After 50 years in the industry and more than 150 films to his credit, Jackie Chan hardly requires an introduction. Loved by all, respected by all, Jackie Chan is universally hailed as a legend. Jackie has many fascinating aspects of his life, which we, in spite of being his fans, are unaware of.
10. His Parents Left Him as A Child
Jackie’s father, Charles was a spy working for the Chinese National government and while at his duty he had arrested a stage performer and opium seller named Lee-Lee, whom he later married. Charles and Lee-Lee both had two children on either side from their previous marriages whom them left and fled to Hong Kong when the communists came to power in 1949. Jackie was born five years later and immediate endeavours were made to sell for a price of $26 to the doctor who helped deliver him.
Later Jackie was left in a boarding school while the parents went to Australia in search of work. Life in boarding school was hard as Jackie and his fellows students were given lessons on drama, acrobatics, martial art and music and were beaten up at any mistake. The school didn’t teach reading or writing to its students. At the age of 8 Jackie appeared in a movie for the first time and following Bruce Lee’s death, he slowly established himself as Hong Kong movie industry’s next big star.
9. When He Almost Died Performing A Stunt
Jackie Chan is an ace stunt performer and has pulled off seemingly impossible life threatening stunts with relative ease. But once in 1986 he was nearly killed performing a simple stunt. He flew down to Yugoslavia and went to the set (with a jetlag) to jump from a wall to a tree. Though his first try was successful but it did not appeal to his sense of perfection and on the second try, Jackie fell short from the branches of the tree and unable to grab them, plummeted down on the rocks below. Following this he suffered skull fracture and a bone poking into his brain tissue that caused bleeding out of his ears. The incident has left its mark as he partially lost hearing in his right ear and a plastic plate still corks a hole in his head.
8. His Body Is Full Of Injuries
Almost every part of his body has suffered pain. Jackie has injured his hand countless time, broken his nose three times, has injured his knee innumerable time so much so that now he uses a body double for shooting sprinting scenes. He has broken his ankle, injured his neck, crushed his thigh between two vehicles and has also dislocated his pelvis, shoulders and sternum. Jackie is known, not just to perform his own stunts but performing even in injury.
7. It took him two weeks to do this trick
Even after years of practise and years of successful stunt performances Jackie find every stunt terrifying. But nothing was quiet as terrifying as the one he managed to pull off in ‘Who Am I?’ If you have seen the film you’d very well remember the climax where he slides down the 21 storied Willemswerf Building in Rotterdam. It wasn’t a straight sliding (how could Jackie be satisfied with a straight stunt). He travelled down the slant side of the building at 45 degree angle, tumbled over, stood up walked down speedily before falling forward and sliding forward. Reportedly it took him two week to work up the courage to do this stunt.
6. Angry Jackie’s Real Fight on Set
While filming for ‘Wheels on Meals’ in 1984, Jackie became angry on being painfully hurt by Benny ‘The Jet’ Urquidez (a kickboxing world champion) while shooting a fight scene with him. Jackie, by-the-way had landed a few blows on the boxer as well. Furious and frustrated Jackie challenge Urquidez for a real exhibition match and since Jackie was not much of a kickboxer himself, Urquidez warned him saying he’d get hurt. Soon the crew members began taking sides and placing bets but unfortunately for them, the exhibition match never happened. Letting by-gones be by-gones, Jackie and Urquidez appeared again in a fight scene of the film ‘Dragons Forever’ (1988).
5. A Perfectionist Who Was Awarded
Movies are big deal. We are aware of the gravity of expectations from, especially, renowned directors. Rumours has it that Charlie Chaplin while directing his famous film ‘City Lights’ redid a scene 300 times just to get the rose held at a perfect angle. David Fincher is said to retake a scene for an average of 50 times. But our beloved Jackie Chan has beaten them all when while directing the film ‘Dragon Lord’ (1982), he had had 2,900 takes for a single 10 minutes scene. It was the elaborate opening scene of the film with a dozen of stuntmen involved. He was awarded by the Guinness World Record for the highest number of takes for a scene.