Martial arts icon and actor Jackie Chan recently opened up about a long-held family secret that changed the way he saw his own identity. In a recent interview with People magazine, the 71-year-old actor shared about the emotional moment he learned his father, Charles Chan, was actually a spy.
Showing an old family photo during the video interview, Chan, pointing to an old image, said, “That’s my father and my mom. I cannot remember how old I am at the time,” reflecting on his early years when he didn’t know the truth about his father.
The revelation came unexpectedly, decades later, during a quiet car ride.
“My father was a very handsome guy, and my father was a spy,” Chan recalled. “I got to know my father’s secret when I was 40 something… One day, I was driving my car and my father suddenly said, ‘Son, I’m old. I might sleep and never wake up’… I have a secret to tell you… You are not Chan. Your original name is Fang.”
Chan admitted he was “very shocked” by the confession and initially found it difficult to process the truth about his father’s shadowy past.
Chan’s family story was previously explored in the 2003 documentary Traces of the Dragon: Jackie Chan and His Lost Family, which Jackie commissioned. The film traces Charles Chan’s work as a spy during the Chinese Civil War in the 1940s. The documentary also unveils another layer of intrigue—Jackie’s mother, Lee-lee, who was once involved in opium smuggling and gambling.
Despite the dramatic revelations from his family history, Chan has had his own journey to stardom. He made his Hollywood debut with Rumble in the Bronx in 1995, but it was the 1998 action-comedy Rush Hour, alongside Chris Tucker, that established him as a star worldwide.
On the work front, Chan is returning to one of his most beloved franchises with Karate Kid: Legends, where he reprises his role as Mr. Han alongside Ralph Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso. The upcoming film introduces a new generation of martial arts talent, with Ben Wang stepping into the spotlight as a young fighter trained by both Chan and Macchio’s characters.
