Jet Li

Jet Li Lianjie (courtesy name Yangzhong; born 26 April 1963) is a martial artist, actor, and philanthropist. With a career spanning more than forty years, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential martial artists in cinema history. Li's early work in mainland China during the 1980s is credited with introducing the Shaolin Temple to a global audience. During the 1990s, his collaborations with filmmaker Tsui Hark spearheaded wushu representation in Hong Kong action cinema, establishing him as its most prominent practitioner. He simultaneously popularised the wuxia genre before transitioning to Hollywood in the late 1990s. In the decade that followed, his crossover success brought global recognition and solidified his place alongside Jackie Chan as one of the two biggest names in contemporary martial arts films.

Li began his career as a competitive martial artist. Trained as a wushu athlete at the Beijing Shichahai Sports School, he won multiple national championships with the Beijing Wushu Team from 1974 to 1979 under the guidance of coach Wu Bin. After retiring from competitive wushu in 1979, he made his feature film debut in Shaolin Temple (1982), a runaway success followed by two sequels (1984 and 1986). Li established himself as a leading Asian action star by portraying legendary folk hero Wong Fei-hung in director Tsui Hark's critically acclaimed Once Upon a Time in China series (1991–1993). Following his directorial debut with Born to Defence (1988), he anchored a string of other highly successful 1990s projects; these included the wuxia epics Swordsman II (1992) and Fong Sai-yuk (1993), followed by the martial arts films Tai Chi Master (1993) and Fist of Legend (1994). He then successfully reinvented his screen image with a series of popular gun fu action films, including High Risk (1995), Black Mask (1996), and Hitman (1998).