Jan 7, 2009, 14:45 GMT
Hong Kong - Action star Bruce Lee's last home has been given to the Hong Kong government to turn into a museum and memorial to the kung fu star, a news report said Wednesday.
Philanthropist and property developer Yu Panglin has agreed to donate the property after a year of talks over the home worth an estimated 10 million US dollars, the Hong Kong Standard reported.
The home in Hong Kong's residential Kowloon Tong district, which the actor affectionately called the Crane's Nest, is now expected to be developed into a major tourist attraction for the city, possibly including a library and fan shop.
Currently, to the chagrin of Bruce Lee fans, the building is a 'love hotel' where rooms are rented at hourly rates, in most cases to couples engaged in illicit affairs or men hiring prostitutes.
Lee - star of films including Fists of Fury and Enter the Dragon - lived with his wife Linda Lee-Cadwell in the house in the years before his sudden death at the age of 32.
He was at the height of his fame when he died in mysterious circumstances at the home of a young actress friend in another part of Hong Kong.
Conservative officials in the former British colony have been consistently reluctant to commemorate the city's most famous star, apparently wary of his hell-raising, womanizing reputation.
Since Yu announced last year he was considering donated the house, however, the Hong Kong government's Tourism Commission has been studying overseas examples for museums such as the Beatles Story in Liverpool and Elvis Presley's Graceland mansion in the US.
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