Jackie Chan

QUICK FACTS
NAME
Jackie Chan
OCCUPATION
Martial Arts Expert, Film Actor
BIRTH DATE
April 7, 1954 (age 64)
EDUCATION
Chinese Opera Research Institute
PLACE OF BIRTH
Hong Kong, China
ORIGINALLY
Chan Kong-sang
ZODIAC SIGN
Aries

The unique blend of actor / director / producer Jackie Chan of impressive martial arts and physical comedy skills has helped make him an international movie star.
Synopsis
Jackie Chan was born Chan Kong-sang on April 7, 1954 in Hong Kong, China. He began studying martial arts, drama, acrobatics and singing at age 7. Once considered a possible successor to Bruce Lee in Hong Kong cinema, Chan developed his own style of martial arts mixed with physical comedy. He became a big star throughout Asia and also had successes in the USA. UU

Early life
Actor, director, producer. He was born on April 7, 1954 in Hong Kong, China. When his parents moved to Australia to find new jobs, Chan, 7, stayed to study at the Research Institute of the Chinese Opera, a boarding school in Hong Kong. For the next 10 years, Chan studied martial arts, theater, acrobatics and singing, and was subjected to strict discipline, including corporal punishment for poor performance. He appeared in his first film, the Cantonese film Big and Little Wong Tin Bar (1962), when he was only 8 years old, and then appeared in several musical films.

After graduating in 1971, Chan found work as an acrobat and film specialist, most notably in Fist of Fury (1972), starring Hong Kong's big screen star, Bruce Lee. For that film, according to reports, he completed the highest fall in the history of the Chinese film industry, earning the respectful notice of the formidable Lee, among others.


Great opportunity
After Lee's tragic and unexpected death in 1973, Chan was chosen as a likely successor to his mantle as the king of Hong Kong cinema. To that end, he starred in a series of kung fu movies with Lo Wei, a producer and director who had worked with Lee. Most were unsuccessful, and collaboration ended in the late 1970s. By then, Chan had decided he wanted to break Lee's mold and create his own image. Combining his martial arts skills with an impressive nerve (he insisted on performing all his own stunts) and a sense of dexterity in 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 good faith success, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (1978), Chan stormed the world of Hong Kong cinema with his first "kung fu comedy", the now classic Drunken Master (1978 ). ). Other hits such as The Fearless Hyena (1979), Half a Loaf of Kung Fu (1980) and The Young Master (1980) confirmed Chan's star status; this last film marked its first appearance with Golden Harvest, Lee's former production company and the leading film studio in Hong Kong. In a short time, Chan had become the highest-paid actor in Hong Kong and a great international star in all of Asia. He exercised total control over most of his films, often taking over tasks ranging from production to the direction and execution of the theme songs.


In the early 1980s, Chan tried his luck in Hollywood, with little success. He acted in The Big Brawl (1980), produced by Golden Harvest, which failed. He also had small supporting roles with Burt Reynolds in the ensemble comedy The Cannonball Run (1982) and its sequel to 1984.

Empire movie
Back in Hong Kong, the Chan star kept going up. It produced impressive comedies of action like Project A (1983), Police Story (1985) and Armor of God (1986), as well as the blockbuster movie Mr. Canton and Lady Rose (1989), an intelligent remake of Frank Capra in 1961. A pocket of miracles.

By then, Chan was much more than a movie star: it was a one-man film industry. In 1986, he formed his own production company, Golden Way. He also founded a modeling / casting agency, Jackie's Angels, to recruit talent for his films. In addition, after numerous specialists were injured during the filming of Police Story, the actor founded the Association of specialists of Jackie Chan, through which he personally trained and provided medical coverage to its members. For his part, Chan claims to have broken all the bones of his body at least once when 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.

At the beginning of the decade of 1990, Chan extended its cinematographic rank, becoming a rare dramatic action 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 at this time, but his profile experienced a climb