Bruce Lee Revealed as a Philandering Playboy Who Wanted to be ‘More American’

A new biography of Kung Fu movie icon Bruce Lee is on the way, and it may reveal a darker side to the actor’s life.

Author Matthew Polly has written a book called Bruce Lee: A Life that explores Lee’s sordid history with women, his extra-marital romance with actress Sharon Farrell, and how his low-budget films became multimillion dollar international smash hits.

The book takes an explicit look at Lee’s sexual exploits, according to a report by Daily Mail. Farrell, best known for her roles in Can’t Buy Me Love and Night of the Comet, among many others, said that Lee “took me to the moon and back.”

She went on in graphic detail, saying that Lee “just turned me inside out” because of his understanding of the human body. Farrell was reportedly just one of Lee’s various affairs, despite his long marriage to Linda Emery. The couple even had two children together — Brandon Lee, born in 1965 and Shannon Lee, born in 1969.

“He was the first man I had ever been with who had such a beautiful body,” Farrell confessed. “Those abs — his muscles were so defined, it was as if they were chiseled. Bruce was the most incredible lover I’ve ever been with. He was just so knowledgeable about a woman’s body.”

She explained that she broke the affair off in order to be with Lee’s co-star and student, Steve McQueen.

“He was married and didn’t have a pot to pee in,” she explained. “Steve was successful — he was my protector. I was in lust with Steve, but Bruce was the love of my life.”

Lee himself owned up to his infidelity, once saying that he was “not a saint” in reference to his love life. Polly’s new book reportedly notes that Lee had easy success with women, as his constant training and strict diet gave him a remarkable physique. On top of that, the martial artist is said to have gotten a circumcision late in life to “be more like an American.”

Several women spoke to Polly about their experiences with Lee. They claimed that he had a reputation for being vain and arrogant, but they said he still had a quality that drew them in. One glamour model referred to it as an “indescribable magnetism.” Lee is also said to have had a vicious temper and a lust for control, even though he espoused a Taoist philosophy.

Lee passed away in 1973, at the age of 32. According to Polly’s book, he likely suffered from heat stroke, or hypothermia, in the apartment of actress Betty Ting Pei, with whom he also had an affair.

Polly speculate that he was in her apartment, acting out scenes from Game of Death on an 90 degree day with high humidity. He had lost 20 pounds very quickly, and had recently been diagnosed with cerebral edema, or swelling of the brain.

After Lee’s death, his movie Enter the Dragon made him into a cultural icon. The movie cost just $850,000 to make, but it made $90 million. In the decades since, it has netted $350 million, and made Lee into a legend.