To most, Diana Inosanto had a storybook childhood. Hanging with Uncle Bruce, playing with friend Brandon. But according to Dan’s youngest daughter, you can’t always judge a book by its cover.
Archives
Martial Arts Related Articles
Growing Up With Bruce - An Interview With Diana Lee Inosanto, By Todd Hester, Editor of Martial Arts & Combat Sports magazine.
There is a certain, undeniable magic to the Inosanto name. Forever linked to martial arts, the name conjures up images of loyalty, tragedy, rebirth, and perseverance. Diana Inosanto is a worthy and courageous bearer of that famed name. The talented daughter of father Dan, one of Bruce Lee’s most intimate and trusted students, and one of those responsible for spreading the legacy of Bruce Lee’s teachings throughout the world, Diana is a first-person witness to the Bruce Lee legend.
A childhood playmate of Brandon Lee, Diana Inosanto has a unique insight and perspective into martial arts’ most compelling story. A successful stuntwoman who is now getting noticed for her theatrical work, Diana Inosanto is just starting to scratch the surface of her professional potential.
But Diana’s own life has been far from fairy-tale perfect. Woven
into the grand tapestry of this martial arts saga are her own personal struggles
to overcome childhood ethnic prejudice, deal with family tragedy, and find
her own identity. Through it all, she displayed the humor, bravery, and
resilience that indelibly mark her as an Inosanto.
IKF: You are Dan Inosanto’s daughter.
DIANA INOSANTO: Yes, I am (laughs). It wouldn’t do me any good to deny it and I wouldn’t want to.
IKF: Is that how people first think of you when they meet you?
DI: Well, yeah, obviously, when people see my last name, especially martial artists, that’s the first comment I get. I’ve learned from the time that I was a little girl that there’s always two people, actually three now, that I’ll always be asked about: my father, Bruce Lee, and now Brandon. Particularly with my father, people identify me with him – especially in the entertainment field. It has been kind of difficult because I’ve always wanted to have my own separate identity. For instance, when I first started in the entertainment field, I never, ever wanted to do martial arts. I didn’t want to have anything to do with it because I wanted to be my own person. But now that I’m older I’ve found that I appreciate being Dan Inosanto’s daughter because it has helped open doors for me. But more than that, I’ve learned to appreciate his abilities and talents more – and appreciate him as a father. But I think that’s typical of any parent/child relationship. We tend to appreciate our parents as we grow up and go through the things they went through.
IKF: Are your earliest memories of being around martial arts?
DI: Oh, my God, 24 hours a day. I couldn’t escape it. It was everywhere. I almost hate to say that, because a lot of people tell me, "You were so lucky to be around martial arts from such a young age — that must have been great." I just tell them, "Trust me, 24 hours a day of anything can get really tiring; especially for a kid." For example, I would want to play with my Barbie dolls and my dad would tell me, "No, hit the focus mitt." I was like, "C’mon, Dad, I want to play." I have memories like that from four years old. My mom would just roll her eyes and say, "Dan, let her play with her dolls." So some of my earliest memories are of having arguments with my father, demanding that I get some playtime with my toys. It was more funny than mean between us, though, you know? He was just so enthusiastic about his training and teaching.
IKF: Did you think the martial arts lifestyle was normal?
DI: No, I didn’t think it was normal. I knew something was up when I would visit my friend’s homes and they didn’t have martial arts equipment hanging on every wall and swords and knives stacked in the corner of the living room. The garage was so packed with gear that you couldn’t park the car. I didn’t know that a garage was made for a car. My friend’s moms and dads generally just came in after work, fixed dinner, plopped on the couch, and watched T.V. But our family had a gym in the backyard. As a matter of fact, it is still there to this very day in our old Carson (Calif.) house. We had a constant stream of students in and out of our house. My father was a schoolteacher by day at Malaga Cove Junior High in Palos Verdes where he taught P.E., history, and English. Then by night he was a martial arts teacher. It was a very unusual lifestyle back then. I have good memories, though, because I would ride my bike around the backyard while my dad was teaching and sometimes I would ride it into the gym, which he would get mad at. It was all fun, though.
IKF: Who were some of the people you remember seeing come in and train?
DI: Well, obviously, the original JKD people that everyone knows about. Then Jeff Imada came a little later on when we moved from Carson to Torrance. It was a very intimate group. It was just like family. I have good memories. They were all just like my uncles, you know? I had more uncles than anyone else I knew.
IKF: Did you have much contact with the Lee family?
DI: Oh, yeah. My father was over at Uncle Bruce’s so often that Aunt Linda (Lee Cadwell) used to joke that my father had moved in there. They used to spend a lot of time together and I have really good memories of that because we used to go over to their home and I would play with Brandon. Brandon was one of the biggest highlights of my childhood. I identified with Brandon because he had an Asian father and a Caucasian mother, the same as me. So I didn’t feel so alone. I knew I was different, then. Now, a mixed family is common, and no one thinks much of it — especially in L.A. But back then it was unusual. I could feel that my family was different just from seeing whom I went to school with. So that’s why I felt so comforted being around Brandon. So for me, he was like a child mentor, or a role model. Not to mention that he was fun to play with. He was a real practical joker.
IKF: Did you play martial arts or just normal kid stuff?
DI: I think we played around a little with martial arts. But that’s all part of childhood. For some reason I always remember the trampoline in Brandon’s backyard. We would always fight over this trampoline – which was going to be master of the trampoline. I would push him off, and then he would push me off and then we would start playing tag and run into the house and interrupt this philosophical discussion that Uncle Bruce was having with my dad and the rest of the group. Looking back, I guess that it seems a little surreal, even though at the time it was just an everyday thing, because you had Bruce Lee, my father and a whole list of very well-known martial artists that I would interrupt. But the way I experienced it was as a child with their family, so it was normal to me.
IKF: So I guess sometimes you two were just considered "pests."
DI: Yes. All the time, like any kids. It was hilarious. I remember one time when we were pushing each other off the trampoline and I got pushed off really hard. So I went running in, crying about how Brandon had bullied me. So Uncle Bruce, in his strong Asian accent, said, "Brandon, don’t you touch Diana. You don’t do that. You let her play." And so, of course, Brandon just nodded and agreed, and so we went back out there again and he did the exact same thing and pushed me off the trampoline. I also have memories of my dad and Uncle Bruce eating pizza, or laughing together, or Brandon and I playing under the table at Chinese restaurants – just simple memories that are very special to me. Which I guess is a little unique to me, because most people think of Bruce Lee as this great martial arts icon, but he was just Uncle Bruce to me.
IKF: Was there a time when you actually started formally training in martial arts, rather than just watching?
DI: Yes. I got beat up at school because I was the wrong color. Some girls made some comments about my "white" mother and "brown" father and pushed me down and hit me. My eye got scratched up pretty bad and I had blood all over my face, and I came running home.
My father gave me a hug, cleaned me up, and told me that I’d survive it. I told him that I wanted to learn some things so it didn’t ever happen again. So we started training privately, and I remember his students coming in and asking what was going on and my father telling them that his daughter had gotten into a fight that day and it was time she learned to defend herself.
So my father would teach me on and off, and take me on demos. Sometimes he would call me up from the audience without telling me he was going to call me up. At least one time it was very embarrassing because I accidentally kicked my dad in the groin. I think I was nine years old at the time and he called me up to demonstrate this very simple technique he had taught me to escape from a backward armlock. I was supposed to kick to the knee then and spin around and hit the attacker in the face with an elbow. But there were about 300 people there, and I was just petrified. He asked me if I remembered it, and I said "yes". But when he got behind me I didn’t wait for him to say go, or anything, because of all the people, and I just did the move while he was still talking, and I spun around and just nailed him with the elbow without realizing it. I just heard the audience laugh and so I turned around and my father was grimacing in pain. I realized what I’d done and turned really red but he just said, "That’s good, Honey – very good job. You can go now." So that was my most embarrassing moment in martial arts. Probably my dad’s as well.
IKF: What was your training routine?
DI: To begin with I started out with Jun Fan kung-fu, hitting and kicking, then slowly started incorporating the sticks. I have videotapes of myself when I was six learning sticks. He simplified it for me so I could learn more easily.
IKF: Do you remember what you thought when you saw Bruce on T.V. for the first time?
DI: I actually don’t know if I ever remember seeing him when it was on. We had a T.V. that didn’t work very well. We got a lot of static. I could hear him on the T.V., but it was more like a radio show. I think the first time I saw "Green Hornet" was on somebody else’s old VCR. It was more the Hong Kong movies he made that I remember seeing. That’s when I realized that he was somebody special. I realized something was up when he came over to the house after that, and a bunch of neighborhood kids were looking over the fence at him. They were just in awe that he was there. So I got little hints that he had turned into something very special to other people – he’d always been special to me, of course, but just in a family way.
Just because how he had affected my father’s life told me how special he was, long before any of that happened. Because I remember I could walk in and I could see my father and him alone, and my father had this little library, and Uncle Bruce would talk, and my father’s behavior, the way he was with him, was so focused in trying to absorb everything this man was saying. It was even funnier because they would have these very philosophical discussions, and there was Uncle Bruce, with his shirt off, working the weights, talking deep topics. But even the kind of weight training he did was different. Most people, you know, are on a bench doing the repetitions or whatever, but Uncle Bruce would be standing up throwing punches. It was fun because I would walk in and punch his stomach because I thought it was neat.
IKF: So it was obvious there was a deep communication between your father and Bruce Lee.
DI: My father loved the man. He really loved him. I knew it, but I didn’t realize how much until Bruce’s death. With his death, my father was impacted deeply and profoundly for the rest of his life. When Uncle Bruce died, it was the first time I ever saw my father cry. In fact, at first, my father wouldn’t even believe he was dead. It was just beyond the realm of his understanding, I think, that someone so strong, healthy, and vital could just cease to be so suddenly. In fact, my mother and I found out before he did. We heard about it because my mother got a phone call. And she wanted me to not say anything about it until she had her time with him alone. I remember my father coming out from the bedroom, after she had told him, and he was just in tears. And then I remembered that he got on the phone and started making all these calls all over the place, because just couldn’t believe it. He was sure that it had to be some kind of a mistake. Finally, he got in contact with Linda, I think, and she must have told him, because I saw him just break down completely and weep like a child. I remember trying to walk up to him to hug him, but my mother stopped me and told me to leave him alone and let him have some time to himself. But it was really hard. Whenever I was in the car with my dad, and something started to come over the radio about the death of Uncle Bruce, I would turn the radio off because I just didn’t want to see him so upset. It was a very difficult time for us all, but for my father the most.
IKF: Where were you when you heard the news about Brandon’s death?
DI: I was at a mall shopping with my girlfriend. I got a page from a longtime friend. When I called back all she could say was "I’m sorry, I’m sorry." I asked what she was talking about and she said, "Didn’t you hear?" Then she told me that Brandon died and I froze. I was sort of in shock. Right in the middle of a telephone booth in a mall I broke down in tears. I called my father’s house and was told it was true. I couldn’t even talk anymore. My girlfriend took me home and I was upset, sick. I could see history repeating itself. It brought back all the memories of Uncle Bruce dying. I eventually got on the phone with my father and we both started crying. We couldn’t talk. My father was upset because he was the pallbearer for both Bruce’s and Brandon’s funeral. At the time my father was grooming Brandon to take over and better understand the JKD community. Now, we’ll never know what would have happened.