Jackie’s first movie appearance was in 1962 in the Cantonese film, Big and Little Wong Tin-Bar with the famous Chang Pei-Pei (The Hyena in Tiger and Dragon). He’s only 8 years old.

In 1971, Jackie graduated from the Institute and decided to return to Australia with his diploma in his pocket where he decided to join his parents and worked as a diver and mason.

Jackie: “In 1976, I emigrated to Australia with my parents. I was a diver in restaurants, a construction worker… They called me Pao-Pao, then Paul. I thought he was saying to Pao (cannonball because of his big nose)! One day, a friend of my father’s, who worked on the construction sites, felt that no one could ever say my name. He took the liberty of introducing me under his own name, Jack. To avoid confusion, the workers called me Jackie.

At that time, Jackie didn’t like what he was doing so he decided to return to Hong Kong and adopted the name Chan Yuen-Long. Shaw Brothers’ studio hires him as a stuntman. His first real role is in the movie The Young Tiger (Master With Cracked Fingers).