{"id":125752,"date":"2020-05-31T16:27:06","date_gmt":"2020-05-31T20:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/digest\/?p=125752"},"modified":"2020-05-31T16:27:06","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T15:29:48","slug":"the-violent-accidental-death-of-brandon-lee-the-smith-and-wesson-model-629-44-magnum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/the-violent-accidental-death-of-brandon-lee-the-smith-and-wesson-model-629-44-magnum\/","title":{"rendered":"The Violent Accidental Death of Brandon Lee: The Smith and Wesson Model 629 .44 Magnum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"The
Brandon Lee, son of the famed martial arts superstar Bruce Lee, was shot on the set of the darkly gothic film The Crow.<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Brandon Lee was born in\nFebruary of 1965 in the shadow of greatness. The only son of martial arts\nlegend Bruce Lee and his wife Linda Lee Caldwell, Brandon also had a younger\nsister named Shannon. Linda met Bruce when she was still a teenager and the\nmartial arts instructor gave a demonstration at her high school. She eventually\nbecame one of his kung fu students herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Brandon Lee grew up in the shadow of his legendary father Bruce. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By the time Brandon was\nborn his father was already an international movie star. Brandon trained with\nhis dad when he was young, learning the rudiments of Bruce Lee\u2019s signature Jeet\nKune Do style of fighting. Some theorize that it was Jeet Kune Do, the art of\n\u201cfighting without fighting,\u201d that led to today\u2019s Mixed Martial Arts. However, when\nBrandon was eight his father died unexpectedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Bruce Lee almost singlehandedly brought martial arts into the Western mainstream. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The untimely death of\nBruce Lee has been surrounded by controversy and intrigue. Lee was utterly\ndedicated to his profession, even going so far as to have the sweat glands in\nhis armpits surgically removed so as to make himself more photogenic on set. A\ncompulsive professional-grade athlete, Lee pushed his body to remarkable\nlimits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Bruce Lee died at the height of his fame, an apparent paragon of health. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In May of 1973, Bruce Lee was admitted to a Hong Kong hospital with a headache and seizures. He was found to have cerebral edema that was successfully treated with mannitol. Lee recovered, but the following month took a preparation called Equagesic for a headache while reviewing a movie script with colleagues. Equagesic is a proprietary combination of aspirin and the painkiller meprobamate. Lee retired for a nap but never regained consciousness. He was 32 at the time of his death. His son Brandon was 8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Chronic hyperthermia likely played a part in Bruce Lee\u2019s untimely demise. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The cause of Bruce Lee\u2019s\ndeath was determined to have been a reaction to the meprobamate in the\nEquagesic. Conspiracy theorists have attributed the man\u2019s demise to Triad\ngangsters or a family curse. Medical specialists have suspected that regular\nsteroid use for a back injury as well as chronic overheating during workouts\nlikely contributed as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Father, Like Son<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
Brandon Lee accompanied his dad onto movie sets when he was young. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Though Bruce Lee died when\nBrandon was young, the child had already logged a fair amount of time on movie\nsets and developed a taste for the craft. After his dad died Brandon continued\nhis martial arts training underneath the tutelage of Dan Inosanto, his father\u2019s\nsenior student. Though he walked away from the martial arts during a rebellious\nperiod in his teen years, Brandon eventually returned to the pursuit and became\nquite accomplished in his own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Like most aspiring actors, Brandon Lee started slow. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Brandon Lee always aspired\nto serious dramatic roles. He trained in acting at Emerson College and the Lee\nStrasburg Theatre and Film Institute. Like most burgeoning actors, however, Brandon\nwillingly pursued low hanging fruit early in his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Everybody\u2019s got to start someplace. Laser Mission<\/em> was an early Brandon Lee low budget epic just chock full of cheese. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Brandon parlayed his family reputation into a supporting role in Kung Fu: The Movie<\/em>, a made-for-TV film with David Carradine. He later played the lead in the subsequent TV movie Kung Fu: The Next Generation.<\/em> These roles led to several low-budget action flicks including one 1989 classic titled Laser Mission. Laser Mission was a ludicrous action-adventure direct-to-video effort that featured an aging Ernest Borgnine as a laser specialist and an evil Russian officer named, interestingly enough, Colonel Kalishnakov. Despite the catchy title, the movie included surprisingly few lasers, but it did turn a modest profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The Crow<\/em> was to be Brandon Lee\u2019s breakout role into mainstream popular film. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All this ultimately led to\nBrandon\u2019s breakout role as Eric Draven in the comic book-inspired superhero movie\nThe Crow <\/em>in 1992. The Crow<\/em> was a dark and nihilistic tale that\norbited around a murdered rock musician who is resurrected by a spectral crow to\navenge the rape and murder of his fianc\u00e9. The Crow<\/em> inspired a vigorous\ncult following and spawned three sequels as well as a TV show of its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The Crow<\/em> is profoundly violent and absolutely awash in gunplay. This is Brandon Lee on set holding the gun that ultimately killed him in his right hand. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With most of the movie in the can and only three days of filming remaining on the schedule, Lee was set to shoot an early scene in the narrative. In this sequence, Lee\u2019s character stumbles in on a group of thugs ravaging his girlfriend and is shot with a revolver. A negligent preparation of the big bore handgun used in the scene resulted in the discharge of a live round that killed the up and coming actor at age 28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Accident<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
Here we see Michael Massee, the actor who inadvertently triggered the fateful shot, with the gun in question. Massee was haunted by the event and ultimately died in 2016 at age 64. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The .44 Magnum revolver\nthat was used to kill Brandon Lee had been employed for closeup scenes earlier\nin the day. The detail of the shots necessitated the use of dummy rounds so\nthat the chambers would appear to be filled with live cartridges. .44 Magnum\ndummy rounds were not available, so the prop crew had taken live .44 cartridges,\npulled the projectiles, discarded the powder, and replaced the bullets. Without\nthinking they left the primers intact, however.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The power from a primer alone is frequently just enough to foment devastating consequences. As a committed lifelong shooter, I have experienced several squib loads. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At some point during the\ncourse of filming one of these empty cartridges was fired. The force of the\nprimer alone was adequate to drive the bullet into the bore but not expel it\nfrom the gun. This created a classic squib load. The occluded bore was\noverlooked by the film crew, and the gun was loaded with theatrical blanks for\nthe subsequent scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Even when propelled by a theatrical blank, the .44-caliber bullet from the Smith and Wesson Model 629 was profoundly powerful. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During the final filming, the handgun was discharged on set at a range of about fifteen feet. The force of the blank round expelled the bullet remaining in the bore from the previous misadventure. This bullet struck Lee in the abdomen with nearly the same energy as a live round. An explosive squib hidden inside a bag of groceries he was carrying went off as planned, masking his true injury. Brandon underwent six hours of emergency surgery but ultimately succumbed to his wound after purportedly receiving sixty units of blood in the operating theater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gun<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The stainless steel Smith and Wesson Model 629 is a powerful classic wheelgun. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Introduced in 1978, the\nSmith and Wesson Model 629 was the stainless steel version of the previous\nModel 29 .44 Magnum. The Model 29 was first developed as the S&W N-frame in\n1955 and featured seven different barrel lengths. The Model 29 designation was\nstandardized in 1957.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The .44 Magnum is a mule of a pistol round. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The .44 Magnum round was the brainchild of ballistic legend Elmer Keith. Keith had been experimenting with the .44 Special cartridge in an effort at creating a platform for handgun hunters wanting to pursue dangerous game. At the time of its introduction, the Model 29 was indeed the most powerful production handgun in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Clint Eastwood\u2019s character Dirty Harry singlehandedly put the S&W Model 29 on the map. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Model 29 amassed a\nmodest following among hunters and a few Law Enforcement Officers. In 1971 the\nmovie Dirty Harry<\/em> hit the big screen, and gun shops could not keep the\nmassive pistols in stock. A fun fact is that Clint Eastwood only got this\niconic role after John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, Robert Mitchum, Burt Lancaster,\nand Steve McQueen passed on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
With full-power loads, I am man enough to admit that I don\u2019t find the Model 29 .44 Magnum particularly recreational. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My Model 29 features a 6.5-inch barrel like the original Dirty Harry<\/em> gun. When loaded with full-power .44 Magnum loads I don\u2019t much care for it. The gun is more than adequately powerful to drop a whitetail or any two-legged miscreant but does sport some prodigious recoil. When stoked with lower-powered .44 Special rounds, however, the Model 29 is a joy on the range. The Model 29 is a legendarily accurate wheelgun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denouement<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
It is intriguing to ponder where Brandon Lee\u2019s career might have taken him had he not been accidentally killed at such a young age. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The untimely deaths of\nBruce and Brandon Lee formed the basis for one of the most curious family\nlegends in Hollywood history. While Laser Mission<\/em> will not win an\nAcademy Award any time soon, The Crow<\/em>, though remarkably dark, was a\nsolid action flick. Brandon Lee had the potential to become a remarkably\nsuccessful movie star in his own right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The parallels between Brandon Lee and Heath Ledger are uncanny.    <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When reviewing The Crow<\/em>\nin anticipation of this project I was struck by the similarities between\nBrandon Lee\u2019s character and Heath Ledger\u2019s Joker in The Dark Knight.<\/em>\nBoth men were exceptional actors who brought remarkable depth to these two\ncomplicated parts. That they both died unexpectedly at age 28 was just strange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The Crow<\/em> was ultimately quite successful despite its obvious production challenges. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The producers of The Crow <\/em>originally planned to scrap the project after its star\u2019s untimely death. However, with the permission and encouragement of Lee\u2019s surviving family members, they shot the final scenes using Lee\u2019s stunt double and early CGI technology. The movie cost $23 million to produce and ultimately grossed more than twice that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Brandon Lee was killed in the prime of life. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Brandon Lee was engaged to\nEliza Hutton at the time of his death. They had planned to be married on April\n17, 1993, some two weeks after he was unexpectedly killed. Lee placed the\nfollowing passage from Paul Bowles\u2019 book The Sheltering Sky<\/em> on his\nwedding invitations–<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause we don’t know when we will die, we get to think of\nlife as an inexhaustible well. And yet everything happens only a certain number\nof times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember\na certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of\nyour being that you can’t even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four,\nor five times more? Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch\nthe full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Bruce and Brandon Lee were ultimately buried side by side in Seattle. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Brandon Lee was buried alongside\nhis father at the Lake View Cemetery in Seattle, Washington. This passage from\nBowles\u2019 book was engraved on his tombstone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
A horrible on-set accident during the filming of the dark action horror film The Crow<\/em> ultimately snuffed the career of a promising young actor. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Buy and Sell on GunsAmerica!<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A horrible on-set accident during the filming of the dark action horror film The Crow ultimately snuffed the career of a promising young actor. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":125755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_specdata_upc":"","_specdata_placement":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[257,772],"tags":[132,102,752,60],"featured":[],"hunt365":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-125752","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-historical-guns","8":"category-will-dabbs","9":"tag-buzz","10":"tag-feature-articles","11":"tag-historical-guns","12":"tag-smith-wesson"},"yoast_head":"\nThe Violent Accidental Death of Brandon Lee: The Smith and Wesson Model 629 .44 Magnum<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Violent Accidental Death of Brandon Lee: The Smith and Wesson Model 629 .44 Magnum - Will Dabbs\" \/>\n<meta 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However, shooting guns and claiming it was work seemed like a pretty sweet hustle. As a result, Will serendipitously transformed an avocation into a vocation. Raised in the Mississippi Delta, Will flew UH1H, OH58A\\\/C, CH47D and AH1S helicopters operationally as an Army Aviator. He is SCUBA-qualified and has parachuted out of perfectly good airplanes at 3 o'clock in the morning. Will has summited Mount McKinley, Alaska, six times\u2026always at the controls of an Army helicopter, which is the only way sensible folk climb mountains. Will has delivered sixty babies and occasionally wrung human blood out of his socks. He is married to his high school sweetheart and has three awesome adult children. 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