Jackie Chan, SBS, MBE[1] (born Chan Kong Sang, 陳港生; 7 April 1954) is a Hong Kong[2] actor, action choreographer, filmmaker, comedian, 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 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. As a cultural icon, Chan has been referenced in various pop songs, cartoons and video games. 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.
Early life
Chan was born in 1954 in Victoria Peak, in the former Crown colony of Hong Kong, as Chan Kong Sang (meaning "born in Hong Kong") to Charles and Lee-Lee Chan, refugees from the Chinese Civil War. He was nicknamed Pao Pao (Chinese: 炮炮, literally meaning "Cannonball") because he was such a big baby, weighing 12 pounds, or about 5,400 grammes.[3] Since his parents worked for the French Consul to Hong Kong, Chan spent his formative years within the grounds of the consul's residence in the Victoria Peak district.[4]
Chan attended the Nah-Hwa Primary School on Hong Kong Island, where he failed his first year, after which his parents withdrew him from the school. In 1960, his father immigrated to Canberra, Australia, to work as head cook for the American embassy, and Chan was sent to the China Drama Academy, a Peking Opera School run by Master Yu Jim Yuen.[4][5] Chan trained rigorously for the next decade, excelling in martial arts and acrobatics.[6] He eventually became part of the Seven Little Fortunes, a performance group made up of the school's best students, gaining the stage name Yuen Lo in homage to his master. Chan became close friends with fellow group members Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, the three of them later to be known as the Three Brothers or Three Dragons.[7]
At the age of 8, he appeared with some of his fellow "Little Fortunes", in the film Big and Little Wong Tin Bar (1962), with Li Li Hua playing his mother. Chan appeared with Li again the following year, in The Love Eterne (1963) and had a small role in King Hu's 1966 film, Come Drink with Me.[8] In 1971, after an appearance as an extra in another Kong Fu film, A Touch of Zen, Chan began his adult career in the film industry, initially signing to Chu Mu's Great Earth Film Company.[9] At the age of 17, he worked as a stuntman in the Bruce Lee films Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon under the stage name Chen Yuen Long.[10] He received his first starring role later that year, in Little Tiger of Canton, which had a limited release in Hong Kong in 1973.[11] Due to the commercial failures in his early ventures into films and trouble finding stunt work, in 1975 Chan starred in a comedic adult film, All in the Family, the only film he has made to date that did not feature a single fight scene or stunt sequence.[12]
Chan joined his parents in Canberra in 1976, where he briefly attended Dickson College and worked as a construction worker.[13] A fellow builder named Jack took Chan under his wing, earning Chan the nickname of "Little Jack" which was later shortened to "Jackie" and the name Jackie Chan stuck with him ever since.[14] In addition, in the late 90s, Chan changed his Chinese name to Fong Si Lung, since his father's original surname was Fong.[14]
Film career
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.[9] His stage name was changed to Sing Lung (Chinese: 成龍, 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.[15]
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.[16] 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.[17] Chan then starred in Drunken Master, which finally propelled him to mainstream success.[18]
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.[14] 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.[19]
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.[15]
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.
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 won the Best Action Design Award at the third annual Hong Kong Film Awards.[20] Over the following two years, the "Three Brothers" appeared in Wheels on Meals and the original Lucky Stars trilogy.[21][22] In 1985, Chan made the first Police Story film, a US-influenced action comedy in which Chan performed his own stunts. It was named the "Best Movie" at the 1986 Hong Kong Film Awards.[23] 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 to date, grossing over HK $35 million.[24]
In 1988 Chan starred alongside Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao for the last time to date, in the film Dragons Forever. Hung co-directed with Corey Yuen, and the villain in the film was played by Yuen Wah, both of whom were fellow graduates of the China Drama Academy.
In the late 1980s and early 90s, Chan starred in a number of successful sequels beginning with Police Story 2, which won the award for Best Action Choreography at the 1989 Hong Kong Film Awards. This was followed by Armour of God II: Operation Condor, and Police Story 3, for which Chan won the Best Actor Award at the 1993 Golden Horse Film Festival. In 1994, Chan reprised his role as Wong Fei Hung in Drunken Master II, which was listed in Time Magazine's All-Time 100 Movies.[25] Another sequel, Police Story 4: First Strike, brought more awards and domestic box office success for Chan, but did not fare as well in foreign markets.[26] Jackie Chan rekindled his Hollywood ambitions in the 1990s, but refused early offers to play villains in Hollywood films to avoid being typecast in future roles. For example, Sylvester Stallone offered him the role of Simon Phoenix, a criminal in the futuristic film Demolition Man. Chan declined and the role was taken by Wesley Snipes.[27]
Chan finally succeeded in establishing a foothold in the North American market in 1995 with a worldwide release of Rumble in the Bronx, attaining a cult following in the United States that was rare for Hong Kong movie stars.[28] The success of Rumble in the Bronx led to a 1996 release of Police Story 3 in the United States under the title Supercop, which grossed a total of US $16,270,600. Jackie's first huge blockbuster success came when he co-starred with Chris Tucker in the 1998 buddy cop action comedy Rush Hour,[29] grossing US$130 million in the United States alone.[19] This film made a star of Jackie Chan, in Hollywood. As a publicity stunt, Jackie also wrote his autobiography in collaboration with Jeff Yang entitled I Am Jackie Chan.
In 1998, Chan released his final film for Golden Harvest, Who Am I? After leaving Golden Harvest in 1999, he produced Gorgeous, a romantic comedy that focused on personal relationships.[30] Chan then helped create a PlayStation game in 2000 called Jackie Chan Stuntmaster, to which he lent his voice and performed the motion capture.[31]
Despite further success with Shanghai Noon in 2000, Rush Hour 2 in 2001 and Shanghai Knights in 2003, Chan became frustrated with Hollywood over the limited range of roles and lack of control over the film-making process.[32] 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).[19] 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).[33][34][35]
Chan's next release was Rush Hour 3 in August 2007. It grossed US$255 million.[36] However, it performed poorly in Hong Kong, grossing only HK$3.5 million during its opening weekend.[37] The filming of The Forbidden Kingdom, Chan's first onscreen collaboration with fellow Chinese actor Jet Li, was completed on 24 August 2007 and the film was released in April 2008.[38][39] 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.[40] In addition, he has signed up to assist Anthony Szeto in an advisory capacity for the writer-director's upcoming film Wushu, which is currently in pre-production. The film will star Sammo Hung and Wang Wenjie as father and son.[41]
In November 2007, Chan began filming Shinjuku Incident with director Derek Yee, which sees Chan take on the role of a Chinese immigrant in Japan.[42] The film was released on 2 April 2009. According to his blog, Chan wishes to direct a film after completing Shinjuku Incident, something he has not done for a number of years.[43] 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.[44] Because the Screen Actors Guild did not go on strike, Chan started shooting his next movie The Spy Next Door at the end of October in New Mexico,[45] leaving the status of Armour of God III: Chinese Zodiac up in the air. In The Spy Next Door, Chan plays an undercover agent whose cover is blown when he looks after the children of his girlfriend.
On 22 June 2009, Chan left Los Angeles to begin filming The Karate Kid, a remake of the original in Beijing. [46]
Music career
Jackie Chan had vocal lessons whilst at the Peking Opera School in his childhood. He began producing records professionally in the 1980s and has gone on to become a successful singer in Hong Kong and Asia. He has released 20 albums since 1984 and has performed vocals in Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Taiwanese and English. He often sings the theme songs of his films, which play over the closing credits. Chan's first musical recording was "Kung Fu Fighting Man", the theme song played over the closing credits of The Young Master (1980).[62] At least 10 of these recordings have been released on soundtrack albums for the films.[56][63] His cantonese song Story of a Hero (英雄故事) (theme song of Police Story) was selected by the Royal Hong Kong Police and incorporated into their recruitment advertisement in 1994.[64]
Chan voiced the character of Shang in the Chinese release of the Walt Disney animated feature, Mulan (1998). He also performed the song "I'll Make a Man Out of You", for the film's soundtrack. For the US release, the speaking voice was performed by B.D. Wong and the singing voice was done by Donny Osmond.
In 2007, Chan recorded and released the song "We Are Ready", the official one-year countdown song to the 2008 Summer Olympics. He performed the song at a ceremony marking the one-year countdown to the 2008 Summer Paralympics.[65]
The day before the Beijing Olympics opened, Chan released one of the two official Olympics albums, Official Album for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games - Jackie Chan's Version, which featured a number of special guest appearances.[66] Chan, along with Andy Lau, Liu Huan and Wakin (Emil) Chau, performed "Hard to Say Goodbye", the farewell song for the 2008 Summer Olympics closing ceremony.[67]
Personal life
In 1982, Jackie Chan married Lin Feng-Jiao (aka Joan Lin), a Taiwanese actress. That same year, the two had a son, singer and actor Jaycee Chan.[32]
"In a 1999 scandal, he acknowledged all but paternity of a daughter with 1990 Miss Asia Pageant winner Elaine Ng," although paparazzi had also linked Jackie to "everyone from the late Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng to sultry pop star and actress Anita Mui."[108]
He speaks Cantonese, Mandarin, and English fluently, and also speaks some Korean and Japanese, as well as a little Spanish.[109]
| Chinese name | 成龍 (Traditional) | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese name | 成龙 (Simplified) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Pinyin | Chéng Lóng (Mandarin) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Jyutping | Sing4 Lung4 (Cantonese) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Birth name | Chan Kong Sang 陳港生 (Traditional) 陈港生 (Simplified) Chén Gǎng Shēng (Mandarin) Can4 Gong5 Sang1 (Cantonese) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Ancestry | Linzi, Shandong, China | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Origin | Hong Kong | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 7 April 1954 Victoria Peak, Hong Kong | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Other name(s) | 房仕龍 (Fong Si Lung) 元樓 (Yuen Lou) 大哥 (Big Brother) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Actor, director, producer, action choreographer, singer | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Genre(s) | Cantopop Mandopop Hong Kong English pop J-pop | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Years active | 1962–present | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse(s) | Lin Feng-Jiao (1982–present) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Children | Jaycee Chan (born 1982) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Parents | Charles and Lee-Lee Chan | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Influences | Bruce Lee Buster Keaton Harold Lloyd Jim Donahue Chuck Norris | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Official Website | www.jackiechan.com | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
(Wikipedia)
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