Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Jackie Chan


Jackie Chan (born Chan Kong-sang, 陳港生; 7 April 1954) is a Hong Kong actor, action choreographer, comedian, director, producer, martial artist, screenwriter, entrepreneur, singer, and stunt performer. In his movies, he is known for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, use of improvised weapons, and innovative stunts. He is one of the few actors that did all of his stunts in all of his films. Jackie Chan has been acting since the 1960s and has appeared in over 150 films.
Chan has received stars on the Hong Kong Avenue of Stars and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As a cultural icon, Chan has been referenced in various pop songs,cartoons, and video games. An operatically trained vocalist, Chan is also a Cantopop and Mandopop star, having released a number of albums and sung many of the theme songs for the films in which he has starred.


Early life
Chan was born on 7 April 1954, in British Hong Kong, as Chan Kong-sang, to Charles and Lee-Lee Chan, refugees from the Chinese Civil War. He was nicknamedPao-pao Chinese: 炮炮(literally meaning "Cannonball") because the high-energy child was always rolling around. Since his parents worked for the French ambassador in Hong Kong, Chan spent his formative years within the grounds of the consul's residence in the Victoria Peak district.
Chan attended the Nah-Hwa Primary School on Hong Kong Island, where he failed his first year, after which his parents withdrew him from the school. In 1960, his father immigrated to Canberra, Australia, to work as the head cook for the American embassy, and Chan was sent to the China Drama Academy, a Peking Opera School run by Master Yu Jim-yuen. Chan trained rigorously for the next decade, excelling in martial arts and acrobatics. He eventually became part of theSeven Little Fortunes, a performance group made up of the school's best students, gaining the stage name Yuen Lo in homage to his master. Chan became close friends with fellow group members Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, the three of them later to be known as the Three Brothers or Three Dragons. After entering the film industry, Chan along with Sammo Hung got the opportunity to train in Hapkido under the grand master Jim Pal Kim, and Chan eventually attained a black belt.
He began his career by appearing in small roles at the age of five. At the age of eight, he appeared with some of his fellow "Little Fortunes", in the film Big and Little Wong Tin Bar (1962), with Li Li Hua playing his mother. Chan appeared with Li again the following year, in The Love Eterne (1963) and had a small role inKing Hu's 1966 film, Come Drink with Me. In 1971, after an appearance as an extra in another Kung Fu film, A Touch of Zen, Chan began his adult career in the film industry, initially signing to Chu Mu's Great Earth Film Company. At the age of seventeen, he worked as a stuntman in the Bruce Lee films Fist of Fury andEnter the Dragon under the stage name Chan Yuen Lung (Chinese: 陳元龍). He received his first starring role later that year, in Little Tiger of Canton, which had a limited release in Hong Kong in 1973. Due to the commercial failures of his early ventures into films and trouble finding stunt work, in 1975 Chan starred in a comedic adult film, All in the Family, which features Jackie Chan's first nude sex scene filmed. It is also the only film he has made to date that did not feature a single fight scene or stunt sequence. Jackie Chan also appeared in a sex scene in the film The Shinjuku Incident, which was the only other nude scene that he ever filmed.
Chan joined his parents in Canberra in 1976, where he briefly attended Dickson College and worked as a construction worker. A fellow builder named Jack took Chan under his wing, earning Chan the nickname of "Little Jack" which was later shortened to "Jackie" and the name Jackie Chan has stuck with him ever since. In addition, in the late 90s, Chan changed his Chinese name to Fong Si-lung (Chinese: 房仕龍), since his father's original surname was Fong.

Film career
In 1976, Jackie Chan received a telegram from Willie Chan, a film producer in the Hong Kong film industry who had been impressed with Jackie's stuntwork. Willie Chan offered him an acting role in a film directed by Lo Wei. Lo had seen Chan's performance in the John Woo film Hand of Death (1976) and planned to model him after Bruce Lee with the film New Fist of Fury. His stage name was changed to Sing Lung (Chinese: 成龍, also transcribed as Cheng Long, literally "become the dragon") to emphasise his similarity to Bruce Lee, whose stage name was Lei Siu-lung (Chinese: 李小龍, meaning "Little Dragon"). The film was unsuccessful because Chan was not accustomed to Lee's martial arts style. Despite the film's failure, Lo Wei continued producing films with similar themes, resulting in little improvement at the box office.
Chan's first major breakthrough was the 1978 film Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, shot while he was loaned to Seasonal Film Corporation under a two-picture deal. Under director Yuen Woo-ping, Chan was allowed complete freedom over his stunt work. The film established the comedic kung fu genre, and proved to be a breath of fresh air for the Hong Kong audience. Chan then starred in Drunken Master, which finally propelled him to mainstream success.
Upon Chan's return to Lo Wei's studio, Lo tried to replicate the comedic approach of Drunken Master, producing Half a Loaf of Kung Fu and Spiritual Kung Fu.He also gave Chan the opportunity to co-direct The Fearless Hyena with Kenneth Tsang. When Willie Chan left the company, he advised Jackie to decide for himself whether or not to stay with Lo Wei. During the shooting of Fearless Hyena Part II, Chan broke his contract and joined Golden Harvest, prompting Lo to blackmail Chan with triads, blaming Willie for his star's departure. The dispute was resolved with the help of fellow actor and director Jimmy Wang Yu, allowing Chan to stay with Golden Harvest.
Music career
Jackie Chan had vocal lessons whilst at the Peking Opera School in his childhood. He began producing records professionally in the 1980s and has gone on to become a successful singer in Hong Kong and Asia. He has released 20 albums since 1984 and has performed vocals in Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Taiwanese and English. He often sings the theme songs of his films, which play over the closing credits. Chan's first musical recording was "Kung Fu Fighting Man", the theme song played over the closing credits of The Young Master (1980). At least 10 of these recordings have been released on soundtrack albums for the films. His Cantonese song Story of a Hero (英雄故事) (theme song of Police Story) was selected by the Royal Hong Kong Police and incorporated into their recruitmentadvertisement in 1994.
Chan voiced the character of Shang in the Chinese release of the Walt Disney animated feature, Mulan (1998). He also performed the song "I'll Make a Man Out of You", for the film's soundtrack. For the US release, the speaking voice was performed by B.D. Wong and the singing voice was done by Donny Osmond.
In 2007, Chan recorded and released the song "We Are Ready", the official one-year countdown song to the 2008 Summer Olympics. He performed the song at a ceremony marking the one-year countdown to the 2008 Summer Paralympics.
The day before the Beijing Olympics opened, Chan released one of the two official Olympics albums, Official Album for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games – Jackie Chan's Version, which featured a number of special guest appearances. Chan, along with Andy Lau, Liu Huan and Wakin (Emil) Chau, performed "Hard to Say Goodbye", the farewell song for the 2008 Summer Olympics closing ceremony.

Personal life
In 1982, Jackie Chan married Lin Feng-Jiao (aka Joan Lin), a Taiwanese actress. That same year, the two had a son, singer and actor Jaycee Chan. Elaine Ng Yi-Lei had a daughter, Etta, in 1999, and claimed Chan was the father; Chan admitted the affair, but did not formally acknowledge her as his daughter. Chan is a Buddhist.
He speaks Cantonese, Mandarin, American Sign Language, and English, and also speaks some German, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, and Thai.
When he was 9 and 16 years of age, he lived in Thailand for a short period of time. During that time, he learned boxing from a former professional boxer who had a broken leg.
In 2009, Chan received an honorary doctorate from the University of Cambodia.
Chan is an avid soccer fan and supports the Hong Kong National Football Team, England National Football Team, and Manchester City.
Awards and nominations






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