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Revision as of 09:44, 21 November 2006 by Ryulong (talk | contribs) (JS: Reverted edits by Chaotaoquan to last version by Kungming2)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)| Jackie Chan 成龍 | |
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| Born | 陳港生 Kong-Sang Chan |
| Other names | 房仕龍 Yuen Lo (School given name) |
| Height | 5' 8½" (1.74 m) |
| Spouse | Lin Feng-Jiao |
| Website | Jackie Chan.Com |
Chan Kong-Sang known as Jackie Chan Sing Lung SBS (born on April 7, 1954 on Victoria Peak, Hong Kong, China) is a Chinese martial artist, actor, director, script writer, film producer, singer and former stunt performer.
Chan is one of the best known names in Kung fu and action movies worldwide, known for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, and use of props including furniture and other set pieces as improvised weapons and performing many of his own stunts. Chan has appeared in over a hundred movies, and is one of the most recognizable Asian movie stars in the world. He has a star on the Avenue of Stars in Hong Kong as well as the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Chan is also a major pop star in Asia, and has released over 100 song titles in 20 albums since 1984. He sings in many different languages including English, Cantonese, Mandarin and Japanese. He also sings many of the theme songs to his films.
Biography
Jackie Chan was born in Hong Kong, (now part of People's Republic of China). Chan is the son of Lee-Lee and Charles Chan, who immigrated to Canberra, Australia in 1960 as refugees from the Chinese Civil War. Prior to leaving China, Lee-Lee and Charles had worked as a maid and butler, respectively, for the French ambassador to Hong Kong, Chan spending his formative years within the confines of the embassy. Chan's Chinese name at birth was Chan Kong-Sang, meaning "born in Hong Kong".
Before he adopted the Westernised name, "Jackie", he was known by a variety of other nicknames. As he was a heavy baby, (12 lb at birth, he claims to have spent 12 months in the womb), his mother nicknamed him "Pao Pao" (meaning "Cannonball"). Later, while studying at the Peking Opera School he was known as Yuen Lo, as a mark of respect to his master, Yu Jim-Yuen.
In his early stuntman and acting career (prior to New Fist of Fury in 1976) he was known as Chen Yueng Lung (or Chen Yuen Lung). In his autobiography Chan states that he used this name, which is close to his opera brother Sammo Hung's opera name, so that he didn't have to put his name on film's he wasn't happy with. He was thereafter known as "Jackie", named by his Australian co-workers when living in Australia in 1976-1977. Working on a building site alongside a labourer named Jack, Chan's co-workers nicknamed him "Little Jack", and later shortened this to Jackie. Because his father's family name was originally Fong and was changed only when arriving in Hong Kong, Chan's Chinese name was changed in family records years later to "Fong Si Lung". He has also been listed as "Sing Lung" (meaning "already a dragon" in an attempt to jump out of Bruce Lee's shadow), particularly in relation to his music and it may be no coincidence that his character in the film Fearless Hyena was called "Shing Lung".
Early years
Chan was educated at Nan Hua Elementary Academy, but he struggled and his parents felt he didn't fit in at the school, so they sent him to the Chinese Opera Research Institute (1961-1971) and later, due to financial difficulties, they enrolled him at the Peking Opera School. The enrollment was to last for 10 years, and while there, he was taught skills in acrobatics and kung fu under an extremely strict regime. It was here that Chan joined a number of other students who would become members of the Seven Little Fortunes (the Opera school's best students), and ultimately his Hong Kong film industry compatriots. They included Yuen Wah, Corey Yuen (Yuen Kwai) and Yuen Qiu. He also became firm friends with Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, and the three of them would later come to be known as the Three Brothers / Three Dragons.
Upon finishing at the Opera school, Chan found it difficult to find work, especially due to the declining popularity of Chinese Opera. After a brief spell living with his parents in Australia, working on building sites, Chan returned to Hong Kong. Like his fellow former students, he found work as a film stuntman on several films including Bruce Lee's Enter The Dragon, before ultimately being offered acting roles. Very early in his career, in 1975, he was in an adult film called "All in the Family". “I had to do anything I could to make a living 31 years ago, but I don't think it's a big deal, even Marlon Brando used to be exposed in his movies,” Chan said. “The porn movie at that time was more conservative than the current films,” he said. Chan got his first international success in 1978, with the film Drunken Master. The movie depicted Wong Fei Hung, played by Chan, as a young and mischievous rascal instead of the venerable Kung fu master that other films had represented him as. Together with the on-screen antics and charm of Chan and Yuen Siu Tien (also known as Simon Yuen), father of renowned martial arts choreographer Yuen Woo-ping, Drunken Master was a radical film for its time. The film was a success and led the way for other international hits.
1980s
Chan married Taiwanese actress Lin Feng-Jiao (Chinese: 林鳳嬌) in 1983 according to his autobiography, but many Asian sources state he was married on December 1, 1982. His official website states that he was married in 1982. Chan admitted on an interview with Indian Talk Show hostess, Simi Garewal that he married his wife because she got pregnant before marriage . Chan and Lin Feng-Jiao have a son, Jaycee Chan (aka Jo-Ming), who was born on December 3, 1982, although Chan's autobiography lists his son's birth year as 1984. Chan also allegedly has a daughter, Etta Ng Chok Lam (b. November 19, 1999), as a result of an affair with Elaine Ng Yi-Lei.
Between 1983 and 1985, Chan enjoyed his most prolific period of acting alongside his opera school brothers. Just after Hung and Biao had made Prodigal Son, all three appeared together in Chan's Project A and the first of Hung's original Lucky Stars trilogy, Winners and Sinners. All three films came in 1983. These were followed by Wheels on Meals in 1984, and the trio were reunited twice more for the Lucky Stars semi-sequels My Lucky Stars and Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Stars, both in 1985. Chan appeared once more with Hung in 1985, in Heart of Dragon. This was something of a golden period for Hong Kong cinema-goers, as three of the nation's most loved stars performed together on screen. In 1988, the last film to star all three together was released, Dragons Forever. Although they have expressed an interest in working together again, as a trio, it has yet to occur.
Chan is perhaps best known for performing the majority of his own stunts, which he choreographs along with his stunt team. Around the time of Project A in 1983, Chan officially formed the Jackie Chan Stunt Team, allowing him to train and work with a group of trusted martial artists and stuntmen for each of his ensuing movies. Chan stated that this makes it easier to choreograph fight scenes as he already has knowledge of his team's abilities. He and his team also undertake many of the more dangerous stunts for the other characters in his films. These are usually shot from behind or otherwise obscuring the faces so it is not obvious to the viewer. The dangerous nature of the stunts make it difficult for Chan to get insurance, particularly in the US, where his stunt work is contractually limited.
Chan holds the Guinness World Record for "Most Stunts By A Living Actor". The record notes that "no insurance company will underwrite Chan's productions, in which he performs all his own stunts". Chan has been injured several times during his stunts, and these are sometimes played amongst the bloopers shown over the closing credits of his later movies. He came closest to death while filming Armour of God (1985), when he fell from a tree in a relatively routine stunt and fractured his skull.
He may also hold the record for the most number of takes for a single shot in a film, over 2900, for a complex scene involving a shuttlecock game in the movie Dragon Lord, although this is not recognised by the Guinness World Records.
In his autobiography, Chan says he originally created his screen persona as a reaction to that of the martial artist Bruce Lee, and the numerous imitators who appeared before and after Lee's death (see "Bruceploitation"). Where Bruce Lee's characters were typically stern, morally upright heroes, Chan plays well-meaning, slightly foolish regular guys, often at the mercy of friends, girlfriends or families. However, his characters always triumph in the end.
Chans attempts to break into the American movie industry began in the 1980s, appearing in movies like Battle Creek Brawl, Cannonball Run, Cannonball Run II and The Protector in the early 1980s.
The 80s also saw Chan move away from the traditional period kung fu films to films set in a more modern era, with more spectacular stunts.
1990s
In the 1990s, as well as continuing with his successful Asian film career, Chan still wanted Hollywood success and was offered two roles that would portray him as a villain, but he declined both of them as he didn't want to risk being typecast for further Hollywood roles. His friend, Sylvester Stallone, offered him the role of the criminal, Simon Phoenix, in the futuristic film Demolition Man but when he declined the role it was instead taken by Wesley Snipes. He also chose not to play a villain in the film Lethal Weapon 4 with the role taken by Jet Li. He was approached to play the villain in Rambo IV, but turned it down since he felt a lot of children looked up to him and he wanted to be a good role model. Additionally the character was a drug dealer, and Jackie has a very personal reason for avoiding playing any character associated with drugs.
While he did attain cult popularity in the US, his break into the mainstream was Rumble in the Bronx in 1995. He has attained the box-office guarantee that has so far eluded other Hong Kong movie stars like Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh in Hollywood. He also made a successful animated series called Jackie Chan Adventures.
In 1994, MTV honoured Chan with a lifetime achievement award for his action-oriented movies, and a year later, he made his "official" debut in North America with a worldwide release of Rumble in the Bronx.
2000s
Chan continued his Hollywood success with sequels Rush Hour 2 and Shanghai Knights and in 2004 Chan returned to Hong Kong box office success with the films New Police Story, in which Chan plays a troubled police officer, The Myth where we see Chan as a modern archaeologist who has dreamt he has been re-encarnated from an ancient Chinese Warrior and the recent release Rob-B-Hood, which stars Chan as a criminal who kidnaps a baby These are examples of Chan's growing wish to play a new style of character and to include more dramatic scenes into his films. Currently Chan is filming the next in the Rush Hour series, Rush Hour 3, which see's Chan and Tucker travelling to Paris. Then in 2007 he will be starring along side another Chinese action star, Jet Li in a film that is rumored to be based on the Chinese folk story Journey to the West. Chan also helped to create a Playstation game based on him called Jackie Chan Stuntmaster. Jackie did the voice over and motion capture for the game.
As well as many on-going projects Chan is also a keen philanthropist and has worked tirelessly to champion many charity works and causes. As a well-respected figure of the Hong Kong entertainment industry, he is often one of the leaders in such works, speaking up for conservation, against animal abuse as well as promoting disaster relief efforts for flooding in mainland China and the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. Chan helped raise thousands of US dollars, however this money was later stolen by a third party. In June, 2006, he announced that he would donate half of his assets to charity when he dies. He stated that he admired the efforts by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates to help those in need.
Filmography as Actor
Discography
In Hong Kong and across Asia Jackie Chan is a very popular and successful singer. He started professionally producing records in the 1980s. He sings in many languages including Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese and English. He also sings many of his films theme songs, but when the films are released in Britain and the U.S. the original soundtrack is replaced.
Albums
- Rob - B - Hood (OST), (2006)
- Jackie Chan Greatest Hits, (2005)
- With All One's Heart, (2002)
- The Accidental Spy (OST), (2001)
- Asian Pop Gold, (2000)
- Gorgeous (OST), (1999)
- Best of JC, (1999)
- Who Am I? (OST), (1998)
- Rush Hour (OST), (1998)
- Mulan (OST), (1998)
- Mr. Nice Guy (OST), (1997)
- Dragon's Heart, (1996)
- Thunderbolt (OST), (1995)
- Best of Movie Themes, (1995)
- Japanese Release, (1995)
- Drunken Master 2 (OST), (1994)
- First Time, (1992)
- Police Story 3 (OST), (1992)
- The Man with the Baseball Bat, (1989)
- See You Again, (1989)
- Sing Lung, (1988)
- The Best of JC, (1988)
- The Best of JC (Version 2), (1988)
- Giant Feelings, (1988)
- No Problem, (1987)
- Jackie Chan Sing Lung, (1986)
- Shangrila, (1986)
- A Boy's Life, (1985)
- Thank You, (1984)
- Love Me, (1984)
Music videos
- Supercop OST:
- What's Love Got To Do With It (Warren G Feat. Adina Howard and cameo appearance by Jackie Chan)
- Mulan Chinese OST:
- A Man Out Of You
Trivia
Skills
- While not afraid to do his own stunts, he confesses that, like many, he is afraid of needles and hates taking shots. Unlike injuries that may come from a failed stunt, with a shot he "knows that it's coming."
- Though Chan's willingness to do his own stunts was originally the trademark feature of his movies, he has sustained various injuries over the years which render him incapable of performing certain stunts. He tries to avoid stunts where he may suffer severe head trauma due to a near fatal incident that occurred while shooting Armour of God. He has also broken his left ankle so many times, he can no longer rely on it while pushing for a jump and must use his right foot instead. Over the years, he has been forced to use body doubles on various occasions. He has also broken his fingers, toes, nose and ribs on numerous occasions while filming.
- His final fight with Benny Urquidez in Wheels on Meals is considered to be one of the finest fights of the movie genre.
- He knows Kung Fu, and has trained under GrandMaster Leung Ting in Wing Tsun, as well as numerous other masters in Tong Long (Mantis), Bak Mei (White Eyebrow), as well as the traditional northern Shaolin Kung Fu he learned in opera school. Jackie has also learned numerous other styles of martial arts to help his screen fighting, including Hapkido, Boxing, Judo, Taekwondo and Hei Long (Under Master G.J. Torres). Jackie's personal style is said to be a mixture of Boxing, Wing Chun, Hapkido and Judo. He stated that some of his martial arts training has been attributed to Jin Pal Kim, a Korean hapkido stylist.
- While performing his own stunts, he has broken his nose three times, his ankle, most of the fingers in his hand, both cheekbones, his hips, sternum, dislocated pelvis, broken neck, injuring several vertebre and broken his skull.
In the Media
- Chan has won several awards including The American Choreography Award, The World Stunt Award and has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, along with several awards from Hollywood, Hong Kong, Montreal World and Fant-Asia Film Festivals; but he has never won an Oscar. Currently there is a campaign underway to award him an Honorary Lifetime Achievement Academy Award. To support this, everyone is eligible to cast a supporting vote (one time only) at: .
- Was voted 41st in a poll of the 100 Greatest Movie Stars on Channel 4 in the UK.
- Chan appeared with, and was quickly "killed" by martial arts legend Bruce Lee in 1973's Enter the Dragon in a very short scene where Chan plays one of Kahn's guards.
- The character Lei Wulong from the Tekken video game series is heavily based on Jackie Chan, due to his looks and similar fighting style.
- A videogame called Jackie Chan Stuntmaster for the Playstation was made, of course with his name. Previously, an NES game called Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu was released.
- A television show, Jackie Chan Adventures, was based on Jackie Chan, his niece, and his uncle, as well as a shopkeeper. Videogames have also been made based on the show.
- He is the central subject of UK band Ash's song Kung Fu, which is used for the end credits of the UK and US versions of Rumble in the Bronx.
- The Pokémon Hitmonchan is named after him (similar in style to how the Pokémon Hitmonlee is named after Bruce Lee).
- He helped to open Hong Kong Disneyland Resort in 2005.
- Chan had planned to star as Vin Diesel's role in the movie The Pacifier, but due to busy arrangements, did not take the role.
- He was asked to play Wah Sing Ku in the Mel Gibson film Lethal Weapon 4, but turned down the part as he would have to play a criminal; Chan often says he doesn't like to play real criminals as it is bad for his image-- although he doesn't mind playing either comical criminals or anti-heroes, as in his newest film Rob-B-Hood. The part of Wah Sing Ku was later played by Jet Li.
- Although he did not voice the part, a likeness of him appeared in the Family Guy episode, Breaking Out Is Hard to Do, when Peter Griffin said, "Oh my god, it's Jackie Chan!" three different times to three different Asian people in Asiantown.
- He has appeared alongside bodybuilder-turned-actor-turned-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in a government advert to combat piracy, which can be viewed here.
- In both the anime and manga series of Dragon Ball, a martial artist named Master Roshi disguises himself and uses the alias "Jackie Chun" to take part in a few martial arts tournaments to secretly test out the powers and abilities of Goku, the main character of the series.
- Appeared in 2 Diet Pepsi commercials in 2006.
- In the Internet movie The Ultimate Showdown, a likeness of him fought Shaquille O' Neal, but was defeated by a Care Bear.
- Sung a duet of the Nat King Cole song Unforgettable with Ani DiFranco.
- He has declared that it is almost certain that he will, for the first time, partner another kung fu cinema legend Jet Li in an upcoming film that will start filming in spring 2007. The film has been dubbed The J&J Project.
- His nickname to the people of Hong Kong is Big Brother
- In an interview unlocked in the videogame Jackie Chan Stuntmaster (A game where he was motion captured for game animations), Chan stated that he likes to play videogames
Trademark
- After filming Cannonball Run, he continued stuntman/director Hal Needham's style of ending each of his movies with a sequence of "out-takes" being shown. This would sometimes include accidents during filming, as in The Young Master, Armour of God, Miracles etc. This practice became so popular that when a later Chan film was released without any out-takes, the Japanese audience complained in such great numbers that the film was re-released with out-takes added back in.
Language
- He sings many of his own movie theme songs. Chan has had a fairly successful career as a recording artist (though not as successful as his movie career). The American versions of his movies do not typically feature the original theme songs, something which his fans find rather irritating. Chan was also featured on the Mandarin and Cantonese soundtracks for the Disney movie Mulan, which includes a video on the DVD version.
- Since the early 1990s, Chan has always dubbed his own movies. However, in the 1970s and 80s it was not common practice in Hong Kong for stars to do their own dubbing. For much of the early part of Chan's acting career his voice dubbing was done by a single Cantonese voice-over artist, so although the voice wasn't Chan's it was at least consistent from film to film. Chan is quite fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese and often dubs himself in other languages (such as English).
- He has named his lack of education his greatest regret in life.
Other
- Owns a Pewter-coloured Lamborghini Murcielago, which can be seen here.
- Once owned a car tuning business called JC Sports in Hong Kong.
- Owns a set of Japanese daisho (matching set of katana & wakizashi) hand crafted by renowned swordsmith Yoshihara Yoshikazu
- In an interview with the popular Shonen Jump Magazine, Akira Toriyama stated that, his top selling manga Dragonball was inspired by Jackie Chan's Drunken Master film.
- Chan donated a sum of money to the Australian National University, Medical Research in Canberra, Australia.
See also
References
- Australian Herald Sun, 9 July 2005.
- I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action, revised paperback edition, p.354, ISBN 0-345-42913-3; Variety Magazine
- MSN India on Simi Gatewal's Interview of Jackie Chan, 5 September 2006
- Guinness World Records official site
Further reading
- Jackie Chan, I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action, Ballantine Books (June 28, 1999), ISBN 0-345-42913-3.
- Curtis F. Wong and John R. Little, Jackie Chan (Best of Inside Kung-Fu), McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (December 11, 1998), ISBN 0-8092-2837-8.
External links
- Jackiechan.com - Jackie Chan's official website
- Jackie Chan Kids Corner
- Jackie Chan's Movies - a fansite
- Jackie Chan Music - a fansite dedicated to his music
- Detailed biography on the life and works of Jackie
- Jackie Chan at Rotten Tomatoes
- Jackie Chan at IMDb