Vin Diesel’s Biography
Vin Diesel (born Mark Sinclair) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and film director, winner of the MTV Movie Awards. He is popular thanks to the work in the series of films «The Fast and the Furious», «The Chronicles of Riddick», «xXx».
The Early Years
Vin Diesel or Mark Sinclair was born on 18 July 1967 in Alameda County, California. In the first years of his life, his mother, Delora Sherlin (Sinclair) Vincent, brought up Mark and his twin brother Paul all alone since the boys did not know their own father.
Diesel has repeatedly stressed that his ethnic origin is mixed: his mother has English, German and Scottish ancestry, and his father, definitely, belonged to another race, perhaps also mixed.
In 1970, his mother married again, and a black stepfather Irving Vincent took three of them to New York. So, Vin got a half-brother and a half-sister, Tim and Samantha. Stepfather was a theater Manager and an acting teacher, and he constantly took children to theatre performances and premieres of films that largely determined the future interests of the boy.
For the first time, Mark came on the stage at the age of 7 years, thanks to a curious case. He broke down the door and snuck into the New City Theater with brother Paul and the other boys in some bully. As it turned out, that time it was a rehearsal in the theater and the Director Crystal Field did not call the police and instead invited the boys to try themselves as actors and read the text.
Mark coped with this task better than anyone, and Field has involved him in the performance of «The Dinosaur Door», promising him $20 for each performance. The young artist continued to appear on the stage of this theatre until 17 years and has managed to significantly develop his acting skills.
Mark was tall and thin in adolescence. So, he received the nickname «Worm», and never enjoyed success with girls. Terribly ashamed of his ridiculous physique, he began to exercise regularly and build muscles. At the age of 17, having managed to acquire an impressive musculature, he left the theater and got a job as a bouncer in a Manhattan nightclub named Tunnel.
It was then that the young man has drastically changed his look: he shaved head bald and began calling himself Vin Diesel. During the three years of the club job, Diesel gained a lot of experience with the opposite sex and not less rich experience of street fights. The old-school fighting training of those time helped him to create the screen image of the «tough guy» later.
500 fights, that's the number I figured when I was a kid. 500 street fights and you could consider yourself a legitimate tough guy.
The Beginning of a Cinema Career
The debut of Vin Diesel in the movie took place in 1990, in the film by Penny Marshall «Awakenings», but his role was so tiny that his name did not even get into the credits. The young man painfully experienced the failure of all his attempts to break into cinema world, and so his mother gave him a book by Rick Schmidt «Feature Filmmaking at Used-Car Prices», hinting that he might take his career in his own hands.
Diesel had that idea and wrote the script of the film «Strays,» but soon realized that he can’t afford a feature film from the first attempt, and wrote another script for the short film «Multi-Facial.» He then self-produced the shooting, played the lead role in this film, and even wrote the music.
The movie was finished in 1994 and went largely autobiographical since the hero, an actor named Mike, could not get the role due to the fact that he belonged to a mixed race, and did not fit under any type, invented by the Directors. After a private screening; the film was selected to participate in the Cannes Film Festival in 1995.
Then again, Diesel came to Hollywood and settled into a TV shop to save money on the shooting of his initial idea, the film «Strays», which he eventually managed. In this feature-length drama, he again played the lead role. His character was a hardened drug dealer who changed under the influence of pure love.
The film was shown in 1996 at the Sundance Film Festival, but despite positive reviews, the author did not avail a substantial profit. However, due to the «Strays,» precisely the young actor was noticed by a famous Director Steven Spielberg and was invited to a secondary role in his film «Saving Private Ryan» (1998) with Tom Hanks and Matt Damon.
It was the first Diesel work in a big movie, and he was delighted. Later, this film won 5 Oscars, and Diesel too, together with colleagues in the shooting was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild American Federation in the category the Best Role Playing Group of Actors. «Strays» helped the actor once again. Due to the Sundance Film Festival, Diesel was invited to voice the lead character of the cartoon «The Iron Giant» (1999), filmed by Director Brad Bird.
The Career Peak
In 2000, Vin Diesel starred in the drama by Ben Younger «Boiler Room» and a fantastic movie by David Tuil «Pitch Black», where he played the lead role of the anti-hero Riddick. This film marked the beginning of the famous series «The Chronicles of Riddick» and brought the actor his long-awaited glory.
Diesel overcame the shooting hardly since he injured his shoulder during the execution of the stunt and also hurt his eyes by a special contact lens through which his eyes shone in the dark.
The film is charming in its carelessness, and Vin Diesel is more than enough muscle for the lead character, but the attempts to breathe new life into the spy thriller genre have failed.
After this, he has changed roles and tried shooting in Comedy for some time. So, a picture «A Pacifier» by Adam Shenkman (2005) and «Find Me Guilty» by Cindy Lumet (2006) were released.
The film Director basically got laurels for the second comedy picture, who «managed to see the serious dramatic potential of Vin Diesel, which previously was neglected, considering him capable of action genre only».
Soon, the third episode of «The Fast and The Furious» enrolled. – «The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift». Contrary to the fans’ expectations, the hero of Vin Diesel appears in this film only in the episode at the end.
Soon after, the actor faced a difficult choice in front of him opening the opportunity to take part in the filming of the Thriller «Hitman» by Xavier Jansen or sci-fi thriller «Babylon A.D.» directed by MathieuKassovitz. Reluctantly, Diesel was forced to abandon the «Hitman» and the lead role instead of him was successfully played by Timothy Olyphant. The project the actor chose, «Babylon A.D.» (2008), despite the rigorous shooting process and long post-production, has failed and never recouped its budget, which amounted to a grand sum of 70 million dollars, and even the Director himself later admitted that this film is «not worth watching».
In 2009, Diesel concentrated on working on the next episodes of «The Fast and the Furious», combining there the film directing and playing the role of Dominic Toretto, which again became the lead. So, in 2009 he released a short promotional film «Los Bandoleros» and the associated main movie «The Fast and the Furious 4», in 2010 he launched «The Fast and the Furious 5», in 2013 he produced « The Fast and the Furious 6» where the combat team was joined by Dwayne Johnson, and in 2015 he presented «The Fast and the Furious 7».
It was planned that the seventh episode will be released a little earlier in 2014, but this was prevented by the tragic death of Paul Walker in a car crash, the actor playing the second lead, who also was a close friend of Vin Diesel.
«The Fast and the Furious 8» was released in 2017, and Paul Walker was replaced by Jason Statham. Such stars as Kurt Russell and Charlize Theron starred in episodes.
In 2013, the third episode in the series «Riddick» was released, and in 2015 fantasy thriller «The Last Witch Hunter,» in which Diesel’ partners on the shooting were Rose Leslie and Elijah Wood. The film was criticized by the press as «surly and slow».
In 2017, the sequel, «xXx: Return of Xander Cage» was released. This is the third film of the series, and there Diesel once again involved as the lead actor and producer, despite the fact that he missed the second film of 2005.
In addition, the actor worked on a set of movies based on comic book publisher «Marvel Comics» – «Guardians of the Galaxy» (2014) and «Guardians of the Galaxy. Vol 2» (2017). There he played the role of Groot: it's an animated character, and Diesel served as his model for motion capture, as well as voiced him after.
Vin Diesel’s Personal Life
In his younger years, Vin Diesel has experienced a few bright love affairs, about which little is known reliably. In particular, he has attributed the affair with the Playboy models 1997 Layla Roberts and 2000 Summer Altice, with an actress Carmen Electra, leader of the group Pussycat Dolls Kaya Jones, actress Michelle Ruben, actress and model Chanel Ryan, a famous model Asia Argento, TV presenter Maria Menous etc.
In 2001, Diesel has entered into a relationship with the actress Michelle Rodriguez, whom he met on the set of the film «The Fast and the Furious», but the love affair lasted a few months.
In 2003, after the release of the film «xXx,» he had an affair with a model from the Czech Republic Paula Harkaway, who participated in the filming, but this relationship also did not last long. In 2006, in an interview, Diesel said that he prefers not to expose his personal life.
Personal life should be personal. I come from the Harrison Ford, Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino code of silence
The actor is carefully watching their health and appearance: he spends a lot of time in the gym, supports a bronze skin tone with tanning and adheres to a healthy diet with lots of protein and vegetables.
His hobby is video games, especially the famous game «Dungeons & Dragons». In 2002, he created the company Tigon Studios and started to produce his own game «Wheelman» in which the main character speaks in his voice.
In 2017, Forbes magazine named Vin Diesel's third in the list of highest paid actors since he earned $54 million. He is behind only Mark Wahlberg (68 million) and Dwayne Jones (65 million).
Vin Diesel Today
In 2017-2020 Vin Diesel will be working on new films based on the comic book publisher «Marvel Comics» in the image of Groot. These are pictures of «Avengers: Infinity War» and «Avengers 4», «Guardians of the Galaxy. Vol. 3».
In 2020, the release of the ninth part «The Fast and the Furious» is planned, and soon the tenth part must be released. They promise that the tenth «The Fast and the Furious» will put an end to this action-packed high-speed movie.
In both pictures Diesel, as before, will serve as the primary producer and the lead actor. However, in the fall of 2017 the press knew about the serious tensions between Diesel and Dwayne Jones, who wants to become the new face of the franchise, so plans may change.
