On April 7th this year, Jackie Chan completed 50 years. He is among the most popular comic action heroes of today and one of Asia`s biggest movie stars.

Jackie Chan was born in 1954 in Hong Kong to poor parents. When Jackie was only seven years old he was sent to China Drama Academy and when his parents moved to Australia, Jackie was left behind in a boarding school. There he learnt drama, acrobatics, martial arts and singing . He was subjected to strict discipline and was even subjected to corporal punishment.

At the age of eight Jackie appeared in his first Cantonese film, Big and Little Wong Tin Bar in 1962. Later, he was a stuntman in the Bruce Lee 1973 classic Enter the Dragon. His first big world wide success was however, The Fist of Fury in 1972 with the then superstar, Bruce Lee. After Bruce Lee`s sudden death Jackie Chan became Honk Kong`s hottest star. By the 1990`s Chan had become a versatile actor . He was already acting, directing and writing films. The Hollywood film Rumble in the Bronx in 1995 established Chan as a master of action comedy.

But Jackie Chan`s claim to fame is not so much for his acting prowess, as for his action stunts most of which he prefers to do himself. Jackie Chan`s leaping kicks are loved by his fans. Chan claims to have broken every bone in his body at least once while performing stunts. In 1986, while filming Armor of God, he fractured his skull after falling 40 feet while attempting to land on the branch of a tree. Another facet of his movies is the inherent humour. Chan has an inborn inclination for comic timing.

Shanghai Noon, Rush Hour I & II , The Tuxedo and the more recent Around the World in Eighty Days are some of his well known English films.

His popularity and good work have made him a goodwill ambassador for United Nations. Jackie says that he was touched when he visited Cambodia and found that six out of seven children who greeted him had lost their limbs by stepping on mines. He formed the Jacke Chan foundation which does a lot of charity work. In 2002, Chan received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was honored at the World Stunt Awards.

Jackie Chan has a son named Jaycee who is also into acting, and music. Says, Jacke Chan in an interview he gave to a magazine recently that he gave up smoking when Singapore asked him to do an anti smoking campaign for them.

A master of his art, Jackie Chan has become a world wide phenomenon and children love his movies. He is now the star of a television cartoon series, Jackie Chan Adventures.