Jackie Chan is one of the most successful foreign actors working in Hollywood. Having been a dominant force in Chinese cinema, Chan made the move to America and the risk paid off huge.
Here are 42 lightning quick facts about Jackie Chan.
Jackie Chan Facts
1. BeLeeve
Jackie worked with Bruce Lee as a stunt coordinator. He says the most painful of all the injuries he's sustained in his career happened on Enter the Dragon, when Bruce Lee accidentally hit him in the face with a nunchuck. Ouch!
2. Padded
In his action scenes, his punches and kicks actually connect with their targets. He has his actors wear special padding in their feet and body to prevent serious injury. That’s probably for the best.
3. Broken
In the act of performing his own stunts, he has broken his nose three times, his ankle once, most of the fingers in his hand, both cheekbones and his skull. The skull injury resulted in a plastic plug being surgically inserted into his skull. It's permanent. Now that’s method acting!
4. Too Real
He was to star in a film entitled Nosebleed, but the project was canceled after the World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001. He was to play a window-washer at the WTC who has to stop a terrorist plot. Someone get that writer on the phone ASAP, they know something!
Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
5. Vocal Range
Jackie most often dubs his own voice for the English release of his Asian films. He also dubs his Asian films in Mandarin. And he does his own stunts? Is there anything this man can’t do?
6. Squad Goals
He has his own stunt team, known as the Sing Ga Ban (Jackie Chan Stuntman Association). Members of the team appear as extras in his films. The team includes Andy Kay, Chung Cheng, Chung Chi Li(Nicky Li), and Bradley James Allan. Jackie and his stunt team have no insurance, so he pays for any injuries to himself or his team.
7. Records
Guinness awarded Jackie Chan the record for the most film credits in his movie Chinese Zodiac. In it, he was the writer, director, lead actor, producer, executive producer, cinematographer, art director, unit production manager, stunt coordinator, prop man, gaffer, stuntman, composer, theme song vocalist, and catering coordinator. Ok this is getting out of hand now.
Frederick M. Brown, Getty Images
8. Fans
He has a great, long-lasting relationship with Mitsubishi Motors. The company has donated many of their automobiles for his films, most of which get destroyed. Not a bad trade though, as it’s basically free advertising for them, and free cars for Jackie’s movies.
9. Skills
He is trained in Northern & Southern styles of Kung-Fu as well as other styles of Martial Arts including Tae Kwon Do, Karate, Judo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu & Hapkido. Chan also has some experience in Jeet Kune Do having studied under Bruce Lee.
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10. Pacifist
Despite being known for his extraordinary combat skills, Jackie abhors violence in real life and claims to having only been in one fight his entire life and only then because his friends dragged him into it.
11. Book Smart
His greatest regret in life is not having received a proper education, inspiring him to fund educational institutions around the world. Can the vatican declare Jackie a saint already?
12. Signals
During the fight scenes, Jackie and the stunt fighters communicate by making specific grunting noises, similar to how dancers keep count in their head to ensure they’re where they need to be, when they need to be. Pretty cool!
13. Sucker
He was sucker punched by one of his fans while filming Rush Hour 2 because the fan thought he would block the punch. Word of advice to everyone reading this, do not punch your heroes, even if they might be able to block it.
Featureflash Photo Agency, Shutterstock
14. From Scratch
Jackie Chan’s son will get none of his hundred million dollar fortune. According to him, “If he is capable, he can make his own money. If he is not, then he will just be wasting my money.” Talk about tough love!
15. Stunt, Man
Chan said in an interview that his inspiration to perform stunts was from films such as The General where Buster Keaton performed his own stunts.
16. Dangerous
Jackie Chan used to carry multiple guns and even a grenade to protect himself and his other artists from The Triad in the 1980s and 1990s. Where there no police officers in China back then?
U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 3rd Class Lee M. McCaskill, Wikimedia Commons
17. Fear Factor
The only two things scare Jackie are needles and public speaking. Funny how a man who has no problems with broken bones is scared of needles and speaking to groups of people.
18. Records Part II
Jackie Chan holds the Guinness World Record for Most Stunts by a Living Actor. Go Jackie!
19. Agent, Man
His father Charles was a spy for Chinese Nationalist government. No wonder he knows how to kick so much butt.
20. Drug Dealer
His mother Lee-Lee was a stage performer who also sold opium on the side. Being an actor is a tough gig, so it’s best to supplement your income. Drug dealing wouldn’t be our first option, though.
Featureflash Photo Agency, Shutterstock
21. Board
Chan was left in a boarding school while his parents went to Australia in search of work. Jackie eventually moved to Australia with them and even holds an Australian passport. He returns to Australia whenever he needs to renew his passport, and films a movie while there to make the most of his trip.
22. Vocal Range Part II
Jackie has released 20 albums since 1984 and has performed vocals in English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese and Taiwanese.
23. Toothy
Jackie used to work as a bouncer at a nightclub to make some extra cash. He spent several days after one particularly vicious brawl to push a protruding bone back into his knuckle, only to discover that it was actually somebody else’s tooth. Gross!
24. Strong
Chan once broke twelve concrete blocks with his hand, while holding an egg in his fist. The egg was not broken. We don’t recommend anyone attempt this, for both the egg’s and your hand’s sake.
25. Payday
Jackie was never passionate about the Rush Hour series but did it because he was offered an irresistible amount of money. But don’t tell Chris Tucker that!
26. Linguistics
He speaks 7 languages: Cantonese, Mandarin, English, German, Korean, Japanese and Thai and also American sign-language.
27. Red
Chan is a big supporter of China's Communist Party and he thinks the Taiwanese democracy is "the biggest joke in the world".
28. Hot Air
Jackie Chan once jumped out a plane and landed on top of a hot air balloon. Most people wouldn’t even be able to simply jump out of a plane, let alone land on top of a balloon! What’s in Jackie’s water?
29. Go Again
In the movie Dragon Lord, one scene took Jackie 2900 separate takes because it was so complex. How frustrating would it be if the scene didn’t make the final cut of the film? (It did).
Golden Harvest, Dragon Lord (1982)
30. Imposter
Chan didn't actually voice his character in the Jackie Chan Adventures series of cartoons. The voice you heard was that of James Sie.
Sony, Jackie Chan Adventures (2000-2005)
31. Much Better
In Jackie Chan Adventures, the character of his niece was voiced by Stacie Chan, his real niece. We’ll let this bit of nepotism slide, but Jackie’s son probably wasn’t too happy about it.
Sony, Jackie Chan Adventures (2000-2005)
32. Jackie!
He received the name "Jackie" from fellow workers on a construction site in Australia, who couldn't pronounce his real name, which is actually Chan Kong-Sang. Kong Sang means "Born In Hong Kong.
33. Big Fan
Jackie Chan loves football and supports the Hong Kong National team, England National team and Manchester City. It really is the most popular sport in the world.
34. Nice
Jackie loves giving thumbs up. What a surprise, because we love seeing Jackie give the thumbs up.
35. Royalty
He was awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire for his services to entertainment in 1989. He didn’t let it go to his head.
36. Rivalry
While filming for Wheels on Meals in 1984, Jackie became angry after being painfully hurt by Benny ‘The Jet’ Urquidez (a kickboxing world champion) while shooting a fight scene with him. Jackie had also landed a few blows of his own on the boxer. Letting bygones be bygones, Jackie and Urquidez appeared again in a fight scene of the film Dragons Forever.
Golden Harvest, Wheels on Meals (1984)
37. Foreign
Jackie isn’t much of a fan of Hollywood. Even after years of success with blockbuster movies like Rush Hour films and Shanghai Noon films, Jackie says that he doesn’t get American humour nor does he understands Hollywood’s craziness behind car-chase formulated film.
38. Watch This
Much like the scene from the 2010 remake of The Karate Kid when Jackie Chan catches a fly with chopsticks, actor Jason Isaacs claims that he once saw Jackie catch a fly with his bare hand while on the set of The Tuxedo. Then, just to prove he could, he caught another one without even looking!
Columbia, The Karate Kid (2010)
39. Gone Baby, Gone
Jackie’s parents were so poor when he was born that, not only did they struggle to pay the hospital bills, but they considered selling him off to a British physician to offset the medical costs. We’re glad they didn’t.
40. Prolific
Jackie has been featured on a number of different film soundtracks, too. Perhaps most notably, he sang “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” for the Chinese version of Disney’s Mulan. The American version was originally sung by Donny Osmond.
41. Adult Film Star
In 1975 Jackie made an adult film called All in the Family. “I had to do anything I could to make a living 31 years ago,” He said in 2006. In the film Jackie strips down to play the role of Little Tang, the rickshaw driver. “The porn movie at that time was more conservative than the current films,” Chan said of the movie, which would not be considered pornographic by today’s standards, and is also notable in the actor’s filmography for its lack of action scenes.
42. Skills Part II
Many people are able to train pets like dogs and cats, but how many can say that they can train fish? Jackie Chan can, as he’s able to make koi carp and catfish to “roll over” upon command. We didn’t even know fish could understand us.
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