NAME: Jackie Chan, Jacky Chan, Sing Lung, Cheng Long, Yuen Lau, Chen Yuen-lung, Chung Long, Chen Lo, Cheng Lung, Chen Yuen Lung, Chu Yuan Long, Chen Yuen Long, Chen Yuan-lung, Chan Yuan Long, Paul Chan

Jackie Chan grew up in a Peking Opera school along with fellow classmates Sammo Hung, Yuen Baio, and Yuen Wah.  As kids, they would perform on stage and practice everyday.  During his teenage years (when the popularity of peking opera waned), Jackie worked as a stunt double.  After a couple of rough years, he caught the attention of producer Lo Wei.  With the death of Bruce Lee, there was a need to fill the void left by him.  However, at the time, Jackie was not up to replacing a legend.  His collaborations with Lo Wei were financially and creatively unsatisfying.  With the failure of Jackie's films, Lo Wei agreed to loan Jackie out to Seasonal for "Snake In the Eagle's Shadow" and "Drunken Master."  Once those films were hits, Lo Wei capitalized on Jackie's popularity by releasing previously shelved films, and threatened Jackie's life when Jackie refused to continue working with him.  Jackie signed on with Golden Harvest and made "The Young Master," a success for them.  With a contract on his life, Jackie sought refuge in Taiwan where he filmed "Dragon Lord."  The movie broke the record for the number of takes for a shot.  In the early 80's, he tried to break into the US market, but failed due to the poor quality of the films.  Determined, he went back to Hong Kong and made one of his best films, "Project A." In 1985, he attempt another Hollywood effort with "The Protector," but the movie misused his talents and the film suffered for it critically and financially.  It did decent business in Asia though, because Jackie had shot additional footage to the film for that particular market.  Angry with Hollywood, Jackie came back to Hong Kong and made his own cop film, "Police Story."  "Police Story" was a huge hit worldwide, and garnered him a cult following in the US.  Many of the scenes from the film had inspired Hollywood productions like "Tango and Cash" and "Rapid Fire."  After "Operation Condor" became overbudgeted and very late, Golden Harvest took the director's reins from Jackie and ordered him to make more films, resulting in his collaborations with Wong Jing on "City Hunter," Kirk Wong on "Crime Story," and Lau Kar Leung on "Drunken Master 2."  On the latter two films, he fired the directors and took over the film himself, which resulted in the unevenness of both films.  In 1996, he finally broke into Hollywood with the breakout success of "Rumble In the Bronx," with a 9.9 million dollar opening, beating both Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts at the box office.  He had worked out a deal with both New Line and Dimension Films in which each company could release a Jackie Chan film per year.  After "Rumble In the Bronx," Jackie's popularity was supposed to grow, but the box office take of his subsequent films have proven otherwise. To further cause the erosion of his stardom, his old films were being released cheaply and under different titles.However, "Rush Hour," with its huge success brought Jackie back into the limelight. With little marketing effort, Dimension Films released "Twin Dragons" in March 1999 with a take of only 7.7 million dollars after a month.  Probably the most famous asian star after Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan filmed "Shanghai Noon," costarring Owen Wilson and Lucy Liu, for Disney which opened summer 2000 against "Mission Impossible 2."  It did respectable business.  He has signed an exclusive contract with New Line, which resulted in his appearance in the North American version of Steven Chow's "King of Comedy," to be cut.  In 1999, he was involved in a scandal in Hong Kong, over his fathering Elaine Ng's unborn child.  In 2000, he hosted the season finale of Saturday Night Live with its ratings higher than its previous year hosted by Sarah Michelle Gellar.
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

FILMOGRAPHY

 

Big and Little Wong Tin-bar (1962)

Love Eternal (1963)

The Story of Qiu Xiang-lin (1964)

Police Woman (martial-arts director, actor) (1972)

Fist of Fury (stunt double) (1972)

Hapkido (1972)

The Heroine (martial-arts director, actor) (1973)

Enter the Dragon (1973)

Not Scared to Die/Eagle's Shadow Fist (1973)

Snake Fist Fighter/Master With Cracked Fingers (1973)

Stranger in Hong Kong (1974)

Golden Lotus (1974)

The Himalayan (1975)

All in the Family (1975)

Hand of Death/Countdown to Kung Fu (1975)

Fist of Death

New Fist of Fury (1976)

Shaolin Wooden Men/36 Wooden Men (1976)

Dance of Death (martial-arts director) (1976)

To Kill With Intrigue (1976)

Iron-Fisted Monk (martial-arts director) (1977)

The Killer Meteors (1977)

Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin (1977)

Magnificent Bodyguards (1977)

Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (1977)

Half a Loaf of Kung Fu (1978)

Spiritual Kung Fu/Karate Ghostbuster (1978)

Dragon Fist (1978)

Drunken Master (1978)

The Fearless Hyena (1979)

36 Crazy Fists (martial-arts director) (1979)

Odd Couple (martial-arts director) (1979)

The Fearless Hyena 2 (1980)

The Young Tiger/The Jackie Chan Story (1980)

The Young Master (1980)

The Big Brawl/Battle Creek Brawl (1980)

Cannonball Run (1981)

Drunken Fist Boxing (1981)

Fantasy Mission Force (1981)

Dragon Lord/Young Master in Love (1982)

Ninja Wars (1982)

Winners and Sinners/Five Lucky Stars (1983)

Project A/Pirate Patrol (1983)

Two in a Blackbelt (1984)

Pom Pom (1984)

Wheels on Meals/Spartan X (1984)

Cannonball Run 2 (1984)

My Lucky Stars/The Lucky Stars (1985)

Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Stars/The Target (1985)

The Protector (1985)

Police Story/Jackie Chan's Police Force (1985)

Heart of a Dragon/First Mission (1985)

Armour of God/Operation Condor 2 (1986)

Naughty Boys (producer) (1986)

I Am Sorry (co-producer) (1987)

Project A Part 2/Project B (1987)

Rouge (producer) (1987)

Dragons Forever/Cyclone Z (1987)

Police Story 2/Police Force 2 (1988)

The Inspector Wears Skirts (producer) (1988)

The Inspector Wears Skirts 2 (producer) (1989)

Outlaw Brothers (fight choreographer)

Mr. Canton and Lady Rose/Miracles (1989)

Island of Fire/The Prisoner (1990)

The Deadliest Art (1990)

Stage Door Johnny (producer) (1991)

The Kid From Tibet (1991)

Armour of God 2: Operation Condor (1991)

Actress (producer) (1992)

Twin Dragons (1992)

The Shootout (producer) (1992)

Police Story 3: Supercop (1992)

City Hunter (1992)

Crime Story/The New Police Story (1993)

Project S/Once A Cop/Supercop 2 (1993)

Drunken Master 2/The Legend of Drunken Master (1994)

Cinema of Vengeance (1994)

Rumble In The Bronx/Red Bronx (1995)

Thunderbolt/Dead Heat (1995)

Police Story 4: First Strike (1996)

Mr. Nice Guy (1996)

An Alan Smithee Film (1997)

Who Am I? (1998)

Rush Hour (1998)

Hot Wars (producer) (1998)

Gorgeous (1999)

King of Comedy (1999)

Gen X Cops (producer) (1999)

Purple Storm (producer) (1999)

Shanghai Noon (2000)

Gen Y Cops/Jackie Chan's Metal Mayhem (producer) (2001)

Accidental Spy (2001)

Rush Hour 2 (2001)

Tuxedo (2002)

Shanghai Knights (2002)

The Medallion/Highbinders (2003)

The Twin Effects (2003)

Around The World In 80 Days (2003)

 
 
 

LINKS:

The Official Jackie Chan Web Page
Jackie Chan Connection
 
 

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