviser. The film had several big fight scenes, so Bruce Lee brought in his martial arts friends Mike Stone, Ed Parker and Joe Lewis to make the fight scenes look more realistic and crucially gave Chuck Norris his first break in movies.

Bruce’s main job was to prepare each actor to fight with realism, but he encountered some problems during the shooting. He tried to teach Dean Martin how to kick but it became clear that he was too lazy and clumsy to perform intricate martial arts moves so suggested his stand-in Mike Stone do them for him.

Since Columbia had hired Bruce to assist Sharon and Nancy in the martial arts scenes of the movie, the women wanted to prepare themselves and look good fighting on-screen. Weeks before shooting the film “The Wrecking Crew,” Sharon Tate (who already knew Bruce for several years) requested he coach her privately on a one-to-one basis so that she could learn some relevant self-defence techniques and martial arts skills in better preparation for the upcoming fighting scenes.

This is how it was shot, clearly techniques and styles have changed a lot;

The movie comes out on the 26th of July six days after Mr Lee’s premature death 46 years ago. The Little Dragon truly lives on.

The film stars Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio as a famous television actor and his long-time friend and stuntman, and is set in 1969 Los Angeles. The two men try to break into the Hollywood movie business around the same time of Sharon Tate’s murder.

Sony is set to release “Hollywood” in theatre’s July 26, 2019.

The film features the iconic Luke Perry, who shot to fame in Beverley Hills 90210, who tragically died in March 2019. RIP

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