Biography

Tony Jaa

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Japanom Yeerum was born on February 5, 1976, in the northeastern province of Surin, Thailand. His parents were elephant herders. Jaa watched martial arts films as a young kid and began to emulate some of his idols, from Bruce Lee to Jackie Chan to Jet Li. Jaa studied martial arts at the local temple school and later under a scholarship at the Physical Education College in Khon Kaen, Thailand where he continued to study Muay Boran, Muay Thai, Wushu, Judo and Tae-Kwan-Do. Jaa later did some stunt for in a film for 'Panna Rittikrai', This resulted in Jaa being seen and getting work, doubling for Robin Shou and James Remar in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997), and when his demo reel was seen by director Prachya Pinkaew, the film Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior (2003) was created for Jaa. He adopted the English name Tony Jaa. In 2013, after ending his association with Sahamongkol Film, Jaa was contracted by Universal Studio's for a role in Fast and Furious 7. Jaa now has starring roles in several international films being filmed in 2014 and is concentrating his efforts more towards international audiences.
- IMDb mini biography by: Ninja01

Use of Muay Thai in fights
Known for performing spectacular stunts without any use of wires or CGI
Unique fighting style that mixes speed, agility and fluid movements with brutal strength and devastating attacks
Almost all his films see him use a flying elbow strike or flying knee kick at his enemies

Does 8 hours of gymnastics, Muay Thai, and other sports training a day.
He speaks Thai, Khmer and he is learning English.
Highly Skilled in Muay Thai, Tae Kwon Do, swordplay and gymnastics.
Watching Jackie Chan movies and a Thai movie called Born to Fight (1986) influenced him to do stuntwork and eventually become a action star, but he says his biggest influence is Bruce Lee.
Stunt-man turned actor who does not use any wire work or CG effects in his stunts.

Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Bruce Lee are my masters; they're the inspiration for my work. Bruce Lee was a heavy fighter who threw hard punches. Jackie moves very fast and uses a lot of comedy, and Jet Li is very fluid. I've tried to combine all of their styles and added some things of my own.
I want a strong foundation in Thailand. Hollywood? Maybe in the future.
What they [Chan, Lee and Li] did was so beautiful, so heroic that I wanted to do it too. I practiced until I could do the move exactly as I had seen the masters do it.

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