Tommy Carruthers’ life changed in a darkened Glasgow cinema back in 1974.
“I saw Bruce Lee in Way of the Dragon and that was the turning point in my entire life,” the Scotsman, now 60, reveals.
Over the ensuing 45 years, Carruthers has been keeping Lee’s teachings alive as one of the few instructors to have mastered the fluid jeet kune do style of kung fu created by Hong Kong’s “Little Dragon”.
“It’s about presenting martial arts but in a high standard that he would have been proud of,” Carruthers says of his mission to continue championing Lee’s simple but spectacular fighting style. “That’s the best thing we could do to preserve and enhance his legacy.”
“Everybody else after Bruce Lee died, whether it be Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, [Jean-Claude] Van Damme, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, they couldn’t tie Bruce Lee’s shoelaces. He’s still way ahead of everyone.” Though the spotlight has never moved far from Lee – who died in Hong Kong from a cerebral edema on July 20, 1973 – there is a fresh focus on him with the long-awaited world premiere of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood .
The maverick American filmmaker chose the Cannes Film Festival for the grand reveal of his latest opus, starring the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, and set around Hollywood at the time of the notorious Tate murders of 1969 committed by the notorious Charles Manson cult.
It speaks volumes about the aura that still surrounds Lee that when Tarantino released his first teaser trailer for the film – back in March – despite all the A-listers appearing in the clip, internet users went wild over one scene in particular: the relatively unknown Mike Moh playing Lee, and facing off against Pitt as an ageing stuntman.
Carruthers fully understands the fascination. He was just 14 years old when Way of the Dragon was released in the year following Lee’s death. It had been rated X (18 years and over), but Carruthers managed to get a ticket and sneak by the attendant. He sat down in the dark and soaked it all in.
Though his father – a second world war veteran – had passed on combat skills, including some martial arts, they paled compared to what the young Carruthers saw on the silver screen as Lee played a young fighter who heads to Rome to protect his family’s honour.
“Up until then I was going to join the military, the RAF and become a pilot, but seeing that film changed my whole life,” says Carruthers, speaking from his Glasgow home.
“Once I saw Bruce Lee, I just wanted to do his ‘stuff’, which is what I called it. I didn’t even know what to call it at the time. But I learned, and since then I’ve been pretty fanatical. To this day I have the same enthusiasm as that 14-year-old had when he left the cinema.”
By that time, Lee’s legendary status had been cemented, thanks to the runaway global successes of both Way of the Dragon (1972) and Enter the Dragon (1973) and, sadly, to the various controversies that swirled around his death.
Lee had also begun to propagate his distinct fighting style, and teachings, during the period in which Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is set.
He had been training Sharon Tate for an action film, before the actress was murdered by the so-called Manson Family, and been giving kung fu lessons to heavyweight Hollywood stars including James Coburn and Steve McQueen.
What Lee brought to martial arts was built on the wing chun traditions in which he had been schooled by now-legendary master Ip Man, but he had expanded their horizons by combining a range of other combat sport influences, and by encouraging his students to experiment and explore.
These days Carruthers runs the global International Martial Arts Organisation that bears his name, but back in the early to mid-1970s he was a young man still finding his feet in the martial arts world.
Any formal means of learning Lee’s style was not possible in Scotland. While Carruthers would later learn jeet kune do from the legend’s students and close personal friends Jessie Glover, Howard Williams and Ted Wong (who would certify the Scot as an official instructor), in the beginning his training methods were simple.
A series of books about Lee’s fighting style – such as the master’s own Tao of Jeet Kune Do and Bruce Lee’s Fighting Method – appeared after the star’s death. For want of a better option, Carruthers and his friends started to teach themselves – from the page.
“We watched the mechanics of what he did in the films, and we copied what he did in the books,” says Carruthers. “Later, as I met people who had been taught by Bruce Lee himself, they couldn’t believe that I was self-taught. The first place I went to officially train was actually a karate school – but they had a photo of Bruce Lee out the front.
“What I quickly learned was that traditional martial artists find it very difficult to deal with a non-classical way of fighting. It’s based very much on defence. I was using the moves I had seen in movies and read about in books. But I didn’t get told off because I was beating people. I never would have joined [the karate school] if not for the photo of Bruce Lee … but it gave me a start.”
These days Carruthers trains and teaches, and travels the world honouring Lee’s legacy. While he acknowledges that Lee’s philosophy, in particular, has gained fame over time, Carruthers says he has always been more interested in Lee as a fighter.
“What really attracted me was he was the same size – five foot, seven inches (1.7 metres) – and showed how much power and speed someone our size could generate. That really inspired me,” says Carruthers. “He was essentially a fighter. He knew a lot of Americans would love the other side, the more philosophical side. His friends have long talked about that. That sort of thing is great, but it doesn’t make you a better fighter like hard training does.”
Carruthers says he has reached out to the estate of Lee and the foundation run by his daughter Shannon, who has in recent years worked to protect her father’s legacy. He hopes they can support his efforts to ensure Lee’s teachings are continued around the world.
The challenge is to attract a new generation of martial arts enthusiasts – who have so many styles to choose from.
“In mainland China people are very interested in him; he’s still an inspiration,” says Carruthers. “But traditional martial arts in China over the past few years has really decreased. The younger generation are really not interested in the traditional stuff. There’s no shortage of talent, though. They could be very, very good.”
Speaking to the Post before the release of Tarantino’s new movie, Carruthers says he wants to highlight Lee’s impact on the film world.
I’m the only jeet kune do instructor who does so many seminars in China. I’ve done countless seminars over 10 to 12 years – Tommy Carruthers
“These days every movie you see has martial arts in it, and that’s because of Bruce Lee. He revolutionised martial arts,” says Carruthers.
“What I would love to see is martial arts movies with real jeet kune do in them. There are all these moves, which look really nice, but to see real jeet kune do would be something special. It has to look believable and that’s incredibly difficult.”
Another dream is to one day see – and maybe even work on – a Bruce Lee biopic that stars an actor who “not only looks like him but moves like him”. For the moment, though, Carruthers is content to continue down the path that first opened up to him in that darkened cinema all those years ago.
“It’s taken me everywhere, all over the world,” he says. “I’m the only jeet kune do instructor who does so many seminars in China. I’ve done countless seminars over 10 to 12 years. People laugh when I tell them that a guy from Glasgow, Scotland, goes to China to teach kung fu. But people from Glasgow, from Scotland, are renowned for their fighting prowess. So I am continuing history, but on a smaller scale.”
