The success of Bruce Lee on the big screen proved there was an audience for martial arts epics, and opened the doors to dozens of Asian actors in Hollywood. Most of Lee's followers proved to be copy-cat wanna-be's; trying to cash in on his unique looks and fighting ability, and thus had limited appeal. But a few, like Jackie Chan - took the "template" that Bruce Lee created and used it as a springboard to take martial arts to another level in film.
Jackie Chan was born in April, 1954, in Hong Kong but in 1960 his parents Lee-Lee Chan and Charles Chan moved to Australia because of the Chinese civil war. According to Jackie`s autobiography, Chan got married to Ling Feng-Jiao in 1983, but most of Chinese mass communication media reported that the marriage was on December 1, 1982. He has a son (who was born in 1983) and a daughter.
Chan, one of the future greats and famous marital arts masters studied at Nan Hua Elementary Academy, after that academy Jackie entered the Chinese Opera Research Institute, where he studied from 1961 to 1971. After graduating, he studied at the Peking Opera School. During his studies, Jackie participated in an opera troupe which was called the "Seven little fortunes" with Yuen Biao, Sammo Hung and Corey Kwai.
Jackie Chan is one of the most famous marital arts masters and actors because of his uncommon roles in movies, and also because he supplements his martial arts abilities with actual acting talent. The many stunts in his movies are executed by himself and hardly ever a stunt-double. Typical of the risks he takes while filming; he fell from a tree while shooting "Armour of God" and fractured his skull.
Jackie Chan created his own screen character. He didn`t want to imitate legendary martial arts master Bruce Lee, because there were too many actors after Bruce Lee`s death who imitated him. His screen persona is mainly comic with martial arts skills, he plays well-meaning guys who often triumph at the end, and most of his movies have a happy ending.
Steven Seagal is another great martial arts master, who has a seventh-Dan black belt in Aikido. He is a popular action movie actor. Steven was born in April 1951, in Michigan, the USA. His mother is Irish catholic, his father is Jewish. At a young age his family moved to California where Steven began to learn martial arts under Fumio Demura`s direction. His Aikido`s trainer was The President of the Western States Aikido Federation Rod Kobayashi. At a young age, Steven participated in Demura's Karate Demonstration Team. Steven Seagal was promoted to Shodan in Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido by Kobayashi.
Steven Seagal has a great filmography. Many of his movies in 1990s featured aikido, among them are "Out of justice", "On deadly ground", "Executive decision", "Fire down Below", and "The Patriot" to name just a few. Seagal's biggest challenge these days as one of the famous marital arts masters has nothing to do with acting or martial arts. It involves his weight! He has a hard time keep his weight down and this has made it difficult for his to sustain believeable roles as a leading man in Hollywood.
Jakie Chan and Steven Seagal are two of the most famous marital arts masters and actors. Their earnings are huge and their love of the martial arts made them famous. They may never win an academy award for their acting skills, but they'll always garner rave reveiews for their martial arts abilities.