Jackie
Chan

After more than 40 years in the business, Jackie Chan is the only Chinese movie star who is recognizable across the whole planet and completely bankable.

Trained as an acrobat alongside Sammo Hung, Chan hit the big time in 1978 with action films “Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow” and his iconic “Drunken Master.” Arguably a successor to Bruce Lee, although with more comedy and variety, Chan helped define the Hong Kong film industry’s Golden Era.

He broke into Hollywood with the 1995 “Rumble in the Bronx” and later added the “Rush Hour” and “Karate Kid” franchises. As well as a vibrant performer, Chan is an energetic businessman with activities including cinemas, restaurants, clothing lines and gyms that have made him another fortune. These have thrived despite the controversies have often followed him – he hid his marriage for decades, and his increasingly pro-China political utterings have cost him fans in his native Hong Kong. And in a reality is stranger than fiction moment, it took a 2003 documentary “Traces of a Dragon” to reveal a the tragedy of Chan’s upbringing and his real parentage.

A far more complete filmmaker than is widely appreciated – Chan co-directs and produces nearly all of his Chinese films – he was this year given an honorary Oscar (Governor’s Award.) Chan has also been making himself familiar to a new generation of fans in his latest outings, which have included voice work in 2017 kiddie flicks “Nut Job 2” and “The Lego Ninjago Movie,” as well as in a new children’s TV Series in China, “J-Team: All New Jackie Chan Adventures.”