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How Jackie Chan Achieved a Net Worth of $350 Million

Jackie Chan is one of the most famous actors in the entire world. Over the course of a career that started up in the 1960s, he has appeared in more than 150 movies. Combined with the fact that he has other sources of revenue coming in, it is perhaps unsurprising to learn that there are some sources that estimate his current net worth to be around $350 million.

It should come as no surprise to learn that Jackie Chan isn't the name that he was born with. Instead, that would be Chan Kong-sang, with Chan being the family name and Kong-sang being the personal name. Regardless, Chan was born to a couple living in Hong Kong who had fled from the mainland because of the Chinese Civil War. In time, he was sent to a Peking Opera School, which were boarding schools that specialized in teaching Peking opera, which means skills in not just dance and music but also acrobatics, tumbling, and martial arts. As a result, it should come as no surprise to learn that a lot of the students who attended Hong Kong-based Peking Opera Schools in the 1950s and 1960s went on to have careers in the Hong Kong film industry.

How Did Jackie Chan Reach His Current Net Worth?

Chan started appearing in movies when he was still a child. However, it took some time for him to find true success, which is why he actually spent some time studying at Dickson College in Canberra where his parents were living at the time before he was called back to Hong Kong by a film producer named Willie Chan who was willing to take a chance on him because of his stunt-work. It was in Canberra that Chan picked up the nickname "Little Jack" that was shortened to create "Jackie." Meanwhile, it was in Hong Kong that Chan received his Chinese stage name of Sing Lung, which is written as Cheng Long when rendered using the more popular pinyin format.

The stage name started seeing use because of Bruce Lee. In short, Lee's Chinese name means "Little Dragon" while Chan's Chinese name means "Becoming the Dragon," which reflects Willie Chan's intent to model Chan on Bruce Lee. Those early movies were not successful, but in time, Chan managed to find more success with his pioneering work in comedic kung fu movies, which proved to be refreshing for Hong Kong audiences. Ever since then, while Chan has appeared in numerous serious movies, he tends to be best-known to a lot of people in a lot of markets for his comedic work. Currently, while Chan hasn't been as active in Hollywood as in the past, he remains very active in the film industry, as shown by the fact that he has just starred in the Chinese-Indian project called Kung Fu Yoga, the Chinese-Australian project called Bleeding Steel, and the Chinese-British project called The Foreigner.

Besides his acting career, Chan has had a wide range of other roles as well. For example, he is actually a relatively successful professional singer who has performed vocals in Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Taiwanese, and English. In fact, he was the one who voiced Shang for the Chinese dub for Disney's Mulan, which meant the singing as well. On top of this, it is interesting to note that Chan is also a faculty member at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University where he doesn't teach what most people would expect based on his acting career but instead teaches tourism management, which does actually make some sense because of his efforts in promoting tourism for various places.

Final Thoughts

Summed up, it seems safe to say that Chan has made most of his money from his movies but has had other sources of income in the form of his other roles. Currently, he remains active in the film industry, meaning that his net worth will presumably to continue increasing in the times ahead. Granted, he is in his mid 60s, meaning that there will come a time when strenuous physical activity will be more and more difficult for him. However, Chan is far from being the sole action star who is pushing the boundaries of how long they can continue playing such roles in recent times, meaning that there could still be a lot more Chan movies to come.

Garrett Parker

Written by Garrett Parker

Garrett by trade is a personal finance freelance writer and journalist. With over 10 years experience he's covered businesses, CEOs, and investments. However he does like to take on other topics involving some of his personal interests like automobiles, future technologies, and anything else that could change the world.

Read more posts by Garrett Parker

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