Could Gene LeBell beat up Bruce Lee? Meet the real life Cliff Booth from ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’
- Quentin Tarantino may have based Brad Pitt’s stuntman character on ‘toughest man alive’ and Hollywood legend Gene LeBell
- Judo champion recalls incident working with Lee on set of ‘The Green Hornet’
While Bruce Lee’s daughter, Shannon Lee, has called the depiction of her father in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood a “mockery”, there was indeed a real life “Cliff Booth” who clashed with him on the set of The Green Hornet in 1966.
Tarantino has had to defend himself from criticism over a scene in his latest film, where Brad Pitt’s tough stuntman character gets the better of Lee, played by Mike Moh, in a fight in front of watching extras and crew members as they wait around on the lot of the hit ABC television show.
But it seems Cliff – and the incident on set – is not pure fantasy after all. Known as “the toughest man alive”, real life Hollywood hard man, two-time national judo champion and master of grappling Gene LeBell worked with Lee as a stuntman on The Green Hornet.
