Jackie Chan

Peking opera school

Jackie Chan was born Chan Kong-sang on 7 April 1954 in Hong Kong. At six he entered the China Drama Academy, the Peking opera school run by Master Yu Jim-yuen. He spent about ten years there training in acrobatics, kung fu, singing and acting, and joined the Seven Little Fortunes, the troupe of top pupils, alongside Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. There he took the stage name Yuen Lo. As a child he had a part in Big and Little Wong Tin Bar (1962).

From stuntman to star

In the early 1970s he worked as a stuntman and extra, including on Fist of Fury (1972) and Enter the Dragon (1973) with Bruce Lee. With Sammo Hung he trained in hapkido under Korean grandmaster Kim Jin-pal and earned a black belt. Producer Lo Wei tried to make him the next Bruce Lee, casting him in New Fist of Fury (1976) under the name Sing Lung, "become the dragon". The film flopped, as did the similar ones that followed.

The breakthrough came in 1978, when he was loaned to Seasonal Film Corporation. Director Yuen Woo-ping gave him free rein over the action in Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and then Drunken Master, where he plays a young Wong Fei-hung learning drunken boxing. The blend of kung fu and slapstick found its audience. He moved into directing with The Fearless Hyena (1979), then joined Golden Harvest, directing and starring in The Young Master (1980).

From Hong Kong to Hollywood

His first American attempts, The Big Brawl (1980) and The Cannonball Run (1981), went nowhere, but from the latter he took the idea of showing outtakes over the end credits, which became his trademark. Project A (1983) saw the official formation of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team and includes his fall from the top of a clock tower through fabric awnings. Then came Wheels on Meals (1984), Police Story (1985), where he slides down a light-covered pole through a shopping mall, Armour of God (1986) and Operation Condor (1991). With Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, his old classmates, he formed a trio that teamed up in Project A, Wheels on Meals and Dragons Forever (1988). Drunken Master II (1994), directed by Lau Kar-leung, brought drunken boxing back to the screen.

Rumble in the Bronx (1995) finally opened the North American market. Rush Hour (1998), with Chris Tucker, and Shanghai Noon (2000), with Owen Wilson, made him a global star; the two franchises add up to five films. He voiced Monkey in Kung Fu Panda (2008) and played Mr. Han, the kung fu teacher in The Karate Kid (2010), a role he returned to in Karate Kid: Legends (2025). He has also taken on darker parts, as in The Foreigner (2017), and more personal ones such as Ride On (2023), in which he plays an ageing stuntman.

Style and legacy

His fighting relies on rhythm, opera acrobatics and the set itself: chairs, ladders, jackets and bicycles become weapons or springboards. He performs most of his own stunts, designed with his team, and his many on-set accidents appear in the end-credit outtakes. For CZ12 (2012), Guinness World Records gave him two records: most stunts performed by a living actor and most credits in one movie. He has had a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame since 2002 and received an honorary Oscar in 2016. His way of shooting action, clear and often funny, has shaped Hong Kong and Hollywood filmmaking alike.