1962–1975: Early small appearances He began his film career by appearing in small roles at the age of five as a child actor. At age eight, he appeared with some of his fellow "Little Fortunes" in the film
Big and Little Wong Tin Bar (1962) with
Li Li-Hua playing his mother. The following year, the young actor appeared in extras of Yen Chun's 1964 film
Liang Shan Po and Chu Ying Tai and had a small role in
King Hu's 1966 film
Come Drink with Me. In 1971, after an appearance as an extra in another kung Fu film,
A Touch of Zen, Chan was signed to Chu Mu's Great Earth Film Company. Chan appeared in the
Bruce Lee film
Fist of Fury (1972), both as an extra and as a
stunt double for the Japanese villain Hiroshi Suzuki (portrayed by
Chikara Hashimoto), particularly during the final fight scene where Lee kicks him and he flies through the air. Chan again appeared in another Bruce Lee film,
Enter the Dragon (1973), as a minor henchman who gets killed by Lee's character. Sammo Hung helped Chan get minor roles in both of the Bruce Lee films. Chan also worked as a martial arts choreographer for
John Woo's
The Young Dragons (1974). to emphasize his similarity to Bruce Lee, whose stage name meant "Lee the Little Dragon" in Chinese. (Note that "dragon" in Lee's name referred to Lee's birth year being the
Dragon zodiac, not the
Chinese dragon.) The film was unsuccessful because Chan was not accustomed to Lee's martial arts style. Despite the film's failure, Lo Wei continued producing films with similar themes, but with little improvement at the box office. Chan's first major breakthrough was the 1978 film ''
Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, shot while he was loaned to Seasonal Film Corporation under a two-picture deal. Director Yuen Woo-ping allowed Chan complete freedom over his stunt work. The film established the comedic kung fu genre, and proved refreshing to the Hong Kong audience. The same year, Chan then starred in Drunken Master'', which finally propelled him to mainstream success. Upon Chan's return to Lo Wei's studio, Lo tried to replicate the comedic approach of
Drunken Master, producing and also showed new features at the time with Jackie as the Stunt Director
Half a Loaf of Kung Fu and
Spiritual Kung Fu. Chan then played a minor role in the 1981 film
The Cannonball Run, which grossed over worldwide. Despite being largely ignored by North American audiences in favour of established American actors such as
Burt Reynolds, Chan was impressed by the
outtakes shown at the
closing credits, inspiring him to include the same device in his future films. After the commercial failure of
The Protector in 1985, Chan temporarily abandoned his attempts to break into the US market, returning his focus to
Hong Kong films.
The Young Master went on to beat previous box office records set by
Bruce Lee and established Chan as Hong Kong cinema's top star. With
Dragon Lord, he began experimenting with elaborate
stunt action sequences, including the final fight scene where he performs various stunts, including one where he does a back flip off a loft and falls to the lower ground. Chan produced a number of action comedy films with his opera school friends
Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. The three co-starred together for the first time in 1983 in
Project A, which introduced a dangerous stunt-driven style of martial arts that won it the Best Action Design Award at the third annual
Hong Kong Film Awards. Over the following two years, the "Three Brothers" appeared in
Wheels on Meals and the original
Lucky Stars trilogy. In 1985, Chan made the first
Police Story film, a
crime action film in which Chan performed a number of dangerous stunts. It won
Best Film at the
1986 Hong Kong Film Awards. In 1986, Chan played "Asian Hawk", an
Indiana Jones-esque character, in the film
Armour of God. The film was Chan's biggest domestic box office success up to that point, grossing over HK$35 million.
1988–1998: Acclaimed film sequels and Hollywood breakthrough In 1988, Chan starred alongside
Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao for the last time to date in the film
Dragons Forever. Hung co-directed with
Corey Yuen, and the villain in the film was played by
Yuen Wah, both of whom were fellow graduates of the China Drama Academy. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Chan starred in a number of successful sequels beginning with
Project A Part II and
Police Story 2, which won the award for Best Action Choreography at the 1989
Hong Kong Film Awards. This was followed by
Armour of God II: Operation Condor, and
Police Story 3: Super Cop, for which Chan won the Best Actor Award at the 1993
Golden Horse Film Festival. In 1994, Chan reprised his role as
Wong Fei-hung in
Drunken Master II, which was listed in
Time Magazine's All-Time 100 Movies. Another sequel,
Police Story 4: First Strike, brought more awards and domestic box office success for Chan, but did not fare as well in foreign markets. By the mid-1990s, he was the most popular action movie star in Asia and Europe. Up until January 1995, his films had grossed over () in Hong Kong and () in Japan, Despite his international success, he was not very successful in North America, where he had only two wide releases as a leading actor,
The Big Brawl and
The Protector, grossing ( adjusted for inflation). Despite this, there was a thriving North American
home video market for Chan's Hong Kong films by the mid-1990s. Chan rekindled his
Hollywood ambitions in the 1990s, but refused early offers to play villains in Hollywood films to avoid being
typecast in future roles. For example,
Sylvester Stallone offered him the role of Simon Phoenix, a criminal in the futuristic film
Demolition Man. Chan declined and the role was taken by
Wesley Snipes. Chan finally succeeded in establishing a foothold in the North American market in 1995 with a worldwide release of
Rumble in the Bronx, attaining a
cult following in the United States that was rare for Hong Kong movie stars. The success of
Rumble in the Bronx led to a 1996 release of
Police Story 3: Super Cop in the United States under the title
Supercop, which grossed a total of US$16,270,600. Chan's first huge blockbuster success came when he co-starred with
Chris Tucker in the 1998
buddy cop action comedy
Rush Hour, grossing US$130 million in the United States alone. In 1998, Chan released his final film for Golden Harvest,
Who Am I?. After leaving Golden Harvest in 1999, he produced and starred alongside
Shu Qi in
Gorgeous, a romantic comedy that focused on personal relationships and featured only a few martial arts sequences. Although Chan had left Golden Harvest in 1999, the company continued to produce and distribute for two of his films,
Gorgeous (1999) and
The Accidental Spy (2001). Chan then helped create a
PlayStation game in 2000 called
Jackie Chan Stuntmaster, to which he lent his voice and performed the motion capture. He continued his Hollywood success in 2000 when he teamed up with
Owen Wilson in the
Western action comedy
Shanghai Noon. A sequel,
Shanghai Knights followed in 2003 and also featured his first on-screen fight scene with
Donnie Yen. He reunited with Chris Tucker for
Rush Hour 2 (2001), which was an even bigger success than the original, grossing $347 million worldwide. Chan experimented with the use of special effects and wirework for the fight scenes in his next two Hollywood films,
The Tuxedo (2002) and
The Medallion (2003), which were not as successful critically or commercially. In 2004, he teamed up with
Steve Coogan in
Around the World in 80 Days, loosely based on
Jules Verne's novel
of the same name. In 2004, film scholar Andrew Willis stated that Chan was "perhaps" the "most recognized star in the world". Despite the success of the
Rush Hour and
Shanghai Noon films, Chan became frustrated with Hollywood over the limited range of roles and lack of control over the filmmaking process. In response to Golden Harvest's withdrawal from the film industry in 2003, Chan started his own film production company,
JCE Movies Limited (Jackie Chan Emperor Movies Limited) in association with Emperor Multimedia Group (EMG). Chan's next release was the third instalment in the
Rush Hour film series directed by
Brett Ratner:
Rush Hour 3 in August 2007. It grossed US$255 million. However, it was a disappointment in Hong Kong, grossing only HK$3.5 million during its opening weekend.
2008–present: New experiments and change in acting style Filming of
The Forbidden Kingdom, Chan's first on-screen collaboration with fellow Chinese actor
Jet Li, was completed on 24 August 2007 and the movie was released in April 2008. The movie featured heavy use of effects and wires. Chan voiced Master
Monkey in
Kung Fu Panda (released in June 2008), appearing with
Jack Black,
Dustin Hoffman, and
Angelina Jolie. In addition, he has assisted
Anthony Szeto in an advisory capacity for the writer-director's film
Wushu, released on 1 May 2008. The film stars
Sammo Hung and Wang Wenjie as father and son. In November 2007, Chan began filming
Shinjuku Incident, a dramatic role featuring no martial arts sequences with director
Derek Yee, which sees Chan take on the role of a Chinese immigrant in Japan. The film was released on 2 April 2009. According to his blog, Chan discussed his wishes to direct a film after completing
Shinjuku Incident, something he has not done for a number of years. The film was expected to be the third in the Armour of God series, and had a working title of
Armour of God III: Chinese Zodiac. The film was released on 12 December 2012. Because the Screen Actors Guild did not go on strike, Chan started shooting his next Hollywood movie
The Spy Next Door at the end of October in
New Mexico. In
The Spy Next Door, Chan plays an undercover agent whose cover is blown when he looks after the children of his girlfriend. In
Little Big Soldier, Chan stars alongside
Leehom Wang as a soldier in the
Warring States period in China. He is the lone survivor of his army and must bring a captured enemy soldier Leehom Wang to the capital of his province. In 2010, he starred with
Jaden Smith in
The Karate Kid, a remake of
the 1984 original. This was Chan's first dramatic American film. He plays Mr. Han, a
kung fu master and maintenance man who teaches Jaden Smith's character kung fu so he can defend himself from school bullies. His role in
The Karate Kid won him the Favorite Buttkicker award at the
Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards in 2011. In Chan's next movie,
Shaolin, he plays a supporting role as a cook of a temple instead of one of the major characters. His 100th movie,
1911, was released on 26 September 2011. Chan was the co-director, executive producer, and lead star of the movie. While Chan has directed over ten films over his career, this was his first directorial work since
Who Am I? in 1998.
1911 premiered in North America on 14 October. While at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, Chan announced that he was retiring from action films citing that he was getting too old for the genre. He later clarified that he would not be completely retiring from action films, but would be performing fewer stunts and taking care of his body more. In 2013, Chan starred in
Police Story 2013, a reboot of the
Police Story franchise directed by
Ding Sheng, and it was released in China at the end of 2013. Chan's next film
Dragon Blade was released in early 2015 and co-starred Hollywood actors
John Cusack and
Adrien Brody. In 2015, Chan was awarded the title of "
Datuk" by Malaysia as he helped Malaysia to boost its tourism, especially in
Kuala Lumpur where he previously shot his films. In early 2017, Chan's new film titled
Kung Fu Yoga, a Chinese-Indian project, which also starred Indian actors
Disha Patani,
Sonu Sood and
Amyra Dastur, was released. The film reunited Chan with director
Stanley Tong, who directed a number of Chan's films in the 1990s. Upon release, the film was a huge success at the box office, and became the 5th highest-grossing film in China, one month after its release. In 2016, he teamed up with
Johnny Knoxville and starred in his own production
Skiptrace. That same year he also starred in the action-comedy
Railroad Tigers. In 2017, he co-starred with
Pierce Brosnan in the action-thriller
The Foreigner, an Anglo-Chinese production. He also starred in the 2017 science fiction film
Bleeding Steel. In 2018, he served as an executive producer for the plant-based documentary,
The Game Changers, along with
James Cameron,
Arnold Schwarzenegger, and
Pamela Anderson. He teamed up with
John Cena and starred in the 2023 Chinese-American co-production
Hidden Strike. He also voiced
Splinter in the animated film
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. His films had collectively grossed () at the Hong Kong box office up until 2010, over in South Korea between 1991 and 2010, and () in Japan up until 2012. and (more than adjusted for inflation) in the United States and Canada. He commented, "Right now, a lot of big studios, they're not filmmakers, they're business guys. They invest 40 million and think, 'How can I get it back?' It's very difficult to make a good movie now." Chan contrasted modern productions with what he considered higher-quality films from earlier decades and said his own career goal had been to serve as a "cross-cultural bridge" between the United States and China. == Other works ==