In this collection of interesting facts, one surprise awaits you, from which tears will flow from your eyes!
April 7, 1954 was born Jackie Chan - Hong Kong and American actor, director, producer, stunt director. We all know his films, full of chases and extraordinary stunts, seasoned with a comedic zest.
But how much do you know about the actor himself? About how the future world star was almost sold by his own parents, how he ended up in America, starred in a porn movie, and about other facts of his most interesting biography - in our photo essay.
Jackie Chan showed his unusualness even before birth: his mother was pregnant with him for almost 11 months! Finally, she went to the doctor, who performed a caesarean section on her. The weight of the child was 5 kilograms 400 grams.
The actor's real name is Chan Kong Sang, but, as he says, his father changed his family name due to spying, and Jackie's real name is Fon Si Lung.
The father of the future star was indeed a real spy, and his mother illegally sold opium.
After the birth, the parents were going to sell little Jackie to a British obstetrician who delivered the baby for $26.
Jackie argues that if he did get sold, he would most likely be living in the UK now, speaking English and not knowing Chinese. And maybe a doctor.
When the future star was seven years old, her parents moved to Australia, and Jackie was left at a boarding school in Hong Kong. It was there that he learned acrobatics, acting, martial arts and music. Classes started at 5:00 am and ended at midnight.
Any mistake led to corporal punishment. Jackie later recalled: “I was beaten every day. I was very angry."
Chan's childhood nickname is Big Nose: once an angry school teacher broke his nose with a cane, after this incident they began to call him that.
By the way, Jackie knows how to write and read Chinese poorly: there were almost no classes in grammar and reading at school, and if there were, the guys did not listen to anything and went about their own business. Jackie learned Chinese already in adulthood, along with English.
His name "Jackie" Chan got when he worked at a construction site in Australia.
Jackie's first role was in Big and Little Wong Tin Bar at the age of eight, and by the time he graduated from high school in 1971, he had seven films under his belt.
Once a young and unknown actor faced total lack of money, then he had to star in an “adult film”.
Jackie is not shy about her past and looks at such an experience philosophically.
Over time, the tabloids unearthed information that a frank film with his participation was filmed in 1975 and was called "All in The Family". By the way, many of his colleagues from Hollywood also started with porn.
Chan worked as an acrobat and stuntman, and got into big cinema as a sparring partner of Bruce Lee in the films Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon.
After Bruce Lee's death, producer Willie Chan cast Jackie as the new Bruce Lee in a number of shoddy films. However, Jackie wanted to create his own screen image, which would combine comedy, stunts and martial arts. He achieved this in his film The Drunken Master.
Then, in 1976, Jackie underwent eye enlargement surgery: during filming, he fell from the table to the floor and injured his eye. When the eye healed, it turned out to be wider than the other, after which the doctor advised me to do cosmetic surgery and increase the second one.
Jackie is the first and only person in the Hong Kong film industry to wrest independence from the triad.
Jackie only works with her stunt team. He organized this group back in 1985 after the filming of "Police Story": then many of the stuntmen working with him suffered, and none of them wanted to work with him anymore.
The promised surprise: Jackie Chan's meeting with his first team many years later!
Now, Chan has an average of 16 stuntmen who, after 10-15 years of work, become martial arts choreographers. Jackie personally trains them, pays for treatment and insurance, and fully trusts his guys.
It is curious that when filming films in Hong Kong, the inhabitants of the city send a secret commission that checks Jackie for honesty.
He easily passes such tests. He once re-shot a 10-minute scene 2,900 times. “People say Jackie is slow. I reshoot until I like this movement. This is how I can be sure that my fans will like it.”
In Chan's films there is no bloody violence, erotic scenes, and swearing appears only as a comedic highlight. The actor himself is proud of this and says that many children and women watch his films, so he cannot allow excess.
In his films, Jackie always plays only heroes who have become such by chance, and in the film he must be present someone who needs his protection: a girl, a child or an elderly person.
According to Jackie, doing tricks often scares him. But most of all he is afraid of hospitals, doctors and especially injections. Chan is not afraid of breaking his arm or leg, but the thought of going to the hospital terrifies him.
Incidentally, Chan nearly died while filming a fairly simple stunt in the 1986 film Armor of God. Due to the fact that the shooting took place in Yugoslavia, he suffered from jet lag. Still, he managed to perform a jump from a wall onto a tree branch flawlessly.
He did not like the scene and decided to re-shoot it, and during the second attempt, he missed a branch and fell from a height of 12 meters onto the stones.
Jackie injured his skull, a piece of which got into his brain, bleeding began and blood began to flow from his ears. Emergency surgery saved his life.
Now a plastic plate covers the hole in Chan's skull, and his right ear is almost deaf.
Not surprisingly, over the years, Jackie managed to damage almost all parts of his body: he broke his nose three times, injured his hands countless times, and injured his knees many times.
He suffered from dislocations of both shoulders, pelvis and sternum. And his thighs were once crushed between two vehicles.
After that, no insurance company takes on such a risk as his insurance.
Jackie sleeps 4-5 hours a day.
Perhaps because of this, he has appeared in nearly 80 films as an actor, 11 as a stuntman, 15 as a director and 11 as a producer.
It was also not in vain that Jackie studied singing at the boarding school: since 1984 he has released more than 20 albums with his songs, and since 1980 he has sung theme songs in all his films made in China.
In 2012, Chan became a Guinness World Record holder by setting the record for the most credits in a single film: in Armor of God: Mission Zodiac, he worked as a screenwriter, director, main actor, producer, executive producer, cinematographer, production designer, line producer , stunt coordinator, props manager, lighting engineer, stunt performer, composer, theme song performer, and even catering coordinator.
He also holds the record for the most career stunts performed by any live stuntman. Their number exceeds 1000.
The animated series "The Adventures of Jackie Chan" was a success, where Jackie answered questions from fans after each episode. But he did not voice his character.
The actor is widely known for his charity and is involved in many different projects. Often acts as a goodwill ambassador in various actions, for example, against animal cruelty, assistance to victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, or from floods in mainland China.
Jackie has been married to Taiwanese actress Lin Fengjiao since the early 1980s.
$26
- in this amount, Jackie's parents appreciated him immediately after birth. They could not pay for the services of a British obstetrician and offered him to take the baby, which the doctor resolutely refused. The boy's father had to borrow money from neighbors. About six years later, having gathered to work from Hong Kong to Australia, the parents again tried to place Jackie in good hands, this time - successfully. He was taken to a boarding school at the Peking Opera.
Among the Chinese at that time there was a peculiar idea of what an artist should know and be able to do. The children were kept locked up in spartan conditions. Literacy was considered superfluous. “I still can't read and write properly, even in my native Chinese,” Jackie admits. - I began to master wisdom only after forty, now I can somehow make out what the secretary wrote under my dictation. When life forced me, I learned to speak English, although reading and writing didn’t work out this time either.” Extremely inhumane but effective methods were used to teach boys to sing, dance, acrobatics and martial arts. “Every day from five in the morning until midnight, the stick taught me,” the actor recalls. - The stick told me to jump and strike. The teacher said, "Jump over the table." I replied that I couldn't. Then he took out a stick and I jumped over two tables. For the misconduct or mistake of one, everyone was punished, so we tried not to make mistakes.
- From five in the morning until midnight, a stick taught me, - the actor recalls his stay in a boarding school at the Peking Opera. Photo: Global Look Press
30 seconds the first street fight that 17-year-old Jackie and two of his friends got involved in after graduating from the boarding school continued. Six bikers didn't like having teenagers staring at their bikes. Trained underage fighters came out of the fight as winners, but not without losses. “In a normal fight, martial arts isn't as much of an advantage as they show in the movies,” says Jackie. - Moreover, we were brought up more like tricksters than athletes. We scattered these evil guys, rushed to run, and after a few blocks I felt blood trickling down my sandal pants: one of the bikers hit me with a knife. The next day, I pulled someone's tooth out of my fist. And I realized that I hate violence. In films, fights are more like dance, it's choreography and beauty. A brawl in the street is a dirty business, in which there is neither heroism nor romance.
2900 takes one scene allowed Jackie to enter the Guinness Book of Records and earn a reputation as the most meticulous stunt coordinator in the history of cinema. He is also known for the fact that on the set he spares neither himself nor the stuntmen. “When I bam bam bam to an Asian stuntman, he blocks almost all the punches,” Jackie explains the prohibitive number of doubles and injuries. - When I do bam-bam-bam to an American, he, God forbid, parries one blow on the third attempt. In addition, in Asia, we have the right to insert into the film a scene on the set of which someone was injured. It's illegal in America." Jackie himself receives the most serious injuries in most cases. With age, the instinct of self-preservation made him stop performing stunts without doubles and use computer graphics. “I have to admit that I’m no longer fit for many things,” the actor is sad. - And then, any damage means a hospital and injections. I am not afraid of much in life, but the mere thought that liquid will be pumped into my body through needles breaks a cold sweat. You have no idea how many times I have escaped in disgrace from a nurse with a syringe!
Jackie Chan did 2,900 takes for a scene in the 1981 film Lord Dragon.
2 girls committed suicide in 1982 after learning that Jackie had a girlfriend. One threw herself under a subway train, the other drank poison right in his office. “I was popular with women, even when I was a simple stuntman,” Chan said. - And after I became famous and got rich, they flocked to me like butterflies to a flower. I enjoyed intimacy with so many beauties, Chinese and foreign, that at one fine moment, female beauty ceased to excite me. How cut off! I don't feel like running after skirts anymore - or there aren't any skirts around to impress me."
Fans in vain envied the actress Joan Lin, who eventually became his wife. “We just dated until Joan got pregnant,” Chan says. - I wanted a child, so I took her with me to the USA. When the time came to give birth, it was necessary to fill out the documents, and the agent advised me to get married in order to avoid migration problems. We got married in a coffee shop during our lunch break." Fascinated by his career and love affairs, Jackie quickly abandoned his wife and son Jaycee, who eventually moved to Taiwan together. “There was a period in our lives when I saw my family six times in six years,” says the actor. - Even when I visited them, I spent more time with friends than at the family table. Those who call me a bad father are right, but I did everything so that my son received a real education, realized my childhood dreams of becoming a lawyer, engineer or doctor. And Jacey chose acting from all professions! My wife burst into tears and said to him: "This damned trade has already taken my husband from me."
Jackie just dated Chinese actress Joan Lin until she got pregnant. Then Chan married her and took her to the USA. Photo: Zuma/TASS
17 years ago Former Miss Asia Elaine Ng gave birth to a daughter from Jackie. Despite the fact that the actor, after much deliberation, recognized the child, Elaine refused to demand child support from him. “My mother almost drank herself, it was so difficult for her to raise me alone,” says Etta Ng. “I don’t consider Jackie a father: he was never a part of my life, and I don’t have any family feelings for him.”
Oddly enough, the scandal with the illegitimate daughter returned Jackie to the family. He expected his wife to ask for a divorce, but she behaved differently. “We spoke frankly for the first time in years, maybe ever,” says Joan. - Jackie apologized for neglecting us. Said I was too good for him. As it turned out, he never trusted women, he always expected a stab in the back from them. He thought I was as frivolous and unreliable as his mistresses. And only this unpleasant story made Jackie understand who truly loves him and will never betray him.
100 g marijuana discovered by police during a search of Jaycee Chan's apartment in August 2014. After hearing that his son had been smoking weed regularly for eight years, Jackie's fanatical opponent of drugs said that he would strangle him with his own hands if he knew about it before the police. During his six months in prison, he never once visited Jaycee in prison and refused to use his extensive connections to make his imprisonment more comfortable. "I'll be happy if prison teaches him at least something," said Jackie.
The actor's relationship with his son was very cool even before this incident. According to Jackie's will, after his death, most of the fortune will go not to the family, but to charitable foundations: to protect the environment and build schools in the poorest regions of China. “If my son is worth something, he himself will be able to earn,” commented the actor. “And if not, I don’t want a worthless loser wasting my money.”
Jackie Chan bequeathed most of his fortune to charitable foundations. - If my son is worth something, he will be able to earn, - says the actor. - And if not, I don't want a worthless loser wasting my money. With son Jacey. Photo: Gettyimages.ru
$130 million- Jackie Chan's fortune is estimated at approximately the same amount, although even he himself does not know the exact numbers. “Hands do not reach to count,” the actor laughs. In addition to cinema, restaurants, theaters, the coffee business, a clothing line and his own brand of watches bring him income. “My love story with watches began with my first serious earnings,” says Jackie. - Imagine an uncouth guy who suddenly became a millionaire. In a week I bought myself almost everything that I dreamed of my whole life. And so I go into a chic watch store, and two of my stuntmen follow me with a bag of money. This is not a figure of speech, but a natural bag containing $64,000 in our currency. I ask them to show me the most expensive watch and I buy seven different models. For the next week, I put on a new watch every day, as if I were accidentally meeting friends and during the conversation I rolled up my sleeve for them to admire.
Jackie did not immediately learn to manage his colossal fortune. He admits that he was easily fooled and tempted even by people he considered close. One time, a set decorator volunteered to rent an estate for him, after which he disappeared along with the money. “I decided not to look for him,” Jackie shrugs. - The people who stole from me did not become richer, and I, despite my then naivety, did not become poorer. My attitude towards wealth has changed: I am no longer interested in buying cars, yachts and planes. I wear the same clothes, eat modestly, value convenience more than luxury. Now I need money to give it to good causes. The only thing I would like to buy is time, because there is never enough of it.”
Jackie Chan (birth name Chen Gangsheng, in another transcription Chan Kongsan (Chan, born in Hong Kong), English Jackie Chan) is a Hong Kong, Chinese and American actor, stuntman and martial artist, as well as a singer and philanthropist.He became famous for playing the lead roles in the comedy action movies The Drunken Master, Dragon Lord, Super Cop, Showdown in the Bronx, Rush Hour, Armor of God, 30 Million Baby and many others; He has acted in more than 100 films.
In addition to numerous merits, he is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, MBE, winner of the Academy Award for his contribution to cinema.
Family and childhood
Jackie Chan was born in Hong Kong on April 7, 1954. His parents Charles Chang (1914-2008) and Lily Chang (1916-2002) fled to Hong Kong from China to escape political persecution: Charles, an active supporter of the conservative Kuomintang Party, was its secret agent during the civil war, and after the victory of the Communists he revealed and recognized as an enemy of the people. The mother of the future actor, according to some reports, was a drug dealer - she sold opium. 
In Hong Kong, the family had to start from scratch, so they lived below the poverty line. Even the money for the doctor, which Lily needed at the birth of her son, the father was forced to borrow from friends. Parents were hired to serve in the French embassy: Charles worked as a cook, and Lily became a maid.
The father began to introduce Chen to kung fu from early childhood - he believed that martial arts would help the child gain patience, strength and courage. Mom affectionately called her son Pao-Pao (“cannonball”), because he often rushed around the house, knocking down everything in his path.
At the age of 5, Chan began going to elementary school, but after the first grade he was expelled for poor performance. In 1960, when he was 6 years old, his parents again faced persecution from the Chinese side and were forced to move once again, this time to Australia. In Canberra, Charles took a job as a chef at the US Embassy, but decided that it would be better for his son to stay in his native Hong Kong and learn a useful profession, so he placed the boy in the Peking Opera School at the Chinese Theater Academy, where Chan spent the next 10 years.
The school taught martial arts, acrobatics, singing and acting and prepared the boys for future careers in traditional Chinese opera. The strictest discipline reigned here, severe corporal punishments were practiced. Chan did not like his school, but he had nowhere to go: his parents were far away, and he almost never saw them. Therefore, the boy studied intensively and at one time was even a member of the Seven Lucky Group, an ensemble of the seven most talented students who traveled to theaters in Hong Kong and abroad.
How actor Jackie Chan has changed
He then became close with two bandmates, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, and the three of them formed a show group known as "Three Brothers" or "Three Dragons". During his studies, as a teenager, Chan managed to act in extras and episodes in several films: "Eternal Love", "Big and Little Wong Tin Bar", as well as "Fist of Fury" and "Enter the Dragon" with Bruce Lee.
At the age of 17, the young man successfully graduated from the theater school, but by this time the traditional Chinese opera had lost its former popularity, and the graduates were left alone with uncertainty. The situation was complicated by the fact that general education subjects were not taught at the theater school, and Chang could not even read and write properly. All that remained for him was either unskilled physical labor or a career as a stuntman in films.
Top 10 Most Dangerous Jackie Chan Stunts
The beginning of a film career
In 1971, Chan played the lead role for the first time in his life - it was the film "Little Tiger from Kwantung", where he performed under the pseudonym Chan Yuen Lung. The film was not released to the big screen until 1973, but neither before its release, nor in the months after that, there were no new offers for filming. 
There was also a lull in the work of the stuntman, and the young man was forced to accept the starring role in the adult comedy film All in the Family (1975). In this picture, he first starred naked in an erotic scene; in addition, this is the only Jackie Chan film that does not contain a single episode of martial arts or stunts. In general, the Hong Kong film industry was in a state of decline during this period, and, unable to find a new job, in early 1976, Chan went to live with his parents in Australia.
In Australia, the young man took an accelerated course of secondary education at Dixon College, while working part-time at a construction site. Here he often worked in tandem with a man named Jack. Since the Australians found it difficult to pronounce his Chinese name Gansheng, they began to call the young guy by the name of his older and taller comrade "little Jack" or "Jackie" - this is how he got his new name.
The young man was not satisfied with life in Australia: construction work was hard and did not give moral satisfaction, and he could hardly count on something better. The rescue came in the form of a telegram from a man named Willie Chan, who worked for the famous Hong Kong producer and director Lo Wei. They saw Jackie's stunt stunts in one of the films and wanted to cast him as the lead in The New Fist of Fury (1976). Chan happily returned to Hong Kong, and Willy subsequently became his manager and best friend.
In the film The New Fist of Fury, Lo Wei strongly encouraged and emphasized the resemblance of Jackie Chan to the famous Bruce Lee, also known by the nickname "Little Dragon". The young man even took on the screen name Xin Lun (in another transcription of Chen Long), which literally means "become a dragon." The film was not a great success, as Jackie Chan did not look organic in the style of hand-to-hand combat that is characteristic of Bruce Lee. However, Lo Wei made several more similar films starring Chan, and Jackie invented some of the tricks for these films himself. Gradually, the young actor began to create a new genre - a comedy with a demonstration of martial arts or street fights and an abundance of complex, sometimes even dangerous tricks.
The first success came to Jackie Chan after the release of the films Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (1978) and Drunken Master (1978) directed by Yuan Heping (in a different transcription by Yun Wophing). In The Drunken Master, Jackie played the role of the Chinese folk hero Wong Feihong, who is presented as a rustic and careless young man.
After that, he returned to Lo Wei's studio and developed a successful "drunken master" comedy style in Spiritual Kung Fu (1978) and A Little Kung Fu (1980), and in Fearless Hyena (1979) Jackie Chan also acted as co-director. However, after filming Fearless Hyena 2 (1983), Jackie and Willie left Lo Wei's studio for the larger Golden Harvest studio.
Jackie Chan. "Drunk master". Trailer
Worldwide film success
In the early 1980s, Jackie Chan was already a successful actor with his own unique style and role, but his success has so far been limited to the Asian region. And Jackie dreamed of conquering the whole world and, in particular, the United States. He repeatedly entered the American market with the projects The Big Brawl (1980), Cannonball Race (1981) and its sequel (1984), Patron (1985), Armor of God (1986) and many others. , but these paintings did not bring big fees in America. 
While performing one of the stunts for the film Armor of God, Jackie Chan fell from a tree and suffered a serious head injury with a skull fracture. This caused serious fears for his life, but the actor quickly recovered.
On the set of Project A (1983), Chan officially created the Jackie Chan Stunt Team, with which he worked in subsequent years (and in 2002, the actor was awarded the annual Taurus World Stunt Academy Award). All this time, he was extremely in demand in the Asian film market: in the period from 1983 to 2007, Chan was nominated almost annually at the Hong Kong Film Festival as the best actor or best stunt coordinator, and he received this award five times.
Real success in the United States came to Chan only in the mid-1990s, after the film Showdown in the Bronx (1995). American critics wrote: “Any attempt to evaluate this film from a rational point of view is doomed to failure. Don't try to look at the plot and dialogue, don't look at the acting. The whole point is in Jackie Chan himself - he does what he can like no one else. His movements are confident, full of grace and grace. The choreography of the fight is set with humor (and without too much fanaticism). He's just having fun. And if we allow ourselves to plunge into this atmosphere, then we will have fun too.
Showdown in the Bronx. Jackie Chan's best fights compilation
And there were a lot of them: as when working on other paintings, Jackie did not spare himself at all and was even ready to risk his life for the sake of a spectacular shot. In the same year, the actor received the MTV Movie Awards for his achievements in cinema. Chan's other new work filmed in Hong Kong was also recognized - Thunderbolt (1995), First Strike (1996), Mister Cool (1996).
Top 10 Jackie Chan Stunts
Finally, in 1998, Jackie Chan took the plunge and made his first all-American film, Rush Hour, starring Chris Tucker. The picture gained great popularity and became one of the highest grossing films of the year, and the creative tandem of Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker received the MTV Movie Awards as the best duet. Subsequently, sequels were released in the same composition - "Rush Hour - 2" (2001, brought the "MTV Movie Awards" for the best fight) and "Rush Hour - 3" (2007). However, despite the commercial success, the third part of the critics was perceived rather coolly: "This is a dull retelling of earlier films, and even a change of scenery cannot mask the lack of new ideas."
At the turn of the 1990s and 2000s, Jackie Chan began to experiment with his role, trying to diversify it. One of such successful “pen attempts” can be called the film “Magnificent” (1999), in which Jackie played a hero who is still fluent in kung fu, but at the same time is an incorrigible romantic and dreamer. The comedy western Shanghai Noon (2000) also became a success, where American comedian Owen Wilson became Jackie's shooting partner. “Although the plot of the picture is not worth discussing about it, Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson look great together. The footage is great, and Jackie Chan is hilarious. A wonderful film in the spirit of the good old cinema, ”critics spoke about the picture.
The next three years were marked by less successful work, which combined Jackie Chan's own style with expensive superimposed special effects. Thus, the film The Tuxedo (2002) was scolded for its "stupid" plot and blurred perception of tricks, "Medallion" (2003) was called "expensive cheap", and "Around the World in 80 Days" (2004) was criticized for too free deviations from the original novel by Jules Verne.
And after a series of failures in Hollywood, Jackie Chan decided to return to Hong Kong, where he was waiting for a new triumph in connection with the release of the film New Police Story (2004). This time he managed to successfully combine fights and stunts with the drama of a police hero who lost his friends. This was followed by the equally successful fantasy film The Myth (2005), and then the 30 Million Dollar Baby (2006, also known as Rob-B-Hood), in which Jackie Chan's "famous comic charm lit up a farce about a kidnapping a baby is a farce with a lively enough plot so that the eerie contents of children's diapers do not have time to stain the playpen.
In 2008, the Chinese-American film The Forbidden Kingdom directed by Rob Minkoff was released, on the set of which Chan met and became friends with the famous Chinese actor and martial artist Jet Li. Critics greeted the picture ambivalently, noting that "the action scenes are great, but there is too much" water "between them." After that, he continued to experiment with various genres, acting in Chinese and American films.
In 2010, Chan starred alongside Jaden Smith (son of Will Smith) in The Karate Kid, a remake of the original 1984 film. The role of an elderly kung fu teacher was his first dramatic role in American cinema.
In 2011, Jackie Chan's 100th film, The Fall of the Last Empire, was released. Here he acted not only as the lead actor, but also as a co-director and executive producer. In the same year, the actor received the People's Choice Award as the favorite action movie star.
In 2012, at the Cannes Film Festival, Jackie Chan announced his retirement from action films, as his age was no longer "suitable" for the genre. However, he later clarified that he did not intend to give up his favorite business completely, but would only perform fewer tricks and, in general, would take more care of his body.
After that, he starred in the films Police Story 4 (2013), Dragon Sword (2015) and On the Trail (2016). In December 2016, the comedy thriller Railroad Tigers was released in China, in which the artist starred with his son Jaycee. On November 12, 2016, Jackie Chan was awarded the Academy Award "Oscar" for "extraordinary achievements" in cinema.
Musical career
Jackie Chan has been professionally trained in singing since childhood at the Peking Opera School. In the 1980s, he started recording songs and gained popularity as a performer in Hong Kong and the Asian region. Since 1984, he has released 20 albums of compositions in Cantonese, Mandarin and Taiwanese, as well as in Japanese and English. He often performed songs for his films himself, but when the films were released in Europe and the USA, these compositions were usually replaced.Jackie Chan sings Adele's song in Chinese
In 2007, Jackie Chan recorded the song "We Are Ready" ("We are ready") - the official song of preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics. He also sang the song at the 2008 Summer Paralympics annual countdown ceremony and also sang "Hard to Say Goodbye" at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics closing ceremony with Andy Lau, Liu Juan and Emil (Wakin) Chau.
Political and social activities
Jackie Chan promotes a healthy lifestyle: he himself does not smoke, does not drink alcohol or even coffee. In addition, he actively opposes drug use and supported the campaign of Chinese President Xi Jinping in this matter: drug trafficking must be completely eradicated, and everyone who takes them must be "severely punished." In 2014, when his own son Jaycee was arrested for smoking marijuana, Jackie Chan said he was "shocked, crushed and disgraced". 
In 2009, at the Boao Asian Forum, the actor was asked if he considered freedom to be a positive or a negative thing. To which he replied: “I am gradually coming to the conclusion that we Chinese need to be managed and controlled. If we are not controlled, then we will begin to create what we want. This remark angered many prominent figures in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and Chan's rep later had to claim that the actor was talking about freedom in the entertainment industry and not about Chinese society in general.
In December 2012, Jackie Chan angered many by calling Hong Kong a "protest city" and calling for restrictions on the right to demonstrate. A little later in an interview, he called the United States the “most corrupt” country in the world, which caused a backlash of criticism. Journalists accused Chan of deliberately belittling America in order to present China in a more favorable light, as well as that he was driven by personal motives and attitudes towards the American film market.
Evening Urgant. Jackie Chan
Despite some controversial statements, the actor has a reputation as a caring person and is active in charitable activities. Back in 1988, he founded the "Jackie Chan Charitable Foundation" to provide scholarships to young people in Hong Kong and to help those affected by natural disasters and diseases.
In 2005, the actor organized the Dragon Heart Foundation to help children and the elderly in remote areas of China: building schools, purchasing textbooks and school uniforms, purchasing wheelchairs, warm clothes, etc. In 2011, this fund expanded and began to work also in Europe.
In 2004, Chan participated financially in helping those affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami, and after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, he donated 10 million yuan. In addition, he donated to UNICEF and two other children's organizations for a total of HK$4.14 million. In June 2006, Jackie Chan announced that he admired the grandiose charitable donations of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates and himself intended to bequeath half of his fortune to charitable purposes.
Personal life of Jackie Chan
In matters related to his personal life, the famous actor is quite secretive. He is a Buddhist by religion. On December 1, 1982, he registered a marriage with Taiwanese actress Joan Lin (real name Lin Fengjiao, born in 1953), and two days later, on December 3, they had a son, Chan Zuming, who later became known as Jaycee Chan as a singer and an actor. 
The relationship between father and son was not always smooth sailing. Jaycee was offended when, in 2011, his father confirmed his former decision to bequeath half of his fortune to charity, and not leave it to him. Jackie Chan then said about his son: “If he is capable of something, then he will earn his money himself. And if he is not capable, then he will spend mine in vain.
In 2014, when Jaycee was arrested for possession and use of marijuana, his father did not defend him, but said that the young man should be responsible for his own actions. However, when six months later the son was released from prison, they reconciled. “I haven't seen him for too long. And I feel that he has matured,” commented Jackie Chan. “We stayed up for a long time, we talked almost all night.”
Jackie Chan apologizes for drug addict son
Despite a long and strong marriage, Jackie Chan also has an illegitimate daughter, Etta Wu Zholin (born January 18, 1999). Her mother, actress Elaine Wu Qili, who was awarded the title of Miss Asia 1990, decided to raise her daughter without the participation of her father. Chan admits that he "made a mistake that many men around the world have made."
Jackie Chan holds the Guinness World Record for being officially "the living actor who has performed the most stunts in a movie."
Jackie's personal motto: "There is no fear, there are no understudies, there are no equals either." With this lifestyle, the actor “earned” a huge number of injuries during his career: he received a dislocation of the hip joints many times, broke his skull, fingers and toes, nose, cheekbones, thigh bones, sternum, neck, ankles and ribs. The right ankle was especially “unlucky”, and now, with any jumps, the actor can only land on his left foot. Due to frequent bodily injuries, Jackie Chan is blacklisted by all insurance companies and has long been unable to insure his life and health while working on films.
In 1996, Jackie Chan received an honorary doctorate in social science from the Baptist University of Hong Kong; in 2008 he was made Honorary Professor at the Hong Kong Branch of the Savannah College of Art and Design, and in 2009 received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Cambodia.
Jackie is seriously passionate about motorsport. He co-owns the Chinese Jackie Chan DC Racing team with driver David Chen. In addition, he is an active football fan - he is a fan of the Hong Kong national team, the England team and Manchester City.
In 2011, several news agencies immediately reported that the 56-year-old actor allegedly died in a Los Angeles hospital, where he was taken after a heart attack. Before the official denial came, US President Barack Obama managed to speak with words of condolence, and for several hours the whole world mourned the beloved artist. Fortunately, this information turned out to be a "duck". The actor himself took the incident with humor.
Jackie Chan now
In October 2017, the Chinese-British film The Foreigner, directed by Martin Campbell, was released, in which Chan partnered with Pierce Brosnan from the "West" side and 
Jackie Chan is a successful businessman. Since 2004, he has been producing and selling his own brand of clothing and accessories under the JCD (Jackie Chan Design) brand. He owns a chain of sushi restaurants, several sports clubs, and a biscuit and chocolate production line.
Chan has stars on the Avenue of Stars in Hong Kong, as well as on the famous Avenue of Stars in Hollywood and on the Old Arbat in Moscow. He is the author of the autobiographical books Inside the Dragon (1997), I, Jackie Chan (1998), Jackie Chan: Old Before I Grow Up (2015) and I'm Happy (2016). The number of books written about him by other people is incalculable.
Actor Jackie Chan begins his interview with Forbes by talking about his own frugality. It's hard to believe at first - we're in one of the most expensive hotel rooms in all of Beverly Hills at the Montage Hotel. The action star is dressed in a Jackie Chan T-shirt with a signature dragon logo.
To dispel doubts, he brings a bar of soap from the bathroom in a plastic soap dish. Chan explains that the soap is from the MGM Grand Hotel in Macau, which the actor takes around the world as proof of his diligence. Frugal approach is also environmentally friendly: Jackie recently participated in the recording of social videos urging Chinese consumers not to buy things made from tiger skin and rhinoceros skin. But the main metaphor of soap is different: it, like its owner, symbolically connects America and China.
The ubiquitous in Hollywood, Chan, in fact, has not had a successful dream factory project in his portfolio for five years now. This does not prevent him from remaining one of the highest paid actors in the world ($ 50 million in income from June 2014 to June 2015, 39th in the ranking of the 100 highest paid stars in the world according to Forbes) - last year more than him among colleagues earned only "iron man" Robert Downey Jr. Chang, 61, knows how to sell himself to American and Chinese audiences like no one else.
Doing business with him is a profitable venture on both sides of the Pacific.
Take last year's film Dragon Sword. The American audience in the mass has not yet heard anything about this work, despite the star casting - in addition to Chan, Hollywood stars Adrien Brody and John Cusack are involved in the tape. In the Chinese box office, the picture has already thundered, collecting an impressive box office of $120 million by local standards, of which Jackie received at least $10 million. The next similar collaboration is on the way: Chan and American comedian Johnny Knoxville will play in the film "On the Trail", the former also acting as an investor in the project.
The money that Jackie earns on the set is far from his only source of income. The branching of the actor's personal business empire would be the envy of the rap mogul Jay Z himself: there are countless paraphernalia with the name of Chan, and supplies of segways, and even a whole chain of cinemas. According to Forbes, the state of the star has already reached $ 350 million. The actor and his representatives declined to comment on these figures.
“He is like Mickey Mouse to Chinese culture. His image is so recognizable that "Jackie Chan" sounds like a household name," says Grady Hendrix, founder of the New York Asian Film Festival.
Commercial success in the PRC is always based on good relations with the authorities, and Chiang prudently acquired a political "roof": he is a delegate to the China People's Political Consultative Conference. This is an influential pro-government organization, membership in which gives the green light to all films with the participation of a star.
There is a reason to show loyalty. The total revenue of Chinese rolled products over the past five years has grown by 33%, to $5 billion in 2014, and in February of this year even surpassed that of the US market. Hollywood blockbusters could potentially break the big jackpot in China, but local regulators oppose overseas expansion: foreign hits, at the behest of officials, can take too long to find their way to the big screen or compete with each other in the same time slot. There is a way out - to attract Chinese companies as partners at the production stage. So, for example, the creators of the latest "Transformers" and "Iron Man" did it - and the films shot.
Chan fits perfectly into this model.
In China, without any irony, he is called "Big Brother" - other actors can only dream of such a reputation.
“I always look at the map,” says the star, spinning the invisible globe. - Why does one part of the world have to be called "yours", and the other - "mine"? Who drew these boundaries? The world belongs to us all. America belongs to me. China belongs to you."
Such an interpretation of the global world order is not surprising if you know Chan's biography. Jackie was born in British-controlled Hong Kong in 1954. His parents worked in the kitchen of the French Embassy, and then moved to Australia (later the actor learned that his father was spying for Taiwan). From there, the future idol of billions soon returned to his homeland and entered the school of theatrical art, where he began to learn the basics of martial arts and acrobatics. The teachers at the school looked like kung fu masters from classic action movies. “You make a mistake, you get hit. And sometimes they beat me for no reason, ”recalls the actor. After leaving school, he teetered for several years between part-time construction jobs in Australia and failed attempts to gain a foothold in the film business in Hong Kong. Parents in an ultimatum dissuaded their son from an acting career, but the case decided everything. In the early 1970s, 20-year-old Chan was invited to a cameo role in the legendary film Enter the Dragon, one of Bruce Lee's iconic films.
It was Bruce Lee who at first became Jackie's role model. Moreover, the young actor went from the opposite - in no case did he want to be like an idol. On the contrary, Chan eagerly set about developing his own style of fighting, as different as possible from Lee's technique (from comparisons with which, however, he never managed to get rid of). If Lee's every movement on the screen was perfected, and his image gravitated towards tragic heroes, then Chan transferred the comic mechanics of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton to action films. Films with Jackie are always filled with humor, which often turns them into a farce. "I didn't want anyone to imitate me," says the actor. “I just didn’t want to imitate anyone myself.”
Diligence and originality very quickly brought Chan to the major star league. He put on the conveyor the release of Hong Kong action films, in which he himself performed the most dangerous stunts - sometimes at the cost of breaking his arms and legs (and in 1986, on the set of Armor of God, Chan fell from a tree and received serious injuries that almost put an end to his later career). With the opening of the Chinese market in the 1990s, the actor switched from the film industry to related businesses: among his projects were cafes, gyms and even an attempt to become a singer. In 1998, he founded Jackie Chan Design. Her website now sells more than 400 items, from drinking water to watches, "designed exclusively by Mr. Jackie Chan."
The actor began his attack on America in 1995 with Showdown in the Bronx. Three years later, Rush Hour was released in the USA, which made Chan and his co-star Chris Tucker famous all over the world. The film still holds the comedy record for opening weekend grosses, with a box office of $140 million in the US and $100 million overseas. Today, this proportion is common for blockbusters, but at that time such a significant income in other countries seemed fantastic. “The American box office was considered the global box office,” Chan says. And Rush Hour director Brett Ratner still calls Jackie "Chinese's best export product ever."
Chan's American career included the commercially successful franchises Shanghai Noon, Kung Fu Panda, and two sequels to Rush Hour (and a fourth installment is in talks today). But unlike, say, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who completely broke with his historical homeland after moving from Austria to the States, Jackie never forgot about his Chinese fans and regularly returned to Hong Kong to either star in the traditional role of a comic martial artist, or try on more serious dramatic roles.
“I dreamed of becoming an Asian Robert de Niro or Dustin Hoffman,” the actor admits.
His popularity was taken advantage of by the Chinese authorities, who recruited Chan as an ambassador for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. At the same time, the actor moved all his business enterprises to the capital of China. The city, to his surprise, quickly turned into the epicenter of a new powerful film market, which was tightly patronized by the state.
While Chan insists in interviews that he faces the same challenges as other players, there is little doubt that he is in a privileged position that opens up lobbying opportunities. To approve the film in all instances, to agree on its distribution - to agree on all the nuances, “teamwork” is required, only then success comes, the agent of the actor Philip Button carefully argues.
Chan's closeness to the Chinese authorities and his ironic attitude towards the protests in Hong Kong turned the star into persona non grata among local Democrats. “If you always do and say what is beneficial to the authorities, it is certainly easier for you to turn your affairs around,” critics the actor Emily Lo, chairman of the Hong Kong Democratic Party.
Such reproaches infuriate Chan.
“Why can't I be close to the government? - the actor goes on a cry. - We are all Chinese. And we should all love our country.”
According to the star, his position helps to develop the industry. Thus, recently the authorities heeded his recommendations to reduce import taxes on film equipment. “All this is aimed at improving the state of the industry,” Chan said. “They are listening to us.”
In total, there are about 20,000 movie theaters in China today, about half as many as in the US, despite a fourfold difference in population. “If they have 45,000 screens, the PRC will allow films to earn $500 million per opening weekend,” predicts Bruce Ratner.
Chan is not sitting idly by. Five years ago, with a partner, he opened the 17-screen Jackie Chan Yaolai International Cinema multiplex in Beijing and now sells 50,000 tickets on peak weekends. The success of the enterprise has led to the emergence of 37 more cinemas branded with the name of the star in the country, in each of which you can buy Chan paraphernalia. The actor is also developing his service company to supply American studios with bilingual Chinese professionals of all stripes, from lighting to assistant directors.
But his main business remains the American-Chinese co-production. “Now I am not only an actor. I'm an investor," Chan explains. And although he does not comment on Forbes calculations, the actor’s income level can be guessed from his reasoning about future projects, similar to casino bets: “I can lose up to $10 million [on the project]. But if I win, it will be $90 million.” .
Jackie Chan is known even to children familiar with action films. He became famous for his dangerous stunts and comedic talent. It is unlikely that anyone else will be able to squeeze into this niche in the cinema, which has been firmly occupied by the actor for decades. What do we know about Jackie Chan as a person?
1. The documentary "Traces of the Dragon: Jackie Chan and His Family" shows the rather colorful past of his parents. Jackie Chan's mother was a drug dealer, a gambler, and an insider in China's underworld. His father was a government spy. They met when Chan's father arrested her for smuggling opium.
2. Jackie Chan's parents fled to Hong Kong from China. When their son was born, they were unable to pay their hospital bills and seriously considered selling the newborn to a wealthy British doctor couple.
3. His birth name is Chan Kong-san. In the 1970s, Jackie had to move to her parents in Canberra in search of work and get a job as a laborer at a construction site. There he was nicknamed "Baby Jackie", which was later shortened to just Jackie.
4. In addition to his acting success, Jackie Chan is also an excellent singer, singing in English, Cantonese, Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanese. In his youth, he attended the Beijing Opera School along with kung fu classes. He even released 20 albums with songs in different languages in Asia.
5. Jackie Chan and his stunt team are blacklisted by all insurance companies, so he himself pays compensation to all injured colleagues, because no one undertakes to insure his deadly stunts.
6. Once Jackie Chan was invited to a talk show, where he not only captivated the audience, but also impressed them with his martial arts. He broke concrete blocks with his bare hand! The blocks were stacked in three rows, four blocks on top of each other, but Jackie did an excellent job, and in his fist he squeezed a chicken egg, which was not damaged as a result of the trick.
7. At the age of 17, Jackie Chan worked as a stuntman under the pseudonym Chan Yong Loon in the Bruce Lee films Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon. During filming, Bruce Lee inadvertently hit the energetic young stuntman on the head, but Jackie Chan still fondly remembers this moment.
8. Jackie Chan is a stubborn perfectionist. In the 1982 film Lord Dragon, some seconds of acrobatic scenes took several thousand takes and many, many days for Jackie to be satisfied with the result.
9. Jackie Chan used to work as a bouncer in a nightclub, but he gave up such an occupation when he realized that his martial arts skills could harm people. After one of the fights, he discovered that a bone was sticking out of his hand and tried to insert it back. The bone turned out to be a knocked-out tooth of his opponent.
10. In the 80s and 90s, the Triad mafia infiltrated the Hong Kong film industry, using it to launder money. Jackie Chan refused to obey the extortionists, so he and his team had to constantly carry weapons and grenades with them for their own safety.
11. Jackie Chan's death stunts cost him his health. During the filming of the movie Armor of God, he was severely injured - as a result, now there is a plate in his skull, and hearing in his right ear is noticeably reduced.
https://youtu.be/KZUj9A9xH0U
12. Viewers of the film Armor of God may remember how Jackie Chan jumped off a cliff and landed on a hot air balloon. He performed the trick on his own, but in reality he jumped onto a balloon not from a cliff, but from an airplane.
13. When Jackie Chan announced his intention to marry his girlfriend, two of his fans committed suicide: one committed suicide by jumping into the subway under a train, and the other drank poison right in front of the actor's office.
14. In his life, Jackie Chan has achieved a lot, and therefore won the attention of the Guinness Book of Records, where he has two entries: for the largest number of film stunts performed and for versatility in one film. On the set of films, he managed to combine up to 15 positions at the same time, including the position of food coordinator, composer, vocalist and props specialist.
15. The only son of actor Jaycee Chan does not shine a penny from his father's fortune, estimated at $ 130 million. Jackie Chan himself admitted that he originally planned to leave half the money for his family and the other half for charity, but then he changed his mind and now wants to send everything to charity. Speaking of his son, Jackie was brief: “Let him earn his own money. If he fails to do this, then he will simply waste my money.
