Jason Scott Lee in Rapa Nui (1994)A very happy 50th birthday to one of our favorite 90s stars Jason Scott Lee. The Chinese-Hawaiian actor burst onto the scene in May of 1993 with major leading man charisma playing Bruce Lee in the mainstream biopic Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story and co-starring in the arthouse romance Map of the Human Heart. He chased that double with another the following year with Disney's live-action Jungle Book and the Easter Island tribe movie Rapa Nui. Only the last of those films was a flop but then he vanished, only popping up occassionally in supporting roles in action films. The roles just weren't there despite three early consecutive successes...
As he was rising the media profiles kept noting that he was "no relation" to Bruce Lee. This was partially due to Brandon Lee who was (as Bruce Lee's son) and whose death on the set of The Crow was a big story just as Jason was becoming famous. The Crow arrived in theaters the following year, a month after The Jungle Book, with the morbid curio factor while Jason was peaking. Perhaps it's strange to pair them like this but you have to wonder, if Brandon had lived, if he too would have seen the roles dry up immediately after The Crow.
Sadly Asian actors are still struggling like this in Hollywood... as maddening and impossible as it seems 20 plus years later. Jason was interviewed this summer about his career, why he took a long break from Hollywood and the problem of white-washing and limited opportunities for Asians in Hollywood.