How Bruce Lee's Back Injury Almost Ended His Acting Career
A back injury Bruce Lee sustained in 1970 nearly ended his acting career before it could ever really take off. For the actor, it was one of several major obstacles that stood in the way of him becoming a martial arts superstar. Furthermore, it was one that he wasn’t expected to overcome.
For Lee, reaching stardom was an incredibly difficult journey. Due in large part to producers and studio executives’ hesitancy toward casting Asians as their leads, Lee struggled mightily to get parts in TV shows and movies. Even after getting his big break as Kato in ABC’s The Green Hornet show, Lee’s career still stalled and didn’t start moving in a positive direction until much later. The series was canceled after just one season, forcing Lee to look for other roles, but the ones he found were mostly just guest appearances in TV shows. He made efforts to write his own material, but they didn’t pan out during Lee's time in Hollywood.
Related: How Bruce Lee Got Chuck Norris His First Movie Role (Not Way Of The Dragon)
A very different kind of problem entered Lee’s life in 1970 when he was performing good mornings, a popular weight training exercise with barbells commonly used by athletes and bodybuilders. During the exercise, Lee felt something snap in his back. Multiple medical examinations culminated in Lee learning that he had done permanent damage to the fourth sacral nerve in his lower back. According to Bruce Lee: A Life by Matthew Polly, the actor was told by his physicians that since it couldn’t be undone, he would never be able to practice kung fu again. He was subsequently confined to a bed for three months and was unable to work in any capacity.
Lee struggled with his new situation because he understood that any future he had
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