King Of The Clones
Say what you will, but during the 70's, this man helped a nation of kung-fu fanatics, get over the hump and the hurt when there was a serious lull in the kung-fu genre. It wasn't his fault that he was chosen to replace a national icon - Bruce Lee. But, he did develop into a screen favorite to millions of kung-fu fans and churned out film after film, trying to find his niche' in the genre.
Like the man he would imitate, he led the way for others to do the same. He made so many movies in such a short period of time; you could tell producers had their hands full trying to come up with what they wanted him to do next. Pronounced Lee, millions have been calling him Li (Lie) and many still do. The more Bruce's wife sued production companies for their falsehoods about their life together, the more companies sought to exploit him to play Lee.
He was just an actor hired to play the part of a man, he, himself, respected tremendously. As he sought to establish his own identity, people could only imagine what he was going through himself. He had to fight Lee's persona, while trying to let people know that he was an actor and one who wanted to play other roles that had nothing to do with Lee's life. In films like Revenge Of The Patriots, Blind Kung Fu, and Edge Of Fury, he did just that, but they would still have him billed as - Bruce Li.
In later years, he would use his real name, but people were so used to call him Li, it made no difference, he was branded forever. We knew that the real Bruce Lee was never coming back, but that didn't stop us from dreaming and believing that we could live through him (Bruce Li), just to see what the real Bruce Lee might have looked like in other movies. When he gained enough clout to make a film his way, it focused on the film business and how underhanded producers could be in order to get their stars to do what they wanted. Ring a bell?
That film, The Chinese Stuntman, though not a blockbuster, did let us see what he had to endure in order to be a film star. As for playing Bruce Lee, though he wasn't the real thing, he did a very good job at keeping the masses entertained in theaters around the world for many years. So, I guess you can say, he played his part well.