Dwayne Johnson:Â Â
Dwayne Douglas Johnson (born May 2, 1972), also known by his ring name The Rock, is an American actor and former professional wrestler. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time,  he was integral to the development and success of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) during the Attitude Era, an industry boom period in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Johnson wrestled for the WWF for eight years prior to pursuing an acting career. His films have grossed over $3.5 billion in North America and over $10.5 billion worldwide, making him one of the world’s highest-grossing and highest-paid actors.Â
Early career (1996)
After being cut by Calgary, Johnson began his professional wrestling career the following year, in 1996. Veteran wrestler Pat Patterson secured several tryout matches for Johnson with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1996. Wrestling at first under his real name, Johnson defeated The Brooklyn Brawler at a house show on March 10 and lost matches to Chris Candido and Owen Hart. After wrestling at Jerry Lawler‘s United States Wrestling Association under the name Flex Kavana and winning the USWA tag team championship twice with his partner Bart Sawyer in the summer of 1996, Johnson was signed to a WWF contract. He received additional training from Tom Prichard, alongside Achim Albrecht and Mark Henry.RELATED:
15 Best Dwayne Johnson Movies of All Time:
Dwayne Johnson filmography:Â
Johnson had his first acting roles in Beyond the Mat (1999)  and The Mummy Returns (2001), and played his first lead role in the spin-off The Scorpion King (2002). He has since starred in numerous other successful films, including The Rundown  (2003), Walking Tall (2004), Southland Tales (2007), The Game Plan (2007), Get Smart (2008), Race to Witch Mountain (2009), Tooth Fairy (2010), Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012), G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013) Pain & Gain (2013), Hercules (2014), San Andreas (2015)
Central Intelligence  (2016), Moana (2016), Rampage (2018), Skyscraper (2018), and Jungle Cruise (2021). Johnson’s most successful box office role has been Luke Hobbs in The Fast and the Furious franchise. He first appeared as the character in Fast Five (2011) and helped catapult the film series into one of the top-grossing movie franchises in history. He starred in the sequels, Fast & Furious 6 (2013), Furious 7 (2015), and The Fate of the Furious (2017). The character’s popularity led to The Fast and the Furious spin-off film Hobbs & Shaw (2019). Another notable franchise starring Johnson is the Jumanji franchise, as he has starred in the successful films, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017), and its sequel, Jumanji: The Next Level (2019), and voices Bark Kent / Krypto / Superdog, Anubis, and Teth-Adam / Black Adam in the animated film DC League of Super-Pets (2022), before starring as the latter in the live-action superhero film Black Adam (2022).