Brandon Lee Early life Lee was born on February 1, 1965 in Oakland, California, the son of martial artist and actor Bruce Lee and Linda Emery. The family moved to Los Angeles, California when he was three months old, but they spent some of his early years in Hong Kong as well. Lee was of Chinese, Irish, English, German, and Swedish descent. He attended high school at Chadwick School, but was asked to leave for insubordination—more specifically, driving down the school's hill backwards. He briefly attended Bishop Montgomery High School, located in Torrance from 1979 to 1980. He received his GED in 1983 at the age of 18, and then went to Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts where he majored in theater. After one year, Lee moved to New York City where he took acting lessons at the famed Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and was part of the American New Theatre group founded by his friend John Lee Hancock. The bulk of Lee's martial arts instruction came from his father's top students, and best friends Dan Inosanto and Richard Bustillo.