Jason Scott Lee

Jason Scott Lee (Chinese: ; pinyin: Lǐ Jié; born November 19, 1966) is an American actor and martial artist who is perhaps best known for his roles as Bruce Lee (no relation) in the 1993 martial arts film Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story and Mowgli in Disney's 1994 live action adaptation of The Jungle Book.

Jason Scott Lee
Jason Scott Lee in 2003
Born (1966-11-19) November 19, 1966
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
OccupationActor, martial artist
Years active1986present
Spouse(s)
Diana Chan
(m. 2008)

Personal life

Lee was born in Los Angeles.[1] He was raised in Hawaii and is of Hawaiian and Chinese descent.[2] He attended school at Pearl City High School.[3]

Lee has been married to Diana Chan since 2008.

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.[4] Lee has trained in Bruce Lee's martial art Jeet Kune Do since portraying Lee and continues to train and became 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 with Lena Headey and John Cleese. Lee was originally considered for the role of Liu Kang in the 1995 film Mortal Kombat, but 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 2000 he played Aladdin in the miniseries Arabian Nights. He did voice-over work for the 2002 Disney animated adventure film Lilo & Stitch.

Lee 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 played Eddie in the 2007 sports comedy film Balls of Fury, in his first theatrical release film since 2002. 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.[5] 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.[6]

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

In 2016, Lee played Hades Dai in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny. In 2019, he voiced the main character, The Swordsman, for Kevin McTurk's crowdsourced short puppetry film, The Haunted Swordsman..

In 2020, he played Böri Khan in the live action Mulan.

Filmography

Film

Year Film Role Notes
1987 Born in East L.A. Paco
1989 Back to the Future Part II Whitey
1991 Ghoulies 3: Ghoulies Go to College Kyle
1993 Map of the Human Heart Avik
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story Bruce Lee
1994 Rapa-Nui Noro
Picture Bride Worker Uncredited
The Jungle Book Mowgli
1997 Murder in Mind Holloway
1998 Tale of the Mummy Riley
Soldier Caine 607
2002 Lilo & Stitch David Kawena
(voice)
2003 Dracula II: Ascension Father Uffizi Direct-to-video
Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision Ryan Chan
2005 Dracula III: Legacy Father Uffizi
Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch David Kawena
(voice)
The Prophecy: Forsaken Dylan
Only the Brave Glenn Takase
Nomad Oraz
2007 Balls of Fury Eddie
2008 Dance of the Dragon Cheng
2014 Seventh Son Urag
2016 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny Hades Dai
Burn Your Maps Shaman's assistant
Alaska Is a Drag Diego
2019 The Haunted Swordsman (short) The Swordsman (voice)
2020 Mulan Böri Khan
2021 The Wind and the Reckoning Ko'olau

Television

Year TV series Role Notes
1988 Matlock Lee Tran 2, episode 2: "The Fisherman"
1989 Wolf Chin Season 1, episode 6: "Curtains of Silence"
1990 CBS Schoolbreak Special John Henderson Season 7, episode 4: "American Eyes"
The Lookalike John "Charlie" Chan Television movie
Vestige of Honor Ha-Kuhn Television movie
1997 The Hunger Craig Yun Season 1, episode 4: "The Secret Shih Tan"
2000 Arabian Nights Aladdin Miniseries
2010–2013 Hawaii Five-0 Detective Kaleo 3 episodes
2021 Doogie Kameāloha, M.D. Benny Kameāloha Upcoming series

Documentary

Year Documentary Role Notes
2006 The Slanted Screen Himself Documentary
2012 Secrets of Shaolin Himself TV documentary
2014 Trekking Malaysia with Jason Scott Lee Himself Travel documentary

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".[7]

References

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