Jackie Chan Death Hoax Urban Legend

Jackie Chan (Chan Kong-sang or 陳港生) was born in British Hong Kong on April 7, 1954. Chan is a multi-talented action choreographer, actor, comedian, director, entrepreneur, martial artist, producer, screenwriter, singer, and stunt performer.

Jackie Chan’s parents, Charles and Lee-Lee, both worked for the French ambassador to Hong Kong, Charles as a cook. In 1960, the parents immigrated to Canberra, Australia, after Charles received a job offer as head cook at the United States embassy. Rather than take Jackie with them, Charles and Lee-Lee Chan enrolled their son in the China Drama Academy in Hong Kong, a school affiliated with the Peking Opera Company. Jackie Chan remained at the school for 16 years, excelling in singing, acrobatics, and martial arts.

In 1976, at the age of 22, after spending 16 years at the China Drama Academy, Chan Kong-sang joined his parents in Canberra, Australia. He obtained employment in the construction industry, working for a man named Jack. He was given the nickname "Little Jack," which later morphed into Jackie. Chan has been known as Jackie ever since.

In the late 1990s, Jackie Chan changed his Chinese name from Chan Kong-sang to Fong Si-lung (房仕龍). Charles Chan's original surname was Fong, and Jackie wanted to honor his father.

Jackie Chan had small acting roles in films beginning when he was six years old. In his early teens, he was an extra in a few Kung Fu films. When he was 17, using the stage name Chan Yuen Lung (陳元龍), Chan worked as a stuntman in two Bruce Lee films, Enter the Dragon and Fist of Fury. Chan's first starring role was in a limited-release Hong Kong film, Little Tiger of Canton.

Rumble in the Bronx, a Hong Kong film released worldwide in 1995, enabled Jackie Chan to obtain a foothold in the United States and Canada. Supercop—known as Police Story 3: Super Cop in Hong Kong—was released in North America in 1996. Rush Hour, a 1998 buddy cop action comedy in which Chan starred with Chris Tucker, was the actor's first blockbuster in the American market.

Jackie Chan has appeared in more than 150 films.

The movie posters shown below are all available as free wallpaper downloads from Jackie Chan's Web site.

Rumors have circulated periodically on the Internet—especially via Twitter and Facebook—that Jackie Chan died of a heart attack. Two "major" bouts of rumors occurred in 2011, as well as several smaller scattered occurrences.

On March 29, 2011, a fake Web site was created which was made to look like the Australian news Web site Yahoo!7News. This bogus Web site reported that Jackie Chan had suffered a heart attack and had died.

The hoax was then fueled by someone tweeting that Chan had died of a heart attack. The message on Twitter went viral. Twitter nearly died of a heart attack due to the questions from, and oupouring of grief by, Jackie Chan's fans.

On August 17, 2011, a bogus Facebook page called Jackie Chan R.I.P. 08/17/2011—later changed to Jackie Chan R.I.P.—appeared on Facebook. Once again, someone falsely stated that Jackie Chan had suffered a fatal heart attack. Once again, Twitter was flooded with messages from grieving fans—nearly 70,000 of them.

Some people like to create hoax Web sites and start rumors about celebrities. Why? I really don't know.

If you read a statement, post, tweet, report, or anything else concerning Jackie Chan having a fatal heart attack, go to Jackie's Facebook page and see what Jackie has to say about the exaggerated reports of his death.

This is a video of Jackie Chan singing in Cantonese in the Hong Kong version of the animated film Mulan.