Everybody knows his name due to decades of Jackie Chan starring in kung fu movies, however, you probably didn’t realize that the stuntman-turned-actor also has a great second career as a voice actor. Jackie Chan has been appearing in movies since he was very young, first appearing as a child extra in Big and Little Wong Tin Bar in 1962. Since then, Jackie Chan has become one of the greatest kung fu movie stars of all time, due to his commitment to his stunt work and his lovable personality, appearing in over 150 films as a stuntman and actor.

With so many Jackie Chan movies out there, there is essentially a film for everyone. However, there is a specific genre that Chan tends to occupy, and it’s all due to his Western breakthrough movie, Rumble in the Bronx. Jackie Chan is arguably best known for his martial arts comedy movies, as his unique experience as a stuntman and success with American audiences has honed Chan’s signature style of slapstick comedy and elaborate stunts. However, the actor also has a lesser-known off-screen career as a voice actor, with Jackie Chan lending his unique accent to more characters than you realize.

Jackie Chan Has Voiced Way More Characters Than You Realize

Chan’s Talents Lie Beyond Kung Fu Panda & TMNT

Jackie Chan has actually voiced way more characters than you realize, and it demonstrates a surprising fact about the actor. His first voice acting role came in 1991, in which Jackie Chan voiced the Beast in the Mandarin dub of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Considering this was Chan’s first ever voice acting role, Beauty and the Beast is a surprisingly big breakout, even for Jackie Chan. He later voiced Captain Li Shang in the Cantonese and Mandarin dub of Disney’s Mulan. These dubbing roles demonstrated that Jackie Chan could offer more to modern movies than martial arts skills.

Following a stint at Disney, Jackie Chan moved to DreamWorks in 2008, voicing the Kung Fu Panda character, Master Monkey. This role is arguably Jackie Chan’s most famous voice acting role, as he joined Kung Fu Panda’s fantastic cast – which included the likes of Jack Black (Po) and Angelina Jolie (Tigress) – and the film’s surprising success at the box office turned the 2008 animated comedy movie into a well-loved franchise. Chan’s voice offers an air of professionalism to his character, Monkey, and the themed film strangely fits well into his previous kung fu filmography, despite being a kids movie.

Following the success of three Kung Fu Panda movies, Jackie Chan had proved his talent as a voice actor. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that he has landed another four roles as various characters in the years since, including voicing Splinter in 2023’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. While Monkey and Splinter are arguably Jackie Chan’s most famous roles (and his most successful), his filmography really shows how respected Chan has become in the voice acting industry, working on a wide variety of films, from The Lego Ninjago Movie to The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature.

Jackie Chan’s Voice Acting Roles Have Grossed A Lot Of Money

Jackie Chan Is Part Of Kung Fu Panda’s $2.3 Billion Franchise

Although he is most famously known for his on-screen stunts in martial arts movies, Jackie Chan’s off-screen voice acting roles have grossed a lot of money. In fact, according to The Numbers, four out of the top ten of Jackie Chan’s highest-grossing movies are for animated roles. 2023’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem sits at number nine with $180 million, with all three Rush Hour movies ranking higher. Yet, what is most surprising out of all of the figures is that, despite his dedication to stunt work, the top three of Jackie Chan’s highest-earning movies are Kung Fu Panda.

The Kung Fu Panda franchise consists of four movies (Monkey wasn’t in the fourth), as well as many short films and animated TV shows. Earning over $2 billion, Kung Fu Panda sits within the top highest-grossing animated movie franchises of all time, and was even a hit in China, representing its culture and the wuxia genre as a whole. With Jackie Chan’s Monkey being a pivotal part of the Furious Five in the films, his animation career was elevated by the DreamWorks franchise following the Disney dubs, and Jackie Chan has earned a lesser-known yet strong reputation for voice acting.

Sources: The Numbers