Tony Jaa Bio-Martial Arts Movies Star

Our Tony Jaa Bio introduces the Thai Martial Arts Movies star, Panom Yeerum. Tony Jaa was born Panom Yeerum in Surin, North Eastern Thailand on 5th February 1976. Interested in Martial Arts from a very young age, Tony Jaa would try to imitate his idols, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li and would practice somersaulting off the backs of his father’s elephants at every opportunity.
After watching Panna Rittikrai’s movie “Born to Fight”, Tony Jaa, at age 15, applied to become a student of Panna Rittikrai. Excelling at gymnastics and swordplay, Tony Jaa became skilled in Muay Thai and Taekwondo. During this early period, Tony Jaa doubled for Robin Shou in Mortal Combat 2: Annihilation (1997) and was a stunt Man in the Thai TV series “Red Eagle”.

Panna Rittikrai quickly realized the enormous talent of Tony Jaa and began work on a Thai movie about Muay Thai. After 4 years of work, with Prachya Pinkaew as Director, the movie Ong Bak, starring Tony Jaa, was released in 2003. Ong Bak (Muay Thai Warrior) was to become a smash hit, not only in Thailand but in many countries around the World and was the first ever Thai movie to become a box office hit in the USA.

In 2004, Ong Bak was voted Best Action Movie in France. Overnight, Ong Bak made Tony Jaa an internationally renowned star but even greater accolades were to follow.
Also in 2004, Tony Jaa made a cameo appearance in Petchtai Wongkamlao‘s “The Bodyguard”. 2005 saw the release of Tom Yum Goong (Warrior King/The Protector) which was to become not only the most successful movie in Thai history with sales doubling those of Ong Bak, but in the USA was to reach No. 4 in the Box Office charts. In 2007, Tony Jaa made another cameo appearance in Petchtai Wangkamlao’s follow up to The Bodyguard, “The Bodyguard 2″. In 2008, the prequel to Ong Bak was released, Ong Bak 2 (The Beginning) which starred and was co-directed by Tony Jaa. 2010 saw the release of Ong Bak 3, the sequel to Ong Bak 2, also co-directed by and starring Tony Jaa.

Known to the Western World as Tony Jaa, in Thailand he is known as Jaa Panom. It was the Director, Panchya Pinkaew, who gave him the name Tony Jaa to make him more acceptable to western audiences. A further complication is that before he began filming for Ong Bak 3, Tony Jaa changed his name from Panom Yeerum to Tatchagon Yeerum.

What the future holds for Tony Jaa is uncertain. On the 28th May 2010, Tony Jaa rode an elephant into a Temple in Surin and officially ordained as a Buddhist Monk.