Martial artist and actor Jackie Chans unique blend of impressive martial arts and screwball physical comedy has helped make him an international film star.
Who Is Jackie Chan?
Jackie Chan began studying martial arts, drama, acrobatics and singing at age seven. Once considered a likely successor to Bruce Lee in Hong Kong cinema, Chan instead developed his own style of martial arts blended with screwball physical comedy. He became a huge star throughout Asia and went on to have hits in the United States as well.
Early Life
Actor, martial artist and producer Jackie Chan was born Chan Kong-sang on April 7, 1954, in Hong Kong, China. When his parents moved to Australia to find new jobs, the 7-year-old Chan was left behind to study at the Chinese Opera Research Institute, a Hong Kong boarding school. For the next 10 years, Chan studied martial arts, drama, acrobatics and singing, and was subjected to stringent discipline, including corporal punishment for poor performance. He appeared in his first film, the Cantonese feature Big and Little Wong Tin Bar (1962), when he was only eight, and went on to appear in a number of musical films.
Upon his graduation in 1971, Chan found work as an acrobat and a movie stuntman, most notably in Fist of Fury (1972), starring Hong Kongs resident big-screen superstar, Bruce Lee. For that film, he reportedly completed the highest fall in the history of the Chinese film industry, earning the respectful notice of the formidable Lee, among others.
Big Break
After Lees tragic, unexpected death in 1973, Chan was singled out as a likely successor of his mantle as the king of Hong Kong cinema. To that end, he starred in a string of kung fu movies with Lo Wei, a producer and director who had worked with Lee. Most were unsuccessful, and the collaboration ended in the late 1970s. By that time, Chan had decided that he wanted to break out of the Lee mold and create his own image. Blending his martial arts abilities with impressive nerve—he insisted on performing all of his own stunts—and a sense of screwball physical comedy reminiscent of one of his idols, Buster Keaton, Chan found his own formula for cinematic gold.
A year after the release of his first bona fide hit, Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow (1978), Chan took the Hong Kong film world by storm with his first so-called «kung fu comedy,» the now-classic Drunken Master (1978). Subsequent hits such as The Fearless Hyena (1979), Half a Loaf of Kung Fu (1980) and The Young Master (1980) confirmed Chans star status; the latter film marked his first with Golden Harvest, Lees old production company and the leading film studio in Hong Kong. Before long, Chan had become the highest-paid actor in Hong Kong and a huge international star throughout Asia. He exerted total control over most of his films, often taking charge of duties ranging from producing to directing to performing the theme songs.
Movie Empire
Back in Hong Kong, Chans star continued to rise. He produced impressive action comedies such as Project A (1983), Police Story (1985) and Armor of God (1986), as well as the hit period film Mr. Canton and Lady Rose (1989), a clever remake of Frank Capras 1961 film A Pocketful of Miracles.
By that time, Chan was far more than a movie star—he was a one-man film industry. In 1986, he formed his own production company, Golden Way. He also founded a modeling/casting agency, Jackies Angels, in order to recruit talent for his films. Additionally, after numerous stuntmen were injured during the filming of Police Story, the actor founded the Jackie Chan Stuntmen Association, through which he personally trained and provided medical coverage for its members. For his part, Chan claims to have broken every bone in his body at least once while performing stunts. In 1986, during the filming of Armor of God, he fractured his skull after falling more than 40 feet while attempting to jump from the top of a building to a tree branch below.
In the early 1990s, Chan broadened his cinematic range, turning in a rare dramatic performance in the melodramatic Crime Story (1993). He also made several sequels to his hits Police Story and Drunken Master. Chan was still mostly unknown in the United States by this point, but his profile experienced a meteoric rise during the mid-1990s, when a series of events combined to bring him to the attention of a wider American audience.
Hollywood Star
In 1995, Chan created his own comic book character, the central figure in Jackie Chans Spartan X, a series that hit newsstands in both Asia and the U.S. That same year, newly anointed directing sensation Quentin Tarantino, fresh off the success of Pulp Fiction, presented Chan with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the MTV Movie Awards. Tarantino reportedly threatened to boycott the ceremony if Chan did not receive the award.
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