Linda Emery Lee Cadwell (née Emery; born March 21, 1945^[1]) is a retired American teacher and writer, the widow of martial artist and actor Bruce Lee (1940–1973), and the mother of actor Brandon Lee (1965–1993) and actress Shannon Lee (born 1969).^[2] She is the author of the Bruce Lee biography Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew, upon which the film Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993) is based, as well as the founder, a former trustee of, and an unpaid advisor of the Bruce Lee Foundation.

She was born in Everett, Washington, the daughter of Vivian R. (née Hester) (1911–1998)^[3] and Everett Emery (1910–1950).^[4][5] Her family was Baptist and of Swedish, Irish, and English descent.^[6][7]

She met Bruce Lee while she was attending Garfield High School, where Bruce came to give a kung fu demonstration; he was attending the University of Washington at the time. Eventually, she became one of his kung fu students when she was attending the University of Washington, studying to become a teacher.^{[citation needed]}

They married on August 17, 1964. Linda was a few credits short from graduation. They had two children, Brandon Lee and Shannon Lee. Bruce Lee died suddenly on July 20, 1973, of an allergic reaction to an analgesic.^[8][9]

Linda married Tom Bleecker in 1988, and they divorced in 1990. She later wed stockbroker Bruce Cadwell in 1991 and they lived in Rancho Mirage, California.^{[citation needed]}

On March 31, 1993, her son Brandon was accidentally shot to death by a prop gun while filming The Crow.^[10]

Cadwell has continued to promote Bruce Lee's martial art Jeet Kune Do. She retired in 2001, and her daughter Shannon (who now heads the Lee family estate), together with son-in-law Ian Keasler, run the Bruce Lee Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching Bruce Lee's philosophy on martial arts and his writing on philosophy.^{[citation needed]}