The man known as Jackie Chan is one of the
biggest and most badass movie stars ever, and the first to bridge the gap between Hong
Kong action cinema and big-budget American movies. Chan might be past 60, but he's still putting
his life on the line to thrill audiences. Read the womb Though it may seem like the big-screen legend
has been around forever, Jackie Chan was born Chan Kong-sang in April 1954. Nothing weird about that… until you realize
he was supposed to be born in January of that year. Yup, he hung out in his mother's womb for
a full 12 months before a British doctor had to surgically remove him. At the time of his forced birth, he weighed
12 pounds. His mother nicknamed him Pao-Pao, or "cannonball." "My wife had such a difficult time delivering
him. Afterward, she was totally exhausted. The nurse brought the baby in, saying, "Aw,
he's so cute, just like a cannonball." Nevertheless, that kind of medical procedure
isn't cheap, and Chan's parents couldn't afford it; thus, they tried to sell their baby to
the doctor who delivered him. The doctor said no obviously. According to Chan's memoir, his parents gathered
the money from their friends and needed a decade to pay them all back. Learning from legends When Jackie Chan was 7 years old, he was enrolled
and boarded at the China Drama Academy, where he was taught acting and singing in preparation
for a career in the Peking Opera. It was there that Chan lived and trained for
the next ten years, eventually forming an acrobatic troupe with some classmates called
the Seven Little Fortunes. Upon leaving school, Chan used the group to
gain his first roles in Hong Kong movies. He and the Seven Little Fortunes were extras
and stuntmen in Enter the Dragon and Fists of Fury, two of the most famous and popular
movies ever made by Bruce Lee. Chan even got to spar on-camera with the screen
legend. "Suddenly, my eyes all black because he just
— one stick, right here, on my head." Picky with voice parts While a star in Asia since the 1970s, Jackie
Chan wasn't a mainstream star in the U.S. until the release of Rumble in the Bronx in
1996. Before that, he helped bring American movies
to Asia: for example, he provided the Mandarin language voice acting of the Beast for the
Chinese dub of Beauty and the Beast. Chan has since done voice work in the English-language
releases of other major animated movies, one notable example being his portrayal of Master
Monkey in the Kung Fu Panda movies. However, you might be surprised to hear of
the one place he didn't lend his voice: the cartoon series Jackie Chan Adventures. Although he appeared in live-action bumpers
for the show, the cartoon version of Jackie Chan is voiced by James Sie "But I don't know anything about Children!" who also, incidentally,
took over as Master Monkey in the TV series spinoff of Kung Fu Panda. To make things even more confusing, the character
of Jade Chan, Jackie's fictional niece on the series, was voiced by Stacie Chan, Jackie
Chan's real-life niece. No stranger to danger After starring in dozens of martial arts and
action movies in which he's done his own stunts, Jackie Chan has sustained a number of injuries. So much so that in 2013, his movie Chinese
Zodiac was promoted in Japan with a poster that consisted of an image of Chan's body
with arrows pointing to all of his injured body parts. Among the injuries Chan has suffered in the
pursuit of entertainment: On Drunken Master, he damaged a bone behind
his eyebrow, and it nearly blinded him. On City Hunter, he dislocated his right shoulder. On The Armour of God, Chan fell out of a tree
and suffered a skull fracture, a bone cave-in behind the ear, and bleeding into his brain. During surgery, bone chips were removed from
his head. "Two fingers. "I'm bowling with Jackie Chan." "Oh my god — Yes! Yes! Yes!" He broke his breastbone on Armour of God II. During the filming of The Accidental Spy,
he broke his tailbone and was temporarily paralyzed. Oh, and he's broken his nose four separate
times: once while making The Young Master, once on Project A, once on Miracles, and once
on Mr. Nice Guy. Ouch we'll never complain about a stubbed
toe again! "Broken, broken, teeth gone. Jaws, cheek. Broken, broken, broken. Crack, crack, crack, crack, crack." The 1,000th time's the charm Directors may require a lot of takes to get
a scene the way they want it. In one example of this borderline abusive
practice, Stanley Kubrick infamously required Shelley Duvall to film one scene in The Shining
127 times. By that logic, the most sadistic director
that Jackie Chan has ever worked with is … himself. While directing and starring in the 1982 movie
Dragon Lord, a sequence in which characters play "jianzi" a Chinese sport similar to hacky
sack, but with a weighted, badminton-style shuttlecock just didn't look right to director
Chan. It's been reported that the scene took 2,900
takes, but it probably didn't take that many. The book Kung Fu Masters places the number
over 190, and other estimates come in at over 1,000. Either way, Chan was dedicated to the shot. Tough love Jackie Chan's a movie star, which means he's
rich. He's amassed a fortune of more than $350 million. In addition to earning salary and box office
percentages from his films, he's owned a chain of movie theaters and a Segway dealership. And when he dies, a lot of that is going to
charity. But his son, Jaycee Chan who was convicted
on drug charges in 2015 stands to inherit exactly none of that. In 2011, Chan publicly mentioned that he won't
leave his fortune behind to his son, remarking: "If he is capable, he can make his own money. If he is not, then he will just be wasting
my money." It seems like there's a little more to the
story than that — especially considering the fact that their relationship isn't without
its past bumps in the road. Jackie once even admitted that he had beaten
Jaycee when he was a child, admitting that he was not a "model father." But it looks like threats of violence are
off the table these days… "Wearing the white shoes, running around — because
he don't wash his own shoes.. socks!" "Do you give him a shot?" "No, I can't — he'll sue me!" Polarizing politics While Jackie Chan boasts fans from every corner
of the globe, he's still very loyal to his home nation of China's political system of
communism. In fact, he's way more politically outspoken
then most of his fans probably realize. He's even opened up about his opinions on
the American way of life on more than one occasion. In 2013, he said: "What I can see is [China] continuously making
progress and learning. If you talk about corruption, the entire world,
the United States, has no corruption? [It's] the most corrupt in the world." But his opinions don't end with the US. In 2009, he talked about the dangers of too
much freedom in China-controlled Taiwan, saying: "I don't know whether it is better to have
freedom or to have no freedom. With too much freedom, it can get very chaotic. It could end up like in Taiwan. Chinese people need to be controlled; otherwise,
they will do whatever they want." Whether you agree or disagree with Chan's
beliefs, one thing's for certain: he knows how to get pulses racing no matter where his
fans fall on the political spectrum!
