Jackie Chan opens up about his father’s secret life as a spy, actor reveals his real name

Jackie Chan, a Hollywood star, recently disclosed that he didn't discover his father was a spy until he was in his forties. In an interview, the 71-year-old talked about this unexpected family secret, the revelation of his real last name, and a documentary that uncovered his family's secret history.

During the interview with People magazine, Jackie Chan showed a family photo and recalled a moment in his forties when his father, Charles, revealed the truth while they were in a car.

In the same conversation, he also revealed his real name and said, “My father was a very handsome guy, and my father was a spy. 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."

Jackie Chan admitted that he was "very shocked" by the news about his parents and that he was having trouble processing it all at the time. In 2003, he commissioned the documentary Traces of the Dragon: Jackie Chan and His Lost Family, which exposed his father's work as a spy during the Chinese Civil War and his mother's clandestine past as a gambler and opium smuggler.