In some scenes, cardboard cut-outs of Lee were used, but the filmmakers still managed to secure shots of Bruce’s actual corpse from his open-casket funeral to insert into a scene where Lee’s character fakes his own death. Read more: Bruce Lee’s daughter slams Tarantino film

Bruce’s death effectively put the kibosh on Game Of Death’s proposed plot, so an alternate version was put into production, where Lee was replaced by stand-ins wearing wigs and beards to mask their faces – Bruce only appears in 11 minutes of footage. Bruce Lee’s career, however, would continue in Game Of Death, Lee’s final movie but one of which he only managed to shoot the first half. According to Connie, one of Tors unrealized dreams was to open a pizza parlor. Tor considered himself a gourmet chef and would give Conrads then-wife Ruthie cooking lessons. When Bruce Lee was killed by a deadly reaction to an over-the-counter headache tablet, it ended the life of the most spectacular martial arts superstar cinema had ever seen. Conrad Brooks and Tor Johnson met during the making of Bride of the Monster (1955) and remained close friends thereafter, frequently visiting each others homes. (Concord Productions Inc./Golden Harvest Company/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bruce Lee on the set of Game of Death.

Tor johnson behind the scenes