Jet Li was born on April 26th, 1963. He was born in Heibei, Beijing and was a student at Changqiao Pimary School of Peking. He enrolled in a Wushu class headed by Master Wu Bin, and at the early age of 11, he competed in the Chinese National Wushu Championships, and went on to win the competition a total of five times. Jet Li won first place awards in the Boxing Item, Swordsplay, Spearplay, Routine boxing, Pu Swordsplay and Duel Practice. By the age of 18, Li had earned the title of All-Round National Champion four times, in 1975, 1977, 1978 and 1979. Among many elite performances, Jet Li's most talked about international trips was a performance for President Richard Nixon on the Whitehouse lawn in 1974.
Jet Li , then decided to go for at the box office. In 1981, "Shaolin Temple" was to be shot on location in Hu Nam Province and used the real Shaolin Temple. From this one film Jet became an overnight success and a legend in his own country. It wasn't long before Jet was back with the comedy sequel Kids From Shaolin and then later with Martial Arts of Shoalin. Jet then produced and directed "Born To Defend" which was set in WWII. This, however, was Jet's less than stellar movies, thus doing poor at the box office.
After a seemingly decline with "Dragon Fight, He struck huge success worldwide with Tsui Hark's Once Upon A Time In China. He went on to make 2 more sequels and, along with the success of Once upon A Time In China, the Hong Kong movie scene witnessed a revival in traditional kung fu film. Following the succuess he then starred in Ching Siu Tung's Swordsman 2 : Invincible Dawn. In 1993, Jet Li had decided to start his own production company and produce and star in one of my favorites, "Fong Sai Yuk". He then went on to make the comedy sequel, Fong Sai Yuk 2. After the hilarious comdedy -action flick "Last Hero In China", Jet starred in "Tai Chi Master", He stars as Chang San Fong, the real life founder of Tai Chi, and co-starrring was Michelle Yeoh. Lords of the Wu-Tang a.k.a. Kung fu Cult Master, which is more magical fantasy, was his last film in 93
In recent years Jet has found even more fame with several modern day action movies, including "High Risk", "My Father Is A Hero", "Bodyguad From Beijieng", "Dr. Wai: Scriptures with no words", "Hitmen", and the mutha of them all, "Fist of Legend". As the U.S. started to take notice of the phenom, Miramx turned to Quentin Tarantino to get the man they call Jet Li. Despite all the hype, Tarantino lost iterest in the projest, citing the difficult dealing with the Chinese companies. But Jet's hollywood calling was already here. Seing the script for "Lethal Weapon 4 he took the role and secured his forseeable film career and bring upon several other projects.
One of these is Art of War by Oliver Stone. Jet plays a secret agent wrongly accused of assassinating world leaders, and is against the clock to find the real killer. This project is currently halted as Jet is finishing and promoting another film with Warner entitled "Romeo Must Die". Due out March 22nd, this will in my mind no doubt, bring him the mega-star status he truly derserves.