Jackie Chan

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Jackie Chan @ Heroic Bloodshed

Jackie is born on April 7th, 1954 in Hong Kong under the real name of Chan Kwong Sang and weighing in at 12 lb !. His poor parents attempt to sell him to the doctor for $hk 1500. The family eventually move to Australia to find work.
In 1961 Jackie returns to Hong Kong to enrol at the Chinese Opera Research Institute. Fellow students at the time include Sammo hung and Yuen Biao.
He graduates from the institute in 1971 and returns to Australia where he gets a few odd jobs. Disillusioned, he returns to Hong Kong and gets a job at the famous Shaw Bros studio as a stuntmen and extra. His acting debut comes in 'The Master with Cracked Fingers'.
He is noticed in the industry when he performed the longest stunt fall attempted in Asian cinema in Bruce Lee's 'Fist of Fury'. The director Lo Wei would later direct many of Jackie's early movies, using him as 'the next Bruce Lee' and giving him both his English name and his stage name Sing Lung ("become a dragon" - a reference to the late Bruce Lee, Siu Lung).
In the late 70's, Jackie's career begins to take off, as he defines a new style of Kung Fu movie of his own with films like 'Snake in Eagles Shadow' and 'Drunken Master'.
He attempts to make a name for himself in the US but is unsuccessful with flops such as 'The Big Brawl' and 'Cannonball Run'.
He returns to concentrate on the Asian market, and directs his best movie, 'Project A' co-starring Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. During the filming of 'Armour of God' he has an accident that almost kills him, and he is out of work for six months.
In 1996 'Rumble in the Bronx' is re-released in America to great success (it was the most commercially successful movie of the year beating the likes of Independence Day for profit!). Other re-releases follow with mixed success.
1998 sees the release of 'Rush Hour', his first real American film for almost 15 years, to great success and wins many fans. Jackie is now hot property in Hollywood and I hope he will continue to make the films that we all love so much.