Jackie Chan

Jackie Chan was born on 7th of April, 1954 in Hong Kong. He was the only child of Charles and Lee-Lee Chan, having, reports say, spent 12 months in the womb, finally being removed surgically and weighing 12 pounds.

Jackie attended the Nah-Hwa primary school on Hong Kong Island. He was not academically bright, failing to pass Primary 1 as his peers moved on to Primary 3.

Charles moved to Australia to work at the Chinese Embassy, and Jackie, now named Yuen Lo, saw the true nature of the Peking Opera School. The training in music, acrobatics and many martial arts lasted 18 hours a day. Returning to Hong Kong, he signed up as lead actor in Lo Wei's film company, purveyors of fairly poor material

In childhood, he suffered terrible poverty and the most painfully rigorous of educations. In his early career, he was almost cast aside as just another in a long line of failed Next Bruce Lees.

It's hard to conceive how popular Jackie Chan is today, now he has broken the West. Even years ago, he was so big in Japan that many teenage girls were pulled from railway lines and pumped empty of poison, having felt the need to die for him. He can't help but go too far, and people love him for it. 2004 would also see his hand-prints on Hong Kong's new Avenue of Stars, alongside Lee's and those of such co-stars as Sammo Hung, Tsui Hark, Maggie Cheung and Anita Mui, who tragically of cancer that same year at the painfully young age of 40.