Did you know Roman Polanksi once suspected Bruce Lee of murdering his wife & actress Sharon Tate?

The gruesome 1969 'Tate Murders' at the hands of the Manson Family has evolved as a most bizarre pop-culture event that still causes a few gasps in those who encounter it.

Bruce Lee training Tate on 'The Wreckin Crew'; (R) Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate

Quentin Tarantino's reexamining of the grisly Tate Murders in Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood ended up opening a can of worms, so to speak. On August 8/9th, 1969, Sharon Tate, a budding Hollywood actress and wife of filmmaker Roman Polanski, was one among the five people who were brutally killed by the members of the Manson Family in her Beverly Hills home. The incident went on to not only rattle the entire world for the most obvious and disturbing reasons but also left a permanent damaging impression on the psyche of Polanksi.

At the time of the murders, Roman Polanksi was in London and he would later fly down to the U.S. only to eventually grow obsessed with the crime which had remained unsolved for months after its occurrence. So much so that he suspected, in fact almost believed, that it was the martial arts/action icon Bruce Lee who committed the murders, including that of his wife Sharon Tate!

For the unversed, Bruce Lee served as Polanski's personal Kung Fu instructor in the 1960s and was also close friends with Tate, whom he had met on the sets of the 1968 film The Wrecking Crew. Lee, at this point, was yet to break into Hollywood and reportedly, it was Sharon Tate's friend and celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring who helped him make prominent strides as an actor. Sebring was one of the five victims of the Manson Family.

But the events leading to Roman Polanski's suspicion of Bruce Lee turn out to be quite bizarre. As reported by a 2019 Esquire piece, Polanski would learn of the horn-rimmed glasses that the cops had found at the Tate Murders scene. During the investigation, the authorities believed that the glasses belong to the killer and Polanski, now fixated on unravelling the mystery, did his best on his own to aid the process: in a manner of adding fuel to fire, Bruce Lee's innocuous comment would lead to the Chinatown filmmaker bottling up a most baffling conclusion that he would only address several years later, through his memoir.

During one of their martial arts sessions post the murders, Lee would mention that he had lost his glasses, causing Polanski to remember the ones found at the crime scene a few months ago. The latter would urge Lee to pick up a new pair of glasses and even personally drive him down to his optician while he silently grew suspicious of the Enter the Dragon actor as a potential killer of his wife.

"Bruce was the only person [Polanski] knew personally who had the physical skills to hurt a bunch of people at once. Bruce was the toughest guy he knew, and Bruce knew weapons."

                - Esquire magazine quotes Matthew Polly, author and biographer of Bruce Lee

However, quite fortunately, Polanski would immediately realize that his suspicions were unfounded and he desisted from sharing the idea with anyone until more than a decade later. Roman Polanksi, the French-Polish filmmaker, has said in the past that his absence on the night of the Tate Murders shall remain the greatest regret of his life.

While he does not feature in Tarantino's uncanny ode to this bustling era in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood the Pulp Fiction director turns the real-life event on its head and lends his distinct edge to history. The 2019 film provided a vibrant view of the Hollywood setup of the 1960s through a collection of characters including the highly effervescent, nearly washed-out Hollywood star Rick Dalton (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), his stunt double and 'man Friday' Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), and the fictionalized version of the former movie star Sharon Tate, essayed by a delightful Margot Robbie. Among the many facets, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood utilized the frightful Tate Murders as one of its main plot devices which comprised many real-life characters of the Manson Family and martial arts/action icon Bruce Lee.

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