The true story of how an imposter duped classmates and staff before securing a place at Dundee’s medical school is told in a new documentary starring Alan Cumming. Michael Alexander speaks to the director.
When 16-year-old Brandon Lee enrolled at Glasgow’s Bearsden Academy in 1993, teachers urged pupils to be nice to him because he’d experienced considerable tragedy in life.
Brandon had been privately tutored in Canada while he accompanied his mother, an opera diva, on tour before her tragic death in a car crash, which left him needing facial reconstruction.
Brandon’s father, who was a professor of zoology in London, arranged for his son to stay with his grandmother in Bearsden.
Despite the trauma, the preternaturally bright student surprised teachers by blazing toward his goal of entering medical school, displaying a wealth of knowledge beyond his years.
Notable for his big curly hair, glasses, and a monotone North American accent, Brandon found friends despite his initial awkwardness.
He took bullied students under his wing, introduced classmates to seminal retro bands, and even starred in the school’s production of South Pacific.
Walter Mitty character
But two years later, after achieving five A-grade Highers and being accepted into Dundee University’s medical school, Brandon’s unbelievable Walter Mitty secret was revealed.
The ‘teenager’ Brandon Lee was actually a 32-year-old man – real name Brian MacKinnon – who first left Bearsden Academy in 1980 to begin a medical course at Glasgow University before being forced to leave in 1983 when he twice failed his exams.
MacKinnon, then 30, assumed a new identity in 1993 as teenager Brandon Lee, going back to re-sit his Highers at his old Glasgow school.
The hoaxer chose the name of the then recently deceased son of the martial arts expert and world-famous movie star Bruce Lee, and adopted a Canadian accent to avoid being spotted by his former teachers.
A teacher even decided the accent would be perfect for the role of Joe Cable in the school’s production of the musical South Pacific, putting him centre stage.
After achieving the required grades, he was accepted to study medicine at Dundee University.
Cover was blown
However, after starting the course, he ran out of luck after his true identity was revealed.
He was kicked out of Dundee University in September 1995.
As tabloid journalists descended on Bearsden, the story went global and MacKinnon became the media’s most wanted man.
He told reporters at the time he had simply wanted to go back to medicine and get a degree before deciding on his future.
Classmates interviewed in new film
Now, for the first time, the stories of classmates and teachers who were duped by the bogus pupil are being told in a new documentary released in cinemas this weekend called My Old School.
It’s directed by Jono McLeod who is also a former pupil of Bearsden Academy and who was in ‘Brandon Lee’s’ 5C registration class in 1993.
The film, which is Jono’s first feature-length documentary, features around 30 interviews with former teachers and pupils.
Each tells parts of the story from their perspective, with Jono piecing them together to give a fresh slant.
However, Jono says this version is very different to the story that was revealed at the time.
Recalling how Brandon was regarded as the “cleverest of the clever and the top of the top” when he arrived, Jono remembers how he “looked really unusual and different” to everyone else.
However, with the back story of facial disfigurement and with pupils having been raised on a diet of American film and TV shows where a lot of the teenage kids looked older – because they were played by older actors – no one suspected his true age or identity.
“We kind of thought that’s what Americans – or Canadians in Brandon’s case – looked like!” says Jono, now 45, who went on to work as a reporter with STV’s Scotland Today programme before going ‘behind the camera’ to train as a producer and director at BBC Scotland.
While a “version” of how Brandon was found out is presented in the film, Jono says it’s “not the definitive truth of the Brandon Lee story”.
While Brandon did grant an interview for the documentary, it was on condition it was off camera.
His reason for being coy was he felt he had been “given such a rough ride by the press back in the day”.
Jono said MacKinnon had published multiple memoirs and did the chat show circuit in the 1990s.
He even sold the movie rights for a film that never happened that Tayside-raised superstar Alan Cumming was going to star in and direct.
What is MacKinnon doing now?
MacKinnon is now said to be working with a big production company to make a sit com based on his story.
However, Jono says confusion over what actually went on back then is because the person who’s been telling the story over and over again was the man himself.
“I’m not hugely big on explaining how he was found out,” he adds.
“What’s difficult in a story like this about a number of lies is it’s impossible to get to the actual truth of what happened.
“What this film is, it’s 30 classmates and teachers finally getting together to finally piece together a jigsaw, to try and get as close as possible to what on earth happened.
“This is the first time the rest of us have all got together and presented our version of events.
“Because back in the day when the tabloids descended on Bearsden, for the most part everyone hunkered down and didn’t speak.
“Partly, for the teachers, this was through embarrassment, and as kids we were scattered – all at university and stuff.”
Use of animation
Made with an American audience in mind, My Old School enjoyed its world premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.
When this went online due to omicron, the first in-person screening was appropriately the Glasgow Film Festival in March when Jono and his classmates found themselves “surreally” reunited on the red carpet alongside the film’s celebrity stars.
Alan Cumming stars as Brandon Lee/Brian MacKinnon – playing him in the present day.
Alan lip-syncs sections of a five-hour-long interview that Jono conducted with MacKinnon.
When Alan is seen on-screen, viewers hear MacKinnon’s voice. Jono could think of no one better to take on the role.
Knowing that he needed a really simple way to tell a complicated “ultimate high school story”, Jono used animation to cover the flashback scenes.
The cartoons, created by Wild Child Animation of Stirling, have a nod to the 1990s and are drawn in the style of Daria – one of the iconic MTV animated sitcoms of that era.
Lulu and Clare Grogan
Lulu features in the film as the depute head mistress – also singing the title track Steely Dan’s My Old School.
It’s her second foray into the genre of high school movies following her involvement in To Sir With Love, for which her title song reached number one in the United States.
Clare Grogan is also involved as the English teacher having also played a lead role in one of Scotland’s iconic school movies – Gregory’s Girl.
Meanwhile, Dawn Steele, Gary Lamont, and Joe McFadden are among the other voices to feature.
Reflecting on what happened in 1993, it’s clear MacKinnon wouldn’t have got away with it for so long in a world of social media.
The case also led to a tightening of how people are enrolled in schools.
Despite the controversies, however, Jono feels that having got to know MacKinnon the best he could in the run up to his interview, he would describe him as a “really affable guy” who is “nice to spend time with”.
While the film holds him to account on decisions he made, there’s a degree of sympathy towards why he did what he did – and this is even reflected in the comments of the former pupils and teachers who agreed to take part.
“He’s a super intelligent guy,” says Jono.
“He did high school twice and got straight As both times. Then he got into medical school twice.
“Clearly he operates at a really high level of intelligence.
“It’s quite hard to connect with someone like that when you are someone like me who has bog standard chat.
“I think there’s just some people out there who are wired differently to the rest of us.
“It’s hard to think of anyone who’s done anything as iconic as the Brandon Lee story.”
*My Old School is now on general UK cinema release. Courier Country cinemas due to show the film include Birks, Aberfeldy; DCA, Dundee; Perth Playhouse, Perth, and NPH Cinema, St Andrews.
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