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Jackie Chan

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Jackie Chan
Screen Name
Cantonese Pengyam Seng Long
Mandarin Pinyin Chéng Lóng
Chinese 成龍 (Traditional)

成龙 (Simplified)

Birth Name
Cantonese Pengyam Can Gõhng Säng
Mandarin Pinyin Chén Gǎngshēng
Chinese 陳港生
Alternate Personal Name
(see below)
Cantonese Pengyam Fong Si Lung
Mandarin Pinyin Fang Shilong
Chinese 房士龍

Jackie Chan, born on April 7, 1954, is a Hong Kong martial artist, actor, director and stuntman. He also has the following nicknames: Yuen Lo, Sing Lung and Pao Pao.

Chan is one of the most recognized names in Kung Fu and action movies worldwide, known for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing and use of improvised weapons. Chan has starred in over a hundred movies, and is one of the most recognizable Chinese and Asian movie stars in the world. He also has a pop music singing career starting back in 1980s.

Biography

Jackie Chan is the son of Lee-Lee Chan and Charles Chan who migrated to Canberra, Australia in 1960 as a refugee from the Chinese civil war and who had previously worked as a maid and butler for the French ambassador to Hong Kong. His Chinese name at birth was Chan Kong-sang and he was given his Westernized name, "Jackie", by his Australian coworkers when living in Australia in 1976-1977Template:Fn. Because his father's family name was originally Fong and was changed only when arriving in Hong Kong, Jackie Chan's Chinese name was, years later, changed in family records to Fong Si LungTemplate:Fn.

Chan married Taiwanese actress Lin Feng-Jiao (林鳳娇) in 1983 according to his autobiography, but many Asian sources state he was married on December 1, 1982, and with whom he had a son, Jackson "Jaycee Chan" Jo-Ming (born on December 3, in either 1982 or 1984). He is also rumored to have a daughter, Etta Ng Chok Lam (b. 1998) with Elaine Ng Yi-Lei out of wedlock.

He was educated at Nan Hua Elementary Academy, Chinese Opera Research Institute (1961-1971) and Peking Opera School. Chan was in the Seven Little Fortunes Chinese opera troupe as a youth, along with Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao and Corey Kwai.

Chan is often said to do all his own stunts. While this claim does not hold up to close scrutiny, he does insist on doing the majority of them, including stunts for other characters if they are not showing their faces, and has racked up an impressive list of injuries to prove it. (The closing credits of his movies usually show bloopers and at least one serious injury.) He is unable to get insurance anywhere in the world. 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.

In his biography, Chan says he created his screen persona as a reaction to that of Bruce Lee, and the numerous imitators who appeared before and after Lee's death (see "Bruceploitation"). Where 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.

Chan repeatedly attempted to break into the American movie industry, appearing in movies like Battle Creek Brawl, Cannonball Run, Cannonball Run II and The Protector. 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.

Chan also has the distinction of being the central subject of UK band Ash's song Kung Fu.

In 1994, MTV honored 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 world-wide release of Rumble in the Bronx.

Jackie has a star on the Avenue of Stars in Hong Kong as well as the Walk of Fame. Chan is also known as a major pop star in Asia, and he released over 100 song titles in 20 albums since 1984. He sings in many different languages including English, Cantonese, Mandarin and Japanese.

Chan is one of the most well-known philanthropists in Hong Kong, 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 such as the recent mainland China relief flood programmes and the 2004 Tsunami donations.

Filmography as actor includes

Trivia

  • Jackie actually sings many of his own movie theme songs. Jackie has had a fairly successful career as a recording artist though as can be expected not as successful as his movie career. Regardless, Jackie has an excellent singing voice as does his son. The American versions of his movies do not typically feature the original theme songs, something which Jackie's fans find rather irritating. Jackie was also featured on the Mandarin soundtrack for the Disney movie Mulan.
  • With a few exceptions Jackie always dubs his own movies. Jackie is quite fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese and Japanese and occasionally dubs himself in other languages (such as English).
  • The Pokémon Hitmonchan is named after him (similar in style to how the Pokémon Hitmonlee is named after Bruce Lee).
  • Though Jackie's willingness to do his own stunts was originally the trade-mark feature of his movies Jackie has sustained various injuries over the years which render him incapable of performing certain stunts. He tries to avoid stunts where he may suffer great head-trauma due to the near-fatal incident that occurred while shooting Armour of God. Also his left ankle has been broken 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.
  • Has a medical record so long that no life insurance company will cover him.
  • While not afraid to do his own stunts Jackie has confesses that like many he is afraid of needles and hates taking shots. Unlike with injury that may come from a failed stunt, with a shot he "knows that it's coming".

See also

Footnotes

Further Reading

  • Jackie Chan, I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action, Ballantine Books (June 28, 1999), ISBN 0345429133.
  • Curtis F. Wong and John R. Little, Jackie Chan (Best of Inside Kung-Fu), McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (December 11, 1998), ISBN 0809228378.
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