Mastering martial arts takes discipline and dedication— two things Hong Kong native Jackie Chan lacked as a child. A self-described “very naughty” kid, he had no interest in school or learning. “All the books in my backpack? I always throw them away,” jokes the actor and action star, whose mischievous smile has endeared him to fans across the world for years. His parents, Charles, a cook, and Lee-lee, a housekeeper, unable to control their boisterous son, “sent me to a martial-arts school where they teach all kinds of skills,” he says.
Those skills—including kung fu— helped Chan, now 71, launch a decades-long career in show business. He initially worked as a child actor after a director scouted his school— “At that time I don’t really know what movies are about....I just think, ‘Wow...I don’t have to get up at 6 o’clock,’” he recalls—before becoming a stuntman in his teens and 20s. “Then I said, ‘What’s my future? What am I gonna do?’”
Plenty, it turns out. Chan worked steadily as a stunt coordinator, actor and director in Asia, but it wasn’t until Hollywood came calling that he gained fame in America thanks to 1995’s Rumble in the Bronx and 1998’s buddy-cop comedy Rush Hour opposite Chris Tucker, a $244 million worldwide hit that cemented Chan’s status as a superstar.
Chan—who’s been married to former actress Joan Lin for 43 years—recently vowed he’d never retire, and he seems intent to prove it. He reprises his role as martial-arts master Mr. Han from 2010’s The Karate Kid remake in the new movie The Karate Kid: Legends, which he sees as somewhat of a fullcircle moment: “Not only can I use my technique,” he says, “I can show the Chinese culture to the world.”
PREVIOUS SPREAD, FROM LEFT: KOBAL/SHUTTERSTOCK; NEILSON BARNARD/CONTOUR BY GETTY IMAGES; ARCHIVIO GBB/CONTRASTO/ REDUX; THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM RIGHT: EVERETT(2); SHUTTERSTOCK; KOBAL/SHUTTERSTOCK; COURTESY JACKIE CHAN
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: VINCE BUCCI/GETTY IMAGES; EVERETT; ROBYN BECK/AFP/GETTY IMAGES; JONATHAN WENK/SONY PICTURE