Jackie Chan Biography

JACKIE CHAN

Biography

Jackie Chan (13180 bytes)

Jackie Chan was born on April 7th, 1954, belongs to the year of the "HORSE", which means in Chinese, a character energic, closely associated with the sign of "DRAGON". Jackie Chan's family originated from Shantung, but he was born in Hong Kong. That's why he was named "Kong Sang". His first name means "born in Hong Kong".

Although Jackie's father was very good at Kung-fu, specializing in "Siu Hung Kun", he cooked to make a living. In the 1940s, he left his hometown, Shantung, and went South to settle in Hong Kong. He worked in the kitchen of a foreign ambassy as a cook. In 1957, the commissioner was transferred to Australia. As an old employee and especially a good cook, Jackie Chan's father was invited to go along. And he accepted. Therefore the family moved to Australia. That was when Jackie Chan was born.

Jackie Chan in When Jackie came back to Hong Kong in the year 1961, he studied under a good friend of his father, Si-fu Yu Jim-yuen, learning Kung-fu of the North clan. At this time when Jackie was studying under him, he was having about ten students, boys and girls, and they all had one thing in common - they could be the worst students in school, but every single one of them could out-jump and out-run anybody of the same age.

Si-fu Yu had formed a little performing group with his students. The performance circled around traditional opera with a lot of acrobatics. The opera members were usually seven in number, and that was why it was named "The Group of the Seven Little Fortunes". They usually performed in an entertainment place called "Lai Yuen" located in Kowloon, Jackie work in this group with the talented Samo Hung and Yuen Biao, where he began his more than three decade association in films. Jackie Chan

The Three Brothers, as they came to call themselves, formed an extraordinary coordinated action - comedy trio and performed in WHEELS ON MEALS in 1983 and DRAGONS FOREVER in 1988, both directed by Hung, and the Chan-directed classic PROJECT A in 1983. Samo Hung appeared in two of the Bruce Lee films, in the beginning of ENTER THE DRAGON (The chubby guy figthing with Bruce) and in the incomplete film of GAME OF DEATH. He graduated at age of 17 and rejoined his parents in Australia; worked at various odd jobs such as dishwasher and bricklayer. Returned to Hong Kong using the name Chen Yuan Long,

Bruce Lee Killing the young Jackie Chan
Bruce Lee Grabbing the young Jackie Chan Then, Jackie Chan found work as a stunt man, martial arts fighter and extra at the Shaw Brothers studios. The first film role as an adult that Chan did was LITTLE TIGER FROM CANTON. Jackie was gratified to receive a compliment from Bruce Lee while work as the stunt double for the villain Mr. Suzuki in FIST OF FURY (The Chinese Conection) in 1971. Jackie Chan successfully executed what was reportedly the highest fall ever attempted in a Hong Kong film, dully impressing Bruce. Jackie work again with Bruce Lee as an stunt double in ENTER THE DRAGON.

Couple years after Bruce Lee's death, (approximate in 1976) Jackie Chan was hired from the producer-director Lo Wei (who made with Bruce the first two films) beginning with NEW FIST OF FURY, the he did five more with Lo Wei which most were unsuccessfully. Then Jackie did with others directors others film but it was until 1978 that he made his first hit, SNAKE IN THE EAGLE'S SHADOW; early example of Jackie's still emerging comic persona. Jackie Chan told to the reporter of the New York Times, January 30, 1995, Neil Strauss (From the article of Faster Than a Speeding Bullet, But Also Humanly Fallible); "I wanted to be like a Chaplin or Buster Keaton, but all the martial arts directors I worked with wanted me to copy Bruce Lee, So after I got famous, I started to change a lot of things. When I was filmimg SNAKE IN THE EAGLES'S SHADOW in the late 1970's, I sat down with the director and watched a Bruce Lee film. I decided, when Bruce Lee kicked high, I'd kick low. When Bruce Lee yowled, I'd punch doing a funny face like it hurt. Whatever Bruce Lee did, I'd do the opposite".

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