Jackie Chan awarded with long overdue Oscar

After being a force to be reckoned in the movie industry for  five decades, veteran martial arts actor, producer,  director  and singer Jackie Chan finally  received a much deserved Honorary Oscar at the 8th Annual Governors Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday night.

Tom Hanks, who co-presented the award with Chan's past co-stars Michelle Yeoh and Chris Tucker, had this to say:

"As you know, the Governors Awards are a chance for the Academy to recognize unique achievements across an artist's whole body of work, because Jackie Chan, the man who puts the 'Chan' in 'Chan-Tastic,' has worked mostly in martial arts films and action comedies, two genres that have been, for some reason, shall we say, historically underrepresented at the Oscars, a fact that will change if I have any pull on the board of Governors."

"Great acting comes in many different forms, but if you are an actor you always know it when you see it. Jackie Chan's films have been incredibly serious, sometimes gruesomely so, as well as incredibly hilarious delighting millions of people around the globe."

Born Chan Kong-sang on the 7th of April, 1954, Jackie Chan began his career as a stuntman in two of late  martial arts icon Bruce Lee's movies- Fist of Fury  (1972) and Enter The Dragon (1973). 

After starring in several Hong Kong movies by Golden Harvest- (the last one being 1998's Who Am I?) , Chan made a breakthrough in the American market with Rumble in The Bronx in 1995.

The third installment of his  film Police Story, more known as Super Cop in the States came out in 1996 but his biggest breakthrough was in 1998, when he co-starred with American actor Chris Tucker in the critically acclaimed Rush Hour, reprising his role of Inspector Lee in Rush Hour 2  (2001) and Rush Hour 3  (2007).  His other films include Shanghai Noon (2000) , The Tuxedo (2002), Shanghai Knights ,  The Medallion (2003) and the 2010 remake of The Karate Kid.