744 - Bruce Lee Autograph Letter Signed to Robert Baker - Recovering and Preparing for A Walk in the Spring Rain (1969)

Bruce Lee Autograph Letter Signed to Robert Baker - Recovering and Preparing for A Walk in the Spring Rain (1969) ALS signed “Bruce,” one page, 8.25 x 11, Jeet Kune Do emblem letterhead, postmarked April 1, 1969. Handwritten letter to friend and actor Robert Baker, in full: “I am recovering pretty good and will resume training as soon as I feel A-okay. The film was too dark; at any rate, Dan Lee took some and will show them to Black Belt mag. this coming week. I’ll take off to Tennessee on April 14, which is less than two weeks away. In early May I’ll be in New York for a few days (no longer than that as my mother is coming from H.K.). So plan on visiting in June or maybe middle of May. By then I should be back in form. Take care.” In very good to fine condition, with areas of toning, haloing to the last line, and some ink offsetting to the lower portion. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope, addressed in the hand of Bruce Lee. The ailment from which Lee was recovering has not been identified; it appears to predate the serious back injury that his estate’s official biography dates to 1970. Lee’s Tennessee trip coincided with his work on A Walk in the Spring Rain, a Columbia Pictures drama directed by Guy Green and written and produced by Stirling Silliphant, one of Lee’s private students. Lee choreographed the film’s climactic fight between Anthony Quinn and Tom Fielding and worked on location in Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, and Knoxville from April 16 to 24, 1969. Robert Baker is best known for portraying the Russian villain Petrov in the 1972 movie Fist of Fury, a role he landed thanks to Lee, his Jeet Kune Do instructor, who hand-picked Baker to play the character due to his height and ‘tough guy’ appearance.