November 2, 2023 | Miles Brucker

Facts About Jackie Chan


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.


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!

jackie chan

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.

Jackie Chan FactsGetty Images

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!

Jackie Chan FactsGetty Images

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!

Jackie Chan FactsWikimedia Commons, Gage Skidmore

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?

Jackie Chan FactsGetty Images

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.

Jackie Chan FactsGetty Images

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.

Jackie Chan FactsGetty 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.

Jackie Chan FactsGetty Images

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.

Jackie Chan FactsGetty Images

10. Pacifist

Despite his reputation for exceptional martial arts abilities, Jackie detests real-life confrontation. He maintains that he has been involved in merely a single physical altercation throughout his life, primarily due to his friends' insistence.

Jackie Chan FactsGetty Images

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?

Jackie Chan FactsGetty Images

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!

Jackie Chan FactsGetty Images

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.

Jackie Chan FactsShutterstock

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!

Jackie Chan FactsGetty Images

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.

Jackie Chan FactsGetty Images

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. Were there no law enforcement officers in China back then?

Jackie Chan FactsWikimedia 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.

Jackie Chan FactsGetty Images

18. Records Part II

Jackie Chan holds the Guinness World Record for Most Stunts by a Living Actor. Go Jackie!

Jackie Chan FactsShutterstock

19. Agent, Man

His father Charles was a spy for Chinese Nationalist government. No wonder he knows how to kick so much butt.

Jackie Chan FactsShutterstock

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.

Jackie Chan FactsShutterstock

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.

 

Jackie Chan FactsGetty Images

22. Vocal Range Part II

Jackie has released 20 albums since 1984 and has performed vocals in English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese and Taiwanese.

Jackie Chan FactsGetty Images

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!

 

Jackie Chan FactsGetty Images

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.

Jackie Chan FactsShutterstock

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!

Jackie Chan FactsGetty Images

26. Linguistics

He speaks 7 languages: Cantonese, Mandarin, English, German, Korean, Japanese and Thai and also American sign-language.

Jackie Chan FactsShutterstock

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".

Jackie Chan FactsGetty Images

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?

Jackie Chan FactsGetty Images

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).

Jackie Chan FactsDragon Lord, Golden Harvest Company

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.

Jackie Chan FactsJackie Chan Adventures, Adelaide Productions

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.

 

Jackie Chan FactsJackie Chan Adventures, Adelaide Productions

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.

Jackie Chan FactsShutterstock

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.

Jackie Chan FactsShutterstock

34. Nice

Jackie loves giving thumbs up. What a surprise, because we love seeing Jackie give the thumbs up.

Jackie Chan FactsGetty Images

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.

Jackie Chan FactsGetty Images

36. Rivalry

While filming for Wheels on Meals in 1984, Jackie found himself frustrated after being painfully injured by Benny 'The Jet' Urquidez (a kickboxing world champion) during the recording of 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.

Screenshot from the movie Wheels on Meals (1984)Wheels on Meals, Golden Harvest Company

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.

Jackie Chan FactsGetty Images

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!

Jackie Chan FactsThe Karate Kid (2010), Columbia Pictures

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.

Jackie Chan FactsGetty Images

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.

Jackie Chan FactsFlickr

41.Mature Film Star

In 1975, Jackie produced a mature-themed movie titled 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 adult-themed movie at that time was more conservative than the current films," Chan said of the movie, which would not be considered risqué by today's standards, and is also notable in the actor's filmography for its lack of action scenes.

Jackie Chan FactsGetty Images

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.

Jackie Chan FactsWikimedia Commons

Sources: 1, 2,3,4,5


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