Vin Diesel (born Mark
Sinclaior Mark Vincent;July 18, 1967) is an American actor, producer,
director, and screenwriter. He came to prominence in the late 1990s, and first
became known for appearing in Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan in 1998.
He is most known for his portrayals of Riddick in The Chronicles of Riddick
trilogy (2001–2013) and of Dominic Toretto in The Fast and the Furious film
series (2001–present), two franchises in which he also acted as producer.
He starred in xXx (2002) and
Sidney Lumet's Find Me Guilty (2006). His voice acting work includes Brad
Bird's The Iron Giant (1999), the video games of The Chronicles of Riddick
franchise, and the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy adaptation of the Marvel
comics of the same name.
As a filmmaker, Diesel
directed, wrote, produced and starred in the drama film Strays, as well as in
two short films. He is the founder of the production companies One Race Films,
Racetrack Records, and Tigon Studios.
Early life
Diesel was born in New York
City. His mother, Delora Sherleen (Sinclair) Vincent, is an astrologer. Diesel
has stated that he is "of ambiguous ethnicity". His mother's
background includes Scottish, English, and German. He has never met his
biological father, and has stated that "all I know from my mother is that
I have connections to many different cultures". Diesel has self-identified
as "definitely a person of colour".He once stated that he is
"Italian and a lot of other stuff".[citation needed] He has stated
that his parents' relationship was illegal in some parts of the United States
due to anti-miscegenation laws. Diesel was raised by his Caucasian mother and
African-American stepfather, Irving H. Vincent, an acting instructor and
theater manager. He made his stage debut at age seven when he appeared in the
children's play Dinosaur Door, written by Barbara Garson. The play was produced
at Theater for the New City in New York's Greenwich Village. His involvement in
the play came about when he, his brother, and some friends had broken into
Theater for the New City's space on Jane Street with the intent to vandalize
it. They were confronted by the theater's artistic director, Crystal Field,
who, instead of calling the police, handed them scripts and offered them parts
in the upcoming show.
Diesel remained involved with
the theater throughout adolescence, going on to attend the city's Hunter
College, where his creative writing studies led him to begin screenwriting. He
has identified himself as a "multi-faceted" actor[as a result of early
difficulties finding roles due to his mixed heritage.He changed his name to Vin
Diesel while working as a bouncer at the New York nightclub Tunnel, because
one's real name is not usually given out in that business. The name
"Vin" is simply a shortened version of "Vincent". He
received the nickname "Diesel" from his friends, who said he ran off
diesel fuel, referring to his non-stop energy.
Career
1990
Diesel's first film role was a
brief uncredited appearance in the film Awakenings (1990). He then wrote,
directed, produced, and starred in the short film Multi-Facial (1994), a short
semi-autobiographical film which follows a struggling actor stuck in the
audition process. The film was selected for screening at the 1995 Cannes
Festival. He made his first feature-length film, Strays (1997), an urban drama
in which he played a gang leader 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. He was cast in Steven Spielberg's 1998 Oscar-winning
film Saving Private Ryan on the poignancy of his performance in Multi-Facial.
In 1999, he earned critical acclaim for his voice work as the title character
in the animation film The Iron Giant.
2000
Diesel had a major role in the
business drama Boiler Room (2000),[17] and then got his breakthrough role as
the anti-hero Riddick in the science-fiction film Pitch Black (2000).Diesel
attained action hero stardom with two box office hits: the street racing action
film The Fast and the Furious (2001), and the action thriller xXx (2002). In
2004, Diesel reprised his role as Riddick in The Chronicles of Riddick, which
was a box office failure considering the large budget. In 2005, he played a
lighthearted role in the comedy film The Pacifier, which became a box office
success.
In 2006, he chose a dramatic
role playing real-life mobster Jack DiNorscio in Find Me Guilty.Although he
received critical acclaim for his performance, the film did poorly at the box
office. Later that year, Diesel made a cameo appearance in The Fast and the
Furious: Tokyo Drift, reprising his role from The Fast and the Furious. He was
originally offered the lead in 2 Fast 2 Furious, but turned it down.[17] He was
also offered the chance to reprise his role from xXx in xXx: State of the
Union, but turned it down as well.
In 2007, Diesel was set to
produce and star as Agent 47 in the film adaptation of the video game Hitman,
but eventually pulled back and served as executive producer on the film
instead. In 2008, he starred in the science-fiction action thriller Babylon A.D..
Diesel returned to the The Fast and The Furious series, alongside all the
actors from the original film, in Fast & Furious, which was released in
April 2009.
2010
Diesel reprised his role as
Dominic Toretto in the fifth and sixth films of the Fast and Furious franchise,
Fast Five (2011) and Fast & Furious 6 (2013). He reprised his role as
Riddick in the third film of the Riddick series simply titled Riddick (2013).
In August 2013, Diesel received an honorary star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
.
Diesel is slated to star in
the planned July 2014 Fast & Furious 7, and will be voicing the character
Groot in the planned August 2014 Marvel Cinematic Universe film Guardians of
the Galaxy.
