
[The complete file (31 pages) for Bruce Lee is at National Archives at San Francisco and is available at https://catalog.archives.gov/id/5720262.]
Bruce Lee (Lee Jun Fon) was born on 27 November 1940 in San Francisco, California. In order to establish his son’s right to his United States citizenship and before the family returned to China in April 1941, his father, Lee Hoi Chuen, filed a Citizen’s Return Certificate on his son’s behalf. This would document his son’s birth, his American citizenship and enable him to return to reside in the United States at a later date. His father was an actor at the Mandarin Theatre in San Francisco; he was 27 years old and was born in Fat San City, Nom Hoy, China. He testified that he and his wife, Ho Oi Yee, were married ten years and had four living children—one son died in Hong Kong and one daughter was adopted. Ho Oi Yee’s mother was English. Lee Jun Fon (Bruce Lee) was the only child born in the United States. The doctor gave Bruce Lee his American name. His father couldn’t pronounce it but went along with it.

A copy of Bruce Lee’s birth certificate and a corrected copy are included in the file. In the original document, Item 3B stated that his mother’s usual residence was China. This was corrected to say that she had been a resident of California for one year, two months.
[Bruce Lee returned to the United States at age 18 and attended the University of Washington in Seattle for three years. He became a celebrated actor and martial artist. Lee died of a brain edema on 20 July 20 1973 in Hong Kong and buried in Lake View Cemetery, Seattle, WA.]
Click here to find information on Bruce Lee’s burial site
There are many articles about Bruce Lee on the Internet. Here’s an interesting one:
“The Real Reason Bruce Lee is Buried in Seattle” by Nicholas Conley, updated 19 October 2020, downloaded 18 November 2022.
This is terrific! and on his birthday! Amazing. When did you find this entry and make the connnection?
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I found it many months ago and put it on my calendar. I was so excited that his birthday was on a Monday (blog day).
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I’m very lucky to see his birth certificate. This guy is one of my idol since when I was young. RIP to him.
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It is pretty neat!
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