Born in Atlanta, Georgia on August 31, 1972, Chris Tucker is a comedian popularly known for his role in the Rush Hour trilogy. He is the son of Mary, who was involved in church work, and Norris Tucker, who owned a janitorial service.
After graduating from Columbia High School, Chris Tucker moved to Los Angeles in order to pursue a career in comedy and movies. His first major movie role was in the 1995 cult favorite Friday, which also featured rapper Ice Cube. Two years later, he landed the role opposite Charlie Sheen in Money Talks and alongside Bruce Willis in the Fifth Element.
In 1998, Chris Tucker gained enormous success as he played James Carter, an abrasive, wise-cracking detective in the martial arts action comedy Rush Hour, which starred legendary Chinese martial arts expert Jackie Chan. After realizing the success of the first Rush Hour film, Tucker held out from the studio bosses until they paid his asking price of $20 million for its sequel, Rush Hour 2. The movie became a world wide box-office hit, becoming the fourth top grossing film of 2001, and the highest-grossing martial-arts film of all time.
Despite his groundbreaking success at the start of his career, Tucker has only made three film appearances since 1998, all as Detective James Carter. His latest appearance was the third film in the franchise, Rush Hour 3, which is set in Paris, Los Angeles and Hong Kong.
While Tucker has made such a relatively small number of movies, he has already become part of the unofficial “20 million per film” club, joining actors like Brad Pitt, Denzel Washington, Tom Cruise and Will Smith.
At present, Chris Tucker continues to perform stand-up comedy and occasionally appears at charity concerts and events that are dedicated to bringing attention to African poverty and hunger issues in the United States.