full name: Jet Lee Lian Jie (sometimes written as Jet Li Lin Jie)
born in Hebei on April 16th, 1963
was national Wu Shu champion of China several times (he started practicing
at the age of 8; at sixteen he won all five disciplines he entered for)
Movie Facts
at the age of 17 his movie career started with the mega hit Shaolin
Temple (1982) made for Chung Yuen Film;
it was followed by two sequels (Kids from Shaolin (1983), Martial
Arts of Shaolin (1986)
directorial debut was Born to Defend in 1987
starting with Tsui Hark's Once Upon a Time in China series he was
often typecast in the traditional kung fu fighter role
1994 brought a turn to modern day action (and a haircut) with Bodyguard
from Beijing
one of his best movies to date is Fist of Legend, a remake of the
1972 Bruce Lee classic Fist of Fury (aka The Chinese Connection),
where he shows what he can do without wires
Now that he made his impact in Hollywood with Lethal Weapon 4 he
will gain the worldwide recognition he deserves. Though playing the bad
guy along the established all-star-cast of Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Rene
Russo and Joe Pechi he easily stole each scene he was in and was surely
the best reason to watch the movie.
His next projects are his second Warner Bros. movie Romeo Must Die and
the Ang Lee-directed period piece Lying Tiger, Hidden Dragon in
which he's going to star with Michelle Yeoh.
