Tony Jaa was born in 1976 in Surin Province, Isan, Thailand. His real name is Panom Yerum, but today the entire Western world knows him as Tony Jaa. His parents were breeding elephants, and since childhood the boy himself watched films with Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li. So, he literally raved about action movies, lone heroes and martial arts, and soon decided to imitate his heroes himself and began to train. Tony was especially fond of Thai boxing.
At the age of 15, Jaa was lucky – he became a student of the legendary Thai stuntman and stuntman Panna Rittikrai, these classes were held within the walls of the College of Physical Education in the province of Maha Sarakham. Jaa has trained in several techniques, with a particular focus on taekwondo. It is known that Tony also owns aikido and jiu-jitsu.
Soon Tony Jaa was already one of the stuntmen of Panna Rittikrai’s team. Thus began the work in front of the camera. Starting with advertising, Jaa later got into a big movie, and his first film was the action movie ‘Mortal Kombat 2’ (“Mortal Kombat: Annihilation”), where he replaced actor Robin Shaw in stunts.
Interest in Tony Jaa, not as an understudy, but as an independent actor, arose after the filming of a short film about the ancient style of muay boran, which marked the beginning of the modern style of muay thai. So, the director and producer Prachya Pinkaev, seeing Jaa, decided to make a film with Tony in the title role.
Action ‘Ong Bak: Thai Warrior’ (‘Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior’) was released in 2003; its action unfolded in a small Thai village, whose inhabitants once noticed a terrible loss – the head of the Buddha statue disappeared.
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So only one person who knew the secrets of the ancient style of Muay Thai could find and return the loss to its place. Of course, this hero was the character of Tony Jaa, and the film was a great success with Western audiences. By the way, the film was shot very “honestly” – no computer graphics, Tony performed all the most difficult stunts in the film himself.
In 2004, Jaa played in the Thai action movie (‘The Bodyguard’), and in the second part of this project – ‘(‘The Bodyguard 2’) – he appeared in 2007.
The most notable work of the actor was the role in the 2005 action movie ‘Dragon’s Honor’ (‘Tom yum goong’), where Jaa got the main character. He played a simple Thai peasant who entered the fight against a criminal syndicate; Of course, Tony’s character was not that simple, and the film was full of great action scenes and colorful characters.
This film was simply a huge success in the West, and Tony himself actively advertised it, arranging demonstrations and screenings.
The sequel to Ong Bak, Ong Bak 2: Unsurpassed (Ong Bak 2), was released in 2008, and in 2010 the third part of this project was released. By the way, Jaa also worked on this film as a screenwriter, director and producer.
In 2012 there was a sequel to ‘Dragon’s Honor’, and in 2013 an American action movie (“Machete Kills”) starring Tony Jaa.
In general, the glory of Tony Jaa, a true master of martial arts, has long gone beyond the borders of his country. His hardest stunts with extreme acrobatics have made him the new star of Asian action movies.
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