Bruce Lee is buried in Seattle, specifically, Lake View Cemetery in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. You are welcome to visit, but he isn’t the only one buried there. Please be respectful.
I first ended up at Lake View years ago when I was at Volunteer Park with my friend Nicole and our kids. She’s always game for a detour, so when I suggested we wander next door into the cemetery to look for Bruce Lee’s grave, she didn’t blink.
We grabbed the kids and spent the better part of a morning hunting for it.
My family has been back several times since. Most recently, we stopped by on a spring break trip while visiting friends. Our kids were tweens and teens by then, and I wanted to see if they could find it now that they were old enough to actually care, and they finally knew who Bruce Lee was.
Here’s everything you need to know before you go before you start looking for the martial arts master in Seattle, WA.
Who was Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a martial arts philosophy he developed from Kung Fu, and is widely credited as the father of modern mixed martial arts. He starred in Enter the Dragon, Fist of Fury, and The Green Hornet, among other popular movies and TV shows.
He was born in San Francisco in 1940, his father a Chinese opera singer, his mother part German. He grew up in Hong Kong and came back to the US as a teenager.
Seattle is where he finished high school, studied at the University of Washington, opened his first martial arts studio (the Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute), and met his wife, Linda Emery.
Seattle was, by all accounts, where the family felt most at home.
Why Is Bruce Lee Buried in Seattle?
Bruce Lee died on July 20, 1973, at 32, in Hong Kong. His family chose to bring him home to Seattle. Linda Lee has said it’s where life was simplest and happiest for all of them.
His son Brandon is buried right next to him.
Brandon died in 1993 at 28 after being struck by a fragment from a prop gun on the set of The Crow, just weeks before filming wrapped and weeks before his scheduled wedding. It’s one of Hollywood’s most tragic accidents.
Lake View Cemetery
Address: 1554 15th Ave E, Seattle, WA 98112
Hours (current as of 2026):
- Winter (October through March): 10 AM to 4 PM
- Summer (March through October): 9 AM to 8 PM
- Open 7 days a week, including holidays
Admission: Free
Getting there: Parking on-site is limited, with additional street parking nearby. King County Metro buses #10 and #49 both stop at E Roy St & 15th Ave E, right at the entrance.
This is a working cemetery, not a tourist attraction. If a funeral is in progress when you arrive, give that area space and keep your voice down.
Stay on the paved paths, as the cemetery rules are clear that visitors should not walk across graves or lean on monuments.
Dogs are not allowed, and, like a national park, you need to leave the grounds as you found them (AKA don’t dump your trash!).
How to Find Bruce Lee’s Grave: Driving Directions
Google Maps now pins the grave directly, so that’s the easiest starting point. Search “Bruce Lee grave Seattle” and it’ll get you there.
If you’re driving in from the main entrance on 15th Ave E:
- Enter the cemetery
- Bear slightly left at the fork
- Take the first right
- Take the first right again, then the second road up the hill on the right
- Bruce Lee’s grave is on the right side near the top
There’s a small circle drive near the top of the hill. Don’t park directly next to the grave. Loop around the circle to find a spot to pull over, then walk back.
The path down to the gravesites is paved and has handrails.
How to Find Bruce Lee’s Grave: Walking from Volunteer Park
If you’re already at Volunteer Park, which is right next door and worth a stop for the conservatory and water tower alone, you can walk to the graves in about 10 minutes.
- Start at the Volunteer Park Playground
- Head left out of the park and down 15th Ave E
- Walk into the cemetery entrance on your left
- Head straight up the hill on the path
- When you reach the top, you’ll see a large stone cross and a flagpole in front of you
- Turn around. There, facing you, is a coral-colored headstone and a black headstone. Those are Bruce Lee and Brandon Lee.
It’s much better marked these days than it was a decade ago.
There’s a bench at the site, which is a good place to sit for a few minutes.
What Do the Gravestones Say?
Bruce Lee’s grave includes a photo of him, his name in English and Chinese, and the words “Founder of Jeet Kune Do.”
Below that is a black stone shaped like an open book with a yin and yang symbol and the inscription: “Your inspiration continues to guide us toward our personal liberation.”
The headstone was designed by his brother, Robert Lee.
Brandon Lee’s grave carries a passage from Paul Bowles’ The Sheltering Sky, the same quote that was going to appear on Brandon’s wedding invitation to his fiancée, Eliza Hutton.
They never got to use it, so reading it at the cemetery, knowing that context, is extra heart-wrenching.
“Death is always on the way, but the fact that you don’t know when it will arrive seems to take away from the finiteness of life. It’s that terrible precision that we hate so much. But because we don’t know, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that’s so deeply a part of your being that you can’t even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.”
― Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky
What to Expect When You Visit
Fans leave offerings constantly: flowers, incense, martial arts tokens, handwritten notes. It’s touching rather than strange, especially considering how long both men have been gone.
The site is well-maintained and almost always has something there from a recent visitor.
Time magazine listed it among the top 10 celebrity gravesites in the world. And yet it still feels quiet.
People show up, stand there, take it in, and go. No gift shop, no tour group, no commentary. Just the graves, the bench, and a view of Lake Washington through the trees.
Want to Go Deeper Into Bruce Lee’s Seattle Story?
The Wing Luke Museum in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District has an exhibit dedicated to Bruce Lee’s life and his connection to the city.
You can also check on Viator for tours that cover his early martial arts studio, his old neighborhood, and lunch at Tai Tung, the restaurant where he was a regular and famously ordered the beef in oyster sauce. NOTE: this tour is not always offered.
Bruce Lee Grave FAQ
Is Bruce Lee really buried in Seattle, not Hong Kong?
Yes. He died in Hong Kong but his family chose Seattle as his final resting place. It was where they’d been happiest — where he met Linda, went to school, opened his first studio, and built something that felt like home.
Is Bruce Lee buried or cremated?
He was cremated. His ashes are interred at Lake View Cemetery.
What was the real cause of Bruce Lee’s death?
He died from a brain edema on July 20, 1973, at age 32. The official government ruling at the time attributed it to an allergic reaction to aspirin.
More recent research, including a 2022 peer-reviewed paper in the Clinical Kidney Journal, points to hyponatremia: a dangerous drop in blood sodium caused by his kidneys’ inability to process excess water.
His diet at the time included a lot of juices and protein drinks, and he was using cannabis, which increases thirst. The exact cause is still disputed, but hyponatremia is currently the leading scientific hypothesis.
Are Bruce Lee and Jimi Hendrix buried in the same cemetery?
No. Jimi Hendrix is buried at Greenwood Memorial Park in Renton, WA, where a memorial gazebo was built in 2002. His parents and grandmother are interred there as well.
Is Kurt Cobain buried at Lake View Cemetery?
No. Lake View Cemetery would not allow Cobain to be buried there, partly because of the volume of visitors the Lee graves already draw. Cobain was cremated, and his ashes were given to his wife, Courtney Love, who divided them. She kept some in a teddy bear and some in an urn, and took a portion to the Namgyal Buddhist Monastery in Ithaca, New York. There is no grave to visit.
What happened to Bruce Lee’s family?
His wife, Linda Lee Cadwell, is a retired teacher and writer who authored a biography of Bruce Lee and founded the Bruce Lee Foundation. His daughter, Shannon Lee, runs the foundation as president and has produced multiple projects about her father’s life and philosophy.
His son Brandon died in 1993 on the set of The Crow.
Who designed Bruce Lee’s headstone?
His brother, Robert Lee.
Are there customs around visiting the grave?
Many visitors leave small offerings: flowers, incense, martial arts tokens. The cemetery asks that you stay on paths, be respectful of other visitors, and leave the grounds as you found them.
Planning Your Seattle Trip
Lake View Cemetery is in Capitol Hill, which puts you close to some of Seattle’s best neighborhoods. A few solid hotel options:
- Fairmont Olympic Hotel — pet-friendly, pool and spa, walkable to Pike Place Market
- The Westin Seattle — pet-friendly, pool, easy walk to everything downtown
- Kimpton Palladian Hotel — design hotel near Pike Place, suites available
- Residence Inn Seattle Downtown/Convention Center — studio and one-bedroom suites with kitchen, free breakfast included
- Hyatt Regency Seattle — pet-friendly, walking distance to the waterfront
For rental cars, I always check DiscoverCars.com first. And if you want actual photos from the trip rather than phone screenshots, book a Flytographer session before you go. They connect you with a local photographer, it takes about an hour, and you save $20 with my link.
Still putting the rest of your Seattle trip together? My Weekend Trip Planner can help map it all out, and there’s a free Vacation Planner Checklist on the site too. I also have a full guide to things to do in Seattle with kids if you’re bringing the family, plus travel guides and itineraries in the Twist Travel shop if you want something more in-depth.
