Vin Diesel

Vin Diesel
Vin Diesel, April 2005, Munich
Birth name	Mark Sinclair Vincent
Born	July 18 1967 (1967-07-18) (age 40) New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1990 - present

Vin Diesel (born Mark Sinclair Vincent on July 18, 1967 in New York City), is an American actor, writer, director, and producer, known for his muscular physique and deep voice. Diesel is the founder of the production companies OneRace Films, Tigon Studios, and Racetrack Records. In an interview on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, he said that he 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 nickname "Diesel" from his friends who said he ran off Diesel, referring to his non-stop energy.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Personal life 4 Filmography 4.1 Producer - filmography 4.2 Director - filmography 4.3 Writer - filmography 4.4 Games 4.5 Salary 5 References 6 External links

Early life

Diesel 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 punishing the kids, handed them scripts and offered them parts in the upcoming show. 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 film-maker in the early 1990s, first earning notice for the short film Multi-Facial, which was selected for screening at the 1995 Cannes Festival.

Career

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 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. 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 super stardom 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. He will also be starring in the upcoming motion picture "American Outlaw", (Axel & Echo Productions,) sometime within the next 5 years. In 2005 he played a comic 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 is currently rumored to be the new T-800 in the new Terminator movie, Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins.^[1] He has announced his intention to direct Hannibal the Conqueror, and star as the legendary Carthaginian general who crossed the Alps by elephant to attack Rome. Diesel was originally offered the lead in 2 Fast, 2 Furious but turned it down. He did reprise his The Fast and the Furious role as Dominic Toretto, however, in a cameo at the end of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. He is set to return in The Fast and The Furious 4. On March 8, 2006, Diesel revealed he is working on a sequel to The Chronicles of Riddick.^[2]

Personal life

While visiting the Dominican Republic in 2005, Diesel was accused in October of that year by Marianny Pimentel Orde, a 23 year old architecture student, of suggesting that the owner of a local bar booted her out of the place because she refused to go back to a local hotel with Diesel. Diesel denied the allegations as the club has had a history of problems unrelated to him.^[3] In an interview, Diesel reported that he prefers to date in Europe, where he is less likely to be recognized and where celebrities are not romantically linked to each other. He prefers to keep silent to the press about his romantic relationships, "I come from the Harrison Ford, Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino code of silence."^[4] Diesel remains guarded about his personal life. Diesel has played Dungeons & Dragons for over twenty years^[5] and wrote the foreword for the commemorative book 30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons. He is of half Italian and half African-American descent.

Filmography

Year	Movie	Role	Other notes
1990	Awakenings	Orderly	Uncredited role
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	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 30 pounds for the role
	The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift	Dominic Toretto	Cameo appearance
	Rockfish	voiceover	Announced; animated
2007
	Babylon A.D.	Hugo Cornelius Toorop	post production
2008	Hannibal the Conqueror	Hannibal Barca	Announced
2009	The Wheelman	The Wheelman	Announced
	The Fast and the Furious 4	Dominic Toretto	Confirmed

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. Hitman (2007) (executive producer)
9. Hannibal the Conqueror (2008) (producer)

Director - filmography

1. Multi-Facial (1994)
2. Strays (1997)
3. Hannibal the Conqueror (2008)

Writer - filmography

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

Games

1. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
2. The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
3. The Wheelman

Salary

• The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) $0 (After the film makers realized they were over budget, they weren't sure if Vin Diesel would accept the small part in the end of the film of which they had wished to include. To their surprise however, Vin Diesel did accept the part, even though he would receive no income for it.)
• The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) $11,500,000
• A Man Apart (2003) $2,500,000
• xXx (2002) $10,000,000
• The Fast and the Furious (2001) $2,000,000
• Saving Private Ryan (1998) $100,000

References

External links

• Vin Diesel at the Internet Movie Database
• Vin Diesel at the Open Directory Project