Jackie Chan

Jackie Chan is one of my favorite universal actor. He is blessed with some rare talents to entertain people. Though his films are categorized as action films , they are least violent and more funny.

Jackie Chan was born in Victoria Peak, Hong Kong to Charles and Lee-Lee Chan, on 7 April 1954. He is an actor, action choreographer, film director, producer, martial artist, comedian, screenwriter, entrepreneur, singer and stunt performer from Hong Kong. Chan is one of the best-known names worldwide in the areas of kung fu and action films.

In his films, he is known for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, use of improvised weapons and innovative stunts. Jackie Chan has been acting since the 1970s and has appeared in over 100 films. Chan has received stars on the Hong Kong Avenue of Stars and the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In the early 1970s Chan commenced his movie career and interestingly he appeared in very minor roles in two films starring then rising martial arts superstar Bruce Lee, Jing wu men (1972) aka "Fist of Fury" aka "The Chinese Connection" and the Warner Bros. production Enter the Dragon (1973). Not long after Lee's untimely death, Chan was often cast in films cashing in on the success of Bruce Lee by utilizing words like "fist", "fury" or "dragon" in their US release titles.

Over the next few years, Jackie worked as a stunt man, but when the Hong Kong movie industry began to fail, he was forced to go to Australia to live with his parents. He worked in a restaurant and on a construction site. It was there that he got the name "Jackie." A worker named Jack had trouble pronouncing "Kong-sang" and started calling Jackie "little Jack." That soon became “Jackie” and the name stuck. The construction work was difficult and boring.

His salvation came in the form of a telegram from a man named Willie Chan. Willie Chan worked in the Hong Kong movie industry and was looking for someone to star in a new movie being made by Lo Wei, a famous Hong Kong producer/director. Soon Jackie was on his way back to Hong Kong to star in "New Fist of Fury." It was 1976 and Jackie Chan was 21 years old. To this day Jackie is quick to point out that he owes his success to Willie.

However, the movies that Jackie made for Lo Wei were not very successful. The problem was that Jackie's talents were not being used properly. It was only when Jackie was able to contribute his own ideas that he became a star. He brought humor to martial arts movies; his first success was "Snake in Eagle's Shadow." This was followed by "Drunken Master" and Jackie's first ever directing job, "Fearless Hyena." All were big hits. Jackie was becoming a huge success in Asia.

Unfortunately, it would be many years before the same could be said of his popularity in America. After a series of lukewarm receptions in the U.S., mostly due to miscasting, Jackie left the States and focused his attention on making movies in Hong Kong. It would be 10 years before he returned to make Rumble in the Bronx, the movie that introduced Jackie to American audiences and secured him a place in their hearts and their box office. Rumble was followed by the Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon series which put Jackie on the Hollywood A List.

Jackie's lifelong devotion to fitness has served him well as he continues to do stunt work and action sequences in his films. In recent years, Jackie's focus has shifted and he is trying new genres of film – fantasy, drama, romance – and is spending more and more time on his charity work. He takes his work as Ambassador for UNICEF/UNAIDS very seriously and spends all his spare time working tirelessly for children, the elderly, and those in need.

He continues to make films in Hong Kong, including the blockbuster drama New Police Story in 2004. Jackie has been married to Lin Feng-Jiao since 1982 and has a son, actor-singer Jaycee Chan. To learn more about Jackie you can read his biography, I Am Jackie Chan.