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Vin Diesel (born Mark Sinclair
Vincent; July 18, 1967) is an American actor, writer,
director, and producer. While he prefers to identify
himself as a "multi-faceted" actor he has played a
number of similar roles, as a result of early
difficulties finding roles due to his very mixed
heritage. He founded the production companies One Race
Films, Tigon Studios, and Racetrack Records. |
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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. He then earned critical acclaim for voice work as the
title character in the animation film The Iron Giant (1999). He
followed it up with a major role in Boiler Room (2000) and then got
his breakthrough role as the anti-hero Riddick in Pitch Black
(2000). He then attained action hero super stardom with the box
office hits The Fast and the Furious (2001) and xXx (2002).
In 2004, he reprised his role as Pitch Black's Riddick in The
Chronicles of Riddick which did only moderately well at the box
office. In 2005 he played a lighthearted role in the comedy film The
Pacifier which was a surprise box office success. In 2006 he
attempted a dramatic role when he played real-life mobster Jack
DiNorscio in Find Me Guilty. Although he was critically acclaimed
for his performance, the film bombed at the box office. Later that
year he made a cameo appearance in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo
Drift, reprising his role from The Fast and The Furious. Diesel was
originally offered the lead in 2 Fast 2 Furious but turned it down.
He was also offered the chance to reprise his role from xXx in xXx:
State of the Union but also turned it down. In March 2006, Diesel
stated that he was working on a sequel to The Chronicles of Riddick
which as of 2008 is still in pre-production stages.
In 2007, he was set to produce and star as Agent 47 in the film
adaptation of the video game Hitman, but eventually pulled out from
the role and served as executive producer on the film instead. In
2008 he stars in the science-fiction action thriller Babylon A.D..
After seven years, he is reprising his role as Dominic Toretto in
the fourth film of The Fast and The Furious series, titled Fast and
Furious which will be released in June 2009. |
