Vin Diesel definitely doesn’t need any introduction. He’s an iconic American actor, very well known especially for portraying the badass Dominic Toretto in The Fast and The Furious film franchise. But he is also a producer, director and screenwriter.
From Saving Private Ryan to Pitch Black, The Fast and The Furious and xXx, Vin Diesel established himself as the rebel action hero who breaks every rule, beats the crap out of everybody who crosses his line and finally comes out on top, captivating audiences on the big screen. He is one of the highest paid actors of Hollywood right now, and his net worth is an impressive $200 million as we speak.
You probably didn’t know that his real name is Mark Sinclair, and Vin Diesel is actually his stage name. Born on July 18, 1967 in Alameda County, California, he has never met his biological father and was raised in New York City by his mother and his stepfather.
With his stepfather working as a drama teacher and with his intuition that he’s going to be a movie star one day, Vin started acting at the age of seven, when he went to the Theater for the New City in New York and appeared in Dinosaur Door. I know it doesn’t sound as badass as his latest movies, but it’s a children’s play.
Throughout his adolescence, he continued acting in theatrical productions, but he was also a club bouncer for nine or ten years, a job which shaped him into the tough guy you see on the screen today. Recalling those days for Men’s Fitness magazine, he stated that he’s been in more than 500 fights and none of them were pretty. Later on, he attended the Hunter College where he took creative writing classes, which helped him to become a screenwriter as well.
Film Career
Vin Diesel’s first film role was in Awakenings in 1990, but it was brief and uncredited.
In 1994, he wrote, directed, produced and starred in a short drama film titled Multi-Facial, which tells the story of a multiracial actor and his struggle to find work. The film was selected for the Cannes Festival in 1995 and Diesel’s performance attracted the attention of the famous director Steven Spielberg who cast him in 1998’s Oscar-winning war drama Saving Private Ryan. From then on, Vin Diesel began walking the arduous road to stardom, with more and more opportunities coming his way. The next decade began with Vin’s major roles in the drama thriller Boiler Room (2000), as Riddick in the science-fiction Pitch Black (2000) and two box-office hits, The Fast and The Furious (2001) and the action movie xXx (2002). No, no, not that kind of action.
