Vin Diesel

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Vin Diesel
Birth name Mark Sinclair Vincent III
Born July 18, 1967 (age 39)
Flag of United States New York City, New York, USA
Notable roles Private Caparzo in Saving Private Ryan
Dominic Toretto in The Fast and the Furious
Xander Cage in xXx
Richard B. Riddick in Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick
Lieutenant Shane Wolfe in The Pacifier
Jackie DiNorscio in Find Me Guilty

Vin Diesel (born Mark Sinclair Vincent on July 18, 1967) is an American actor, writer, director, and producer, and is of Italian and African-American descent. Diesel is the founder of the production companies OneRace Films, Tigon Studios, and Racetrack Records. He is distinguished by a shaved head, athletic physique, tell-it-like-it-is attitude, and a deeply textured baritone voice.

Contents

Biography

Diesel made his stage debut at age seven in Theatre for the New City, which was produced in Greenwich Village and directed by Thomas Hinkerman. He remained involved with the theatre throughout adolescence, going on to attend the city's Hunter College, where his creative writing studies led him to begin screenwriting. Diesel became an active filmmaker in the early 1990s, first earning notice for the short film Multi-Facial, which was selected for screening at the 1995 Cannes Festival. He made his first feature-length film, 1997's Strays, an urban drama in which he was self-cast as a gang boss whose love for a woman inspires him to try to change his ways. Written, directed and produced by Diesel, the film was selected for competition at the 1997 Sundance Festival, leading to an MTV deal to turn it into a series.

In an interview on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, he claimed to have changed his name to Vin Diesel while working as a bouncer, because in that business one's real name is not usually given out. The name "Vin" is simply a shortened version of "Vincent". He received the "Diesel" nickname from Chuck Norris when they met in 1993 ("Diesel" being a reference to someone with a very defined, toned body).

Career

Vin Diesel as Riddick.
Vin Diesel as Riddick.

Diesel's first film role was an uncredited appearance in the 1990 film Awakenings. He then produced, directed and starred in the 1994 short film Multi-Facial, a short semi-autobiographical film which follows a struggling actor stuck in the audition process, because he is regarded as either "too black" or "too white", or not black or white enough.

He was then cast in Steven Spielberg's 1998 Oscar-winning film Saving Private Ryan on the poignancy of his performance in Multi-Facial, and followed it up with a major role in Boiler Room (2000) and his breakthrough role in Pitch Black (2000). He also earned critical acclaim for voice work as the title character in The Iron Giant (1999). He attained action hero superstardom with the 2001 film The Fast and the Furious and the 2002 film xXx. In 2004, he reprised his role as Pitch Black's Riddick in The Chronicles of Riddick. In 2005 he played a comedic role in the film The Pacifier to avoid being typecast as an action hero. In 2006 he played mobster Jack DiNorscio in Sidney Lumet's Find Me Guilty which was based on one of the longest mafia trials in American history.

He has announced his intention to direct Hannibal, and star as the legendary Carthaginian general who crossed the Alps by elephant to attack Rome.

Diesel was originally offered the lead role in Doom, but turned it down. The role eventually went to The Rock.

On March 8, 2006, Diesel revealed he is working on a sequel to The Chronicles of Riddick.[1]

He was attached to star as the popular video game assassin Codename 47 in the film adaptation of the Hitman video game series but has since dropped out. Timothy Olyphant is currently negotiating to play the role.

Personal life

As a boy, Diesel was a skilled breakdancer who appeared in an instructional breakdancing video.[2] He appeared as a dancer in music videos for his cousin, rapper Kwamé.[3]

Diesel was a player of Dungeons & Dragons and other role playing games, a fact he proudly mentions in various interviews.[4] He occasionally makes D&D references in his films, such as in xXx where one of the tattoos on his Xander Cage character reads "Melkor", the name of an older game character of Diesel's. (Melkor was the original name for the fallen angel character of the Tolkien Legendarium). It has been said that his portrayal of Richard Riddick in the Pitch Black series of movies and games is loosely based on this character, a Drow "witch-hunter" who was a loner, and that Diesel actually has the character's image tattooed on his arm. He has also written the foreword to the commemorative book 30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration of D&D, a collection of stories and essays which chronicles the history of D&D.

Diesel is an avid fan of video games. He currently owns the game company, Tigon Studios, which produced The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, a successful Xbox and PC game, in which his likeness and voice are featured. At the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, it was announced that he will lend his likeness to the Xbox 360 and PS3 game The Wheelman. The game is also being developed concurrently as a film, which Diesel will also star in.

He has a fraternal twin brother named Paul, and is good friends with rapper Ja Rule.

Filmography

Year Movie Role Other notes
1990 Awakenings Hospital Orderly Uncredited
1994 Multi-Facial Mike
1997 Strays Rick
1998 Saving Private Ryan Private Caparzo
1999 The Iron Giant The Iron Giant (voice)
2000 Boiler Room Chris Varick
Pitch Black Richard B. Riddick
2001 The Fast and the Furious Dominic Toretto
Knockaround Guys Taylor Reese
2002 xXx Xander Cage
2003 A Man Apart Agent Sean Vetter
2004 The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury Richard B. Riddick (voice) Straight-to-DVD, animated
The Chronicles of Riddick Richard B. Riddick
2005 The Pacifier Lieutenant Shane Wolfe
2006 Find Me Guilty Jack DiNorscio gained 40 pounds for the role
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift Dominic Toretto Cameo appearance
Rockfish voiceover Announced; animated
2007 The Wheelman The Wheelman Announced
Babylon A.D. Hugo Cornelius Toorop in production
2008 Hannibal (animated) Hannibal Barca (voice) Announced
Hannibal Barca Announced

Producer - filmography

  1. Multi-Facial (1994) (producer)
  2. Strays (1997) (executive producer) (producer)
  3. xXx (2002) (executive producer)
  4. A Man Apart (2003) (executive producer)
  5. Chronicles of Riddick (2004) (executive producer)
  6. Life is a Dream (2004) documentary (executive producer)
  7. Find Me Guilty (2006) (producer)
  8. Rockfish (2007) (producer)

Director - filmography

  1. Multi-Facial (1994)
  2. Strays (1997)
  3. Hannibal (2008) .... Hannibal Barca - announced - soft-pre-production

Writer - filmography

  1. Multi-Facial (1994)
  2. Strays (1997)

Salary

The Vin Diesel "Fact" Generator

A popular internet meme exists where jokes are created to suggest superhuman feats accomplished by Vin Diesel. These feats are always focused on portraying greatness, prowess, and "awesomeness" in a humorous way. A great number come from the Something Awful forums and continue to be cited in forum signatures and small compilations.

Examples

  • "In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Vin Diesel could use to kill you, including the room itself."
  • "The letters of Vin Diesel's name can be rearranged to form his credo: I end lives."
  • "Vin Diesel beat the original Super Mario by screaming at his NES while eating his Filet of Child sandwich, causing the game to beat itself out of pure fear."

The meme is not likely completely original, but it was the first to be widely popular, and the idea most likely originated in the 1990s with a series of Saturday Night Live sketches about a mythical Bill Brasky. These all owe lineage to tall tales such as those of Paul Bunyan. Similar sets of "facts" for Chuck Norris, Mr. T, Samoa Joe, and Jack Bauer later became common, based on the popularity of the Vin Diesel meme[citation needed].

References

  1. ^ Newgen, Heather (2006-03-08). Diesel Says Riddick 2 is in the Works. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
  2. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJRMXecS8mo
  3. ^ In Tha Background: Kwame - Once dissed by Biggie... But Now? HipHopDX.com September 06, 2002
  4. ^ MTV interview. June 8, 2004.

External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../v/i/n/Vin_Diesel_e33d.html"