In the 1960s, a failed TV series helped Bruce Lee land his now-famous Kato role in The Green Hornet. Similar to Batman, The Green Hornet was a superhero TV series that centered on the crime fighting activities of two costumed vigilantes. The show, which only lasted for one season, aired on ABC from 1966 to 1967.
Years before Bruce Lee was making waves in Hong Kong as the star of kung fu movies like The Big Boss and Fist of Fury, the actor co-starred in The Green Hornet alongside Van Williams, who played the title character. Bruce Lee was Kato, his chauffer and sidekick in his superhero adventures. Unlike Batman and Robin, Green Hornet and Kato didn’t maintain heroic reputations. What set them apart from the Dynamic Duo was that they pretended to be villains, which meant that they were often pursued by law enforcement.
The story of how Lee was cast as Kato began after a martial arts tournament in California that was held in 1964. One of the people who watched the tournament was his friend Jay Sebring, a well-known celebrity hairstylist. When Sebring told television producer William Dozier about Lee’s performance, Dozier viewed some of the tournament footage and subsequently arranged for Lee to do a screen test. He was interested in Lee because he was looking for a suitable actor to play the lead role in Number One Son, a TV series about the son of Charlie Chan, a popular detective who served as the main protagonist in a number of mystery novels. However, the plan for Number One Son didn’t move forward and the series was scrapped.
Though the Number One Son show ultimately didn’t happen, William Dozier was still impressed with Lee’s screen test and was willing to find something else to do with him. A path for Lee opened up via The Green Hornet, a show which ABC created to build off the success of Batman. Dozier approached Lee about playing Kato, and at first the actor was hesitant to take the role, but in the end, he accepted the part.
Though of course not as iconic as Way of the Dragon or Enter the Dragon, Kato remains an essential part of Bruce Lee’s legacy and is the primary reason why The Green Hornet is now a cult classic. It was the first project where he was able to really showcase his kung fu skills. And while it didn’t make him a star right away, it did pave the way for him to become one. The Green Hornet wasn’t all that successful in the United States, but his Kato character caused the show to become quite popular in Hong Kong. Thanks to this, Bruce Lee was discovered by kung fu movie studio Golden Harvest, who launched his martial arts movie career by casting him in the The Big Boss.