Jackie Chan

Today will be about Jackie Chan, the famous international superstar actor.

Jackie Chan was born on the 7th April 1954, he was famous for his acting and his stunt works, being one of a few actors in the filming industry who does their own stunt work, he also created the genre of action comedy with his unique style of performing his action scenes, making use of many environmental objects in his fight scenes. Jackie Chan although is mainly known for his works in acting, he is also known for being a action choreographer, comedian, director, producer, martial artist, screen writer, entrepreneur, singer and stunt performer. Throughout his career, he has work on over 150 films to date. He has also received awards and recognition in the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Hong Kong Avenue of Stars (I'm guessing the Hong Kong version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame).

Jackie Chan was born in Hong Kong, he was the child of Charles and Lee-Lee Chan, at the time they worked for the French Ambassador in Hong Kong. In 1960, Charles Chan emigrated to Canberra, Australia to work as a head chef for the American Embassy, while Jackie Chan was sent to a Peking opera school (Drama academy pretty much, they style being Peking opera or Beijing opera) where he was trained in martial arts and acrobatics, Jackie was said to have excelled in those activities. Jackie Chan officially began his career at age 5, at 17 he worked as a stuntman and even starred in 2 of Bruce Lee's films, some directors were impressed with his work so in 1973 he received his first roles. Jackie starred in a few films before he went to Australia to join his parents where he attended college briefly and worked as a construction worker.

Since having impressed a few people in the filming industry in Hong Kong before leaving, Jackie Chan received an offer to star in a role from Hong Kong film producer Willie Chan (who to date is still one of Jackie Chan's closest friends and also responsible for raising his status to a international superstar), the film however was a box office failure due to that fact that they shot the action in the style of Bruce Lee (who was the prominent Hong Kong action star at the time) and that Jackie Chan was not use to this style, despite this, they continued to film more. Jackie Chan's first major breakthrough was in 1978, in the filming process, the director allowed Jackie the freedom to perform his own action and stunts and looking in retrospect, this proved a wise decision for it allowed Jackie to created what is known as action comedy and that it was also a nice welcome change for the audiences. Jackie Chan's first mainstream success was from the film "Drunken Master".

Having made a name for himself, in 1980, Jackie attempted to break into the western film industry in Hollywood, however, it was not too much success and he withdrew and returned to Hong Kong. He continued filming into the 1990's were he made a second attempt to break in, this time having much more success than the first, he gain a foothold after filming "Rumble in the Bronx", the film was a box office success. Over the years he continued filming hits such as "Rush Hour", "Rush Hour 2", "Shanghai Noon" and many more, through time, Jackie Chan establish himself as a international action star and gain recognition from all over the world.

I have to say, Jackie Chan is one of my favorite actors in the world, not only because his films are entertaining to watch, he puts so much energy into his work, creating action comedy and going as far as to do dangerous stunts on his own. Jackie Chan is one of the greatest famous people in the world.

- Leo Lieu (LILED1303/ISYS100)

Young Jackie Chan

Old Jackie Chan

Rush Hour staring Jackie Chan