After 50 years in the industry and more than 100 films to his credit, Jackie Chan hardly requires an introduction. Let’s jump right in!

3) The stunt that nearly paralyzed and electrocuted him

In the 1985 film ‘Police Story’, one stunt required Jackie to slide down a pole four stories tall, wrapped with Christmas lights, to intercept an escaping villain.

The problem was they were filming in a real shopping mall that was scheduled to reopen the next morning. Jackie would have to do it in one take. Worse, the glass Christmas lights were not replaced with lights made of sugar or stunt glass. And they were still plugged into wall sockets rather than low-voltage car batteries. Finally, the stunt crew failed to provide adequate padding at the bottom of the pole.

When Jackie slid down the pole, his hands received second-degree electrical burns and were slashed mercilessly by the lights. Upon landing, he cracked his seventh and eighth thoracic vertebrae and dislocated his pelvis. [Source: listverse]

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2) The stunt that almost killed him

Jackie Chan very nearly died while filming a fairly simple stunt in 1986’s Armor of God. On the day of the shoot in Yugoslavia, he was suffering from jet lag. Nevertheless, he performed the stunt—a jump from a wall to a tree branch—flawlessly.

But he didn’t like the shot and wanted to do it again. On the second try, he missed the branch and fell 12 meters (40 ft) to the rocks below. Jackie fractured his skull, and a chunk of bone drove into his brain tissue, causing it to hemorrhage and bleed out his ears. Emergency surgery saved his life.

He still has a plastic plate plugging a hole in his skull, and he has partially lost his hearing in his right ear. (The fall can be seen at about 00:30 in the video below.)

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1) Jackie Chan awarded with two new Guinness World Records titles

Jackie Chan has already accomplished enough in this world that he should never have to worry about the legacy he leaves behind. A daredevil, comedian, martial artist and a far superior carrier of silent film acting traditions than that Jean Dujardin guy, Jackie Chan towers above us all, and instead of smiting, he typically acts unassuming and humble.

Now Jackie Chan has found himself with even more accolades. Today he was awarded not one but two entries into the Guinness Book of World Records. One of the awards seems obvious: “Most stunts performed by a living actor.” Hopefully it will be some time before he’s in competition for this award’s follow up: “Most stunts performed by a dead actor.”

Chan’s second entry is much more interesting: “Most credits in one movie.” Apparently for the upcoming film Chinese Zodiac, so not even a film from his old, hungry days, Chan served as writer, director, lead actor, producer, executive producer, cinematographer, art director, unit production manager, catering coordinator, stunt coordinator, gaffer, composer, theme tune vocalist, props and stuntman. That’s a lot of paychecks. Somewhere in Atlanta, Tyler Perry just signed up for cooking classes and looked up “gaffer” on Wikipedia. [Source: wonderslist]

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