Jackie Chan, the star of over 150 martial arts movies, is set to receive an Oscar. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced this Thursday that the 62-year-old actor will be given an award for ‘Lifetime Achievement’.
For a man who hates how Hollywood works, this is perhaps the olive branch from Los Angeles.
Chan defines the ‘franchise star’. As early as the late 80s, he followed up some of his biggest blockbusters with even bigger sequels. Armor of God, Police Story, Project A, Drunken Master — almost all of these films had Chan climbing walls with a single bound, smashing into chairs, crashing a Mitsubishi and lots and lots of Kung fu.
Moviegoers worldwide were thrilled by the action and Chan went on to become one of the most recognised faces of cinema.
And all this from the man whose parents tried selling him to a British doctor who helped deliver him for $26, in 1954.
