JACKIE CHAN, named "the world's most popular movie star" by Time Magazine, has been Asia's biggest box office star for more than 20 years. The international recognition of Chan's talents has come in response to a career that is resolutely home-grown. Over the last five years Jackie Chan turned his attention toward Hollywood and quickly captured the worldwide audience when he starred in Rumble in the Bronx (1994), a Hong Kong production filmed in Canada, which was distributed in the U.S. by New Line Cinema. The success of Rumble helped launch a series of successful American releases for Chan, which include Rush Hour, Shanghai Noon, First Strike and the Supercop series, among others.
As stated by The Hollywood Reporter (May 6, 1997 issue honoring Chan's achievements): "The Master is coming to Hollywood. Or, rather, Hollywood is coming to the Master."
Chan continues to be a top draw in the worldwide film market, with a name synonymous for amazing stunts and laugh-out-loud visual comedy. He has become the hero of an American comic book miniseries; the star of his own Saturday morning cartoon (the number one new cartoon in its premiere season on the Kid’s WB) and Sony Playstation game; the recipient of an MTV Movie Awards Lifetime Achievement Honor; and a recipient of Hollywood's ultimate honor – his feet and hands (and nose!) were imprinted in the forecourt of Hollywood's famous Mann’s Chinese Theatre.
Born in Hong Kong to working class parents, Chan was indentured at age seven to the Peking Opera School. Over the next ten years, he was trained in acrobatics, gymnastics, martial arts, weaponry, dance, singing and drama.
Upon graduation, he went to work at the Shaw Brothers studios, where, after two years, his training and determination paid off with a promotion from stunt man to stunt coordinator. Watching Chan direct stuntmen, a producer finally spotted his talent and gave him his first adult role in Little Tiger from Canton (1971).
After years of films that afforded little opportunity to showcase his real abilities, 1978's Snake in theEagle's Shadow and Drunken Master gave Chan the freedom to create his genre of comedy which transformed the Hong Kong film industry. In 1980 Jackie Chan directed his first film, The Young Master, inaugurating his long association with producer Raymond Chow, whose Golden Harvest Films made all of Chan's subsequent films.
The runaway success of The Young Master prompted Chow to bring Chan to the U.S. to star in The Big Brawl and guest star opposite the likes of Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore and Farrah Fawcett in The Cannonball Run.
Based on his experiences with American filmmaking techniques, Chan returned home determined to improve Hong Kong cinema. This became evident in Project A (1983), a period action-comedy which ends with his first tribute to the American silent comics who were beginning to influence his work: a high-risk re-enactment of Harold Lloyd's clock-face finale in Safety Last.
Chan returned to the U.S. twice as an actor in Cannonball Run 2 and The Protector before he was honored by the New York Film Festival's selection of his 1986 film Police Story. His direction of the sequels to Project A and Police Story, along with 1986's lavish The Armour of God were acclaimed by American critics as they became increasingly enamored with Hong Kong cinema.
Inspired by great comedic legends like Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, Chan invented a unique style for film by combining humor and death-defying stunts - often with the help of former Chan collaborators like director John Woo, Kirk Wong (Double Team), Tsui Hark (Double Team), Stanley Tong and actress Michelle Yeoh.
A superb martial artist and acrobat, Chan has built his legend by putting his life on the line in his movies. In the montage of outtakes that typically end his films, fans see first hand that Jackie Chan is still his own most amazing special effect.
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