After he reached 17 years old, he retired from the sport and made his film debut in Shaolin Temple, and therefore became a star in his home country.
Jet Li (born Li Lian Jie) is the youngest of five children. He lost his father when he was only 2 years old. Jet Li began learning Wushu at the age of 8.
Jet Li traveled to United States in 1974 and gave a martial arts demonstration for the U.S president Richard M. Nixon. In that year, he also became the All-Around National Wushu Champion, a title he held for five consecutive years.
Jet Li played Wong Fei-hung in Once Upon a Time in China (1991), a legendary hero who fights against foreigners in the 19th century.
His Hollywood debut was the ‘Lethal Weapon 4’ movie in 1994, in which he played as a villain alongside actors Danny Glover and Mel Gibson.
Because of his wife's pregnancy, the actor turned down a role in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Jet Li married to Miss Asia Pacific 1986, Nina Li Chi.
Jet Li married his wife Nina in 1999 and they have two daughters. Previously married to Qiuyan Hwang from 1987 – 1990, and has two daughters from the first marriage; Si and Taimi.
When he was young, Jet Li practiced Tibetan Buddhism and became the lifelong apprentice of Loh Kunsang of the Kagyu school.
On 28 July 2009, the Charity fund of Jet Li (the chairman of One Foundation) announced that the actor had indeed become a Singaporean citizen. Jet Li was said to have chosen Singapore for his daughters because of its education system.
Li was in the Maldives when the 2004 tsunami hit. The actor suffered only a minor foot injury while guiding his daughters to safety.
According to Li, once, as a child, when he went to perform for the U.S president Richard Nixon, he was asked by the president to be his personal bodyguard. Jet Li replied that he did not want to protect any individual. The actor said when he grows up, he wants to defend his one billion Chinese countrymen”.
The Forbidden Kingdom (2008 film) was the first film to feature Jet Li and Jackie Chan together, with Jet Li playing the silent monk and Jackie Chan playing the Drunken Master Lu Yan, both based on roles from their classic films.
In Cradle 2 the Grave, Jet Li played a Taiwanese Intelligence officer named Su, who teamed up with a friend and they try to retrieve some precious stones. On the way Li even got to fight a group of UFC fighters (including Tito Ortiz).
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