Bird Of Ill Omen

ACTOR BRANDON LEE HAD HOPED TO RIDE THE CROW, his third significant Hollywood film, to stardom. Instead it was a bird of ill omen. A storm destroyed sets; a carpenter was nearly electrocuted. Then during Wednesday's filming, a gun that should have shot blanks apparently fired something that passed through Lee's abdomen and lodged next to his spine, killing him. "I don't know how it got in ((the gun))," said The Crow's executive producer of the projectile, later identified as a .44-cal. bullet.

Lee, 28, who was to be married in April, was the son of martial-arts cult hero Bruce Lee, many of whose fans smelled mystery in his own sudden death from brain swelling in 1973. There may be solid ground for speculation about his son's demise.