- Born
- Birth namePanom Worawit
- Nicknames
- Phanom Yeerum
- Jaa Phanom
- Tatchakorn Yeerum
- Japanom Yeerum
- Height5′ 7¾″ (1.72 m)
- 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
- SpousePiyarat Chotiwattananont(December 29, 2011 - present) (2 children)
- ChildrenHathaipawee YeerumNarinrat Yeerum
- ParentsRin SaipetchThongdee Yeerum
- 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.
- Highly Skilled in Muay Thai, Tae Kwon Do, swordplay and gymnastics.
- He speaks Thai, Khmer and he is learning English.
- Watching Jackie Chan movies and a Thai movie called Gerd ma lui (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.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content