People who heard that Quentin Tarantino
plans to include Bruce Lee in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” — his upcoming film revolving around the Manson murders — may have been understandably baffled. What did the martial arts master, who died tragically at 32, have to do with the Manson family breaking into Polanski and Tate’s home and killing everyone they found there?
This answer, it turns out, is a pair of glasses.
It was the summer of 1969, and Polanski was in a state of deep despair at the murders. No one yet knew that Charles Manson’s followers had carried out the grotesque killings, in hopes of sparking a race war.
Like many Hollywood men, including Steve McQueen, Polanski trained with Bruce Lee, a fiercely efficient fighter trying to break into the movies. Bruce Lee had also given Tate martial arts training
for the 1968 film “The Wrecking Crew.“
One day, Bruce Lee mentioned to Polanski that he had lost his glasses.
Polanski paid close attention, because someone had left a pair of glasses in his home, and detectives believed they might belong to the killer.
He also knew Bruce Lee was one of the few people who might have been physically capable of killing a house full of people, all by himself.