Jackie Chan (born
Chan Kong sang,
陳港生; 7 April 1954) is a
Hong Kong actor,
action choreographer, filmmaker, comedian, director, producer,
martial artist, screenwriter, entrepreneur, singer and
stunt performer.
In his movies, he is known for his
acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, use of improvised weapons, and innovative
stunts. Jackie Chan has been acting since the 1960s and has appeared in over 100 films. Chan has received stars on the
Hong Kong Avenue of Stars and the
Hollywood Walk of Fame.
As a
cultural icon, Chan has been referenced in various pop songs,
cartoons, and video games. An
operatically trained vocalist, Chan is also a
Cantopop and
Mandopop star, having released a number of albums and sung many of the
theme songs for the films in which he has starred.
In 1976, Jackie Chan received a telegram from Willie Chan, a film producer in the Hong Kong film industry who had been impressed with Jackie's stuntwork. Willie Chan offered him an acting role in a film directed by
Lo Wei. Lo had seen Chan's performance in the
John Woo film
Hand of Death (1976) and planned to model him after
Bruce Lee with the film
New Fist of Fury.
[10] His stage name was changed to Sing Lung (
Chinese:
成龍, also transcribed as Cheng Long,
[16] literally "become the dragon") to emphasise his similarity to Bruce Lee, whose stage name was Lei Siu-lung (
Chinese:
李小龍, meaning "Little Dragon"). The film was unsuccessful because Chan was not accustomed to Lee's martial arts style. Despite the film's failure, Lo Wei continued producing films with similar themes, resulting in little improvement at the box office.
Chan's first major breakthrough was the 1978 film
Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, shot while he was loaned to Seasonal Film Corporation under a two-picture deal.
Under director
Yuen Woo-ping, Chan was allowed complete freedom over his stunt work. The film established the comedic kung fu genre, and proved to be a breath of fresh air for the Hong Kong audience.Chan then starred in
Drunken Master, which finally propelled him to mainstream success.
Upon Chan's return to Lo Wei's studio, Lo tried to replicate the comedic approach of
Drunken Master, producing
Half a Loaf of Kung Fu and
Spiritual Kung Fu. He also gave Chan the opportunity to co-direct
The Fearless Hyena with
Kenneth Tsang. When Willie Chan left the company, he advised Jackie to decide for himself whether or not to stay with Lo Wei. During the shooting of
Fearless Hyena Part II, Chan broke his contract and joined
Golden Harvest, prompting Lo to blackmail Chan with
triads, blaming Willie for his star's departure. The dispute was resolved with the help of fellow actor and director
Jimmy Wang Yu, allowing Chan to stay with Golden Harvest.
Willie Chan had become Jackie's personal manager and firm friend, and has remained so for over 30 years. He was instrumental in launching Chan's international career, beginning with his first forays into the
American film industry in the 1980s. His first Hollywood film was
Battle Creek Brawl in 1980. Chan then played a minor role in the 1981 film
The Cannonball Run, which grossed US$100 million worldwide. Despite being largely ignored by audiences in favour of established American actors like
Burt Reynolds, Chan was impressed by the
outtakes shown at the
closing credits, inspiring him to include the same device in his future films.
After the commercial failure of
The Protector in 1985, Chan temporarily abandoned his attempts to break into the US market, returning his focus to
Hong Kong films.
Back in Hong Kong, Chan's films began to reach a larger audience in East Asia, with early successes in the lucrative Japanese market including
The Young Master (1980) and
Dragon Lord (1982).
The Young Master went on to beat previous box office records set by
Bruce Lee and established Chan as Hong Kong cinema's top star. With
Dragon Lord, he began experimenting with elaborate
stunt action sequences,including a pyramid fight scene that holds the record for the most
takes for a single scene with 2900 takes, and the final fight scene where he performs various stunts, including one where he does a back flip off a
loft and falls to the lower ground.
Chan produced a number of action comedy films with his opera school friends Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. The three co-starred together for the first time in 1983 in
Project A, which introduced a dangerous stunt-driven style of martial arts that won it the Best Action Design Award at the third annual
Hong Kong Film Awards. Over the following two years, the "Three Brothers" appeared in
Wheels on Meals and the original
Lucky Stars trilogy.
In 1985, Chan made the first
Police Story film, a US-influenced action comedy in which Chan performed a number of dangerous stunts. It was named the "
Best Film" at the
1986 Hong Kong Film Awards.
[28] In 1987, Chan played "Asian Hawk," an
Indiana Jones-esque character, in the film
Armour of God. The film was Chan's biggest domestic box office success up to that point, grossing over HK $35 million.
In 1998, Chan released his final film for Golden Harvest,
Who Am I? After leaving Golden Harvest in 1999, he produced and starred alongside
Shu Qi in
Gorgeous a romantic comedy that focused on personal relationships and featured only a few martial arts sequences. Chan then helped create a
PlayStation game in 2000 called
Jackie Chan Stuntmaster, to which he lent his voice and performed the motion capture. He continued his Hollywood success in 2000 when he teamed up with
Owen Wilson in the
Western action comedy
Shanghai Noon which was also a box office success and spawned the sequel
Shanghai Knights (2003). He reunited with Chris Tucker for
Rush Hour 2 (2001) which was an even bigger success than the original and experimented with special effects with
The Tuxedo (2002) and
The Medallion (2003). Despite the success of these films Chan became frustrated with Hollywood over the limited range of roles and lack of control over the film-making process. In response to Golden Harvest's withdrawal from the film industry in 2003, Chan started his own film production company,
JCE Movies Limited (Jackie Chan Emperor Movies Limited) in association with
Emperor Multimedia Group (EMG). His films have since featured an increasing number of dramatic scenes while continuing to succeed at the box office; examples include
New Police Story (2004),
The Myth (2005) and the hit film
Rob-B-Hood (2006).
Chan's next release was the third installment in the
Rush Hour series:
Rush Hour 3 in August 2007. It grossed US$255 million.
However, it performed poorly in Hong Kong, grossing only HK$3.5 million during its opening weekend.
As Chan had stated years before, there would be a point in his life in which he would have to be modernized and use special effects, and try new different things than martial arts flicks. This began in 2007, with the filming of
The Forbidden Kingdom (released in 2008), Chan's first onscreen collaboration with fellow Chinese actor
Jet Li, which was completed on 24 August 2007 and the film was released in April 2008. The film featured heavy use of effects and wires. Chan voiced the character Master Monkey in the
DreamWorks Animation film,
Kung Fu Panda, released in June 2008, appearing with stars
Jack Black,
Dustin Hoffman and
Angelina Jolie.
In addition, he has assisted Anthony Szeto in an advisory capacity for the writer-director's film
Wushu, released on 1 May 2008. The film stars
Sammo Hung and Wang Wenjie as father and son.
In November 2007, Chan began filming
Shinjuku Incident, a dramatic role featuring no martial arts sequences with director
Derek Yee, which sees Chan take on the role of a Chinese immigrant in Japan.The film was released on 2 April 2009. According to his blog, Chan discussed his wishes to direct a film after completing
Shinjuku Incident, something he has not done for a number of years.The film is expected to be the third in the Armour of God series, and has a working title of
Armour of God III: Chinese Zodiac. Chan originally stated that he would start filming on 1 April 2008, but that date had passed and the current state of the film is unknown.
Because the Screen Actors Guild did not go on strike, Chan started shooting his next Hollywood movie
The Spy Next Door at the end of October in
New Mexico.
[50] In
The Spy Next Door, Chan plays an undercover agent whose cover is blown when he looks after the children of his girlfriend; Chan most likely did the film to appeal to his younger audience in America. In
Little Big Soldier, Chan stars, alongside
Leehom Wang in a non-martial arts comedy movie based on the
Warring States Period.
On 22 June 2009, Chan left Los Angeles to begin filming
The Karate Kid, a remake of
the 1984 original, in Beijing.
The film was released in America on 11 June 2010 and sees Chan's first dramatic American film. In the film, he plays Mr. Han, a kung fu master and maintenance man who teaches
Jaden Smith's character, Dre, kung-fu so he can defend himself from school bullies. In Chan's next movie,
Shaolin, he plays the cook of the temple instead of one of the major characters.
Jackie Chan's 100th film
1911 will be released in 26 September 2011. He is both the co-director and star of the movie.
Jackie Chan wins Favorite Buttkicker award at the Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice Awards in 2011 for
The Karate Kid.
Until recently,
Jackie Chan performed all of his own stunts, which are choreographed by the
Jackie Chan Stunt Team. He has stated in interviews that the primary inspiration for his more comedic stunts were films such as
The General directed by and starring
Buster Keaton, who was also known to perform his own stunts. Since its establishment in 1983, Chan has used the team in all his subsequent films to make choreographing easier, given his understanding of each member's abilities.
Chan and his team undertake many of the stunts performed by other characters in his films, shooting the scenes so that their faces are obscured.
The dangerous nature of his stunts makes it difficult for Chan to get insurance, especially in the United States, where his stunt work is contractually limited.
Chan holds the
Guinness World Record for "Most Stunts By A Living Actor", which emphasizes "no insurance company will underwrite Chan's productions, in which he performs all his own stunts".
In addition, he holds an unrecognised record for the most number of takes for a single shot in a film, having shot over 2900 retakes for a complex scene involving a
Jianzi game in
Dragon Lord.
Chan has been injured numerous times attempting stunts; many of them have been shown as outtakes or as
bloopers during the closing credits of his films. He came closest to death filming
Armour of God, when he fell from a tree and fractured his skull. Over the years, Chan has dislocated his pelvis and broken his fingers, toes, nose, both cheekbones, hips, sternum, neck, ankle and ribs on numerous occasions.
Promotional materials for
Rumble in the Bronx emphasized that Chan performed all of the stunts, and one version of the movie poster even diagrammed his many injuries.
Until recently,
Jackie Chan performed all of his own stunts, which are choreographed by the
Jackie Chan Stunt Team. He has stated in interviews that the primary inspiration for his more comedic stunts were films such as
The General directed by and starring
Buster Keaton, who was also known to perform his own stunts. Since its establishment in 1983, Chan has used the team in all his subsequent films to make choreographing easier, given his understanding of each member's abilities.
Chan and his team undertake many of the stunts performed by other characters in his films, shooting the scenes so that their faces are obscured.
The dangerous nature of his stunts makes it difficult for Chan to get insurance, especially in the United States, where his stunt work is contractually limited.
Chan holds the
Guinness World Record for "Most Stunts By A Living Actor", which emphasizes "no insurance company will underwrite Chan's productions, in which he performs all his own stunts".
In addition, he holds an unrecognised record for the most number of takes for a single shot in a film, having shot over 2900 retakes for a complex scene involving a
Jianzi game in
Dragon Lord.
Chan has been injured numerous times attempting stunts; many of them have been shown as outtakes or as
bloopers during the closing credits of his films. He came closest to death filming
Armour of God, when he fell from a tree and fractured his skull. Over the years, Chan has dislocated his pelvis and broken his fingers, toes, nose, both cheekbones, hips, sternum, neck, ankle and ribs on numerous occasions.
Promotional materials for
Rumble in the Bronx emphasized that Chan performed all of the stunts, and one version of the movie poster even diagrammed his many injuries.
Death hoax
Yesterday, early 150,000 Jackie Chan fans have “liked” a page memorializing the action film star… despite the fact Jackie Chan is, in fact, alive and well.
The page, originally called
“Jackie Chan R.I.P 08/17/2011″ and now just called “Jackie Chan R.I.P” (perhaps for the next time “Jackie Chan dead” becomes a Twitter trending topic?) has been instrumental in pushing forward this incarnation of the Jackie Chan death hoax. For some reason, Chan can’t stay alive in the internet death hoax rumor mill this year. In March, news of his death spread virally on Twitter, and fans of the
Rush Hour star poured out condolences until it became apparent
Chan had not died of a heart attack as the rumor claimed.
While the number of Facebook likes on the Jackie Chan death hoax page may seem like a lot, compare it to the actual Jackie Chan fan page, which has 20,161,490 likes. (Chan actually owns the Facebook page for simply “Jackie,” like “Madonna,” or “Cher.”) Were there any official news on Jackie Chan’s health or significant injury, it would certainly turn up on Jackie Chan’s official page rather than some fly by night page that won’t allow access to its wall- a wall that’s probably covered in messages that insist Chan has not died.
38,000+ people have “liked” Chan’s most recent quote on the page, in which he says:
”When I work I do it from my heart, and my heart is that I bring love to the world. When I travel around the world I bring my love. I bring so much love in my heart. I hope you can feel that.”
- Jackie
