Vin Diesel Vital Information (From
Wikipedia)
Vin Diesel (born Mark Sinclair Vincent on July 18,
1967) is a biracial American actor, writer, director,
and producer. Diesel is also the founder of the production
companies OneRace Films and Tigon Studios. Diesel
is distinguished by a bald head, muscular physique,
and deep, textured baritone voice.
Biography
Born in New York City on July 18, 1967, Diesel made
his stage debut at the age of seven in Theatre for
the New City, which was produced in Greenwich Village.
He continued to be involved with the theatre throughout
his adolescence, and he went on to attend the city's
Hunter College, where his studies in creative writing
led him to begin writing screenplays. Diesel became
active in filmmaking in the early 1990s, first earning
notice for the short Multi-Facial, which was selected
for screening at the 1995 Cannes Festival. He followed
up Multi-Facial with his first feature-length film,
1997's Strays, an urban drama in which he cast himself
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, which led to a deal
with MTV to turn it into a series.
In an interview on Late Night with Conan O’Brien,
he stated that he changed his name to Vin Diesel while
he was working as a bouncer because in that business,
one's real name is not generally given out. The name
"Vin" is a shortened version of Vincent.
Career
Diesel produced, directed, and starred in the 1994
short film Multi-Facial, a short semi-autobiographical
film which follows the auditions of a struggling actor
stuck in the audition process. With each film that
he auditions for he is found to either be "too
black" or "too white", or not black
or white enough.
Diesel was cast in 1998's Saving Private Ryan on the
poignancy of his performance in Multi-Facial, and
followed it up with major roles in Pitch Black and
Boiler Room (2000). He also received critical acclaim
for his voice work as the title character in The Iron
Giant (1999). He broke through to mainstream audiences
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 has
announced his intention to direct Hannibal, and star
as the Carthaginian general who crossed the Alps by
elephant to attack Rome.
Vin Diesel and Paul Walker in The Fast and the Furious
Diesel was originally offered the lead role in Doom,
but turned it down. The role eventually went to The
Rock.
Personal life
As a teenager, Diesel was a skilled breakdancer and
appeared in an instructional video on breakdancing.[1]
He appeared as a dancer in music videos for the rapper
Kwam?, who is his cousin.[2] Diesel is a long time
fan and player of Dungeons & Dragons and other
role playing games, a fact that he proudly states
in various interviews.[3] He occasionally makes reference
to D&D in his films, such as in xXx where one
of the tattoos on Xander Cage (Diesel's character)
reads "Melkor," the name of one of Diesel's
old player characters. (Melkor is also the original
name of the Satan-like character in The Silmarillion
and other Tolkien stories.) It has been said that
his portrayal of Richard Riddick in the Pitch Black
series of movies and games is based somewhat on this
favorite character, a Drow "witch-hunter"
who was a loner, and that Diesel has the character's
image tattooed on his leg. He has also written the
foreword to the commemorative book 30 Years of Adventure:
A Celebration of D&D, a collection of stories
and essays which chronicles the history of D&D.
Diesel is also an avid fan of video games. He currently
owns his own game studio, Tigon Studios, which produced
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay,
a successful Xbox and PC game. His likeness and voice
are featured in the game. At the 2006 Electronic Entertainment
Expo in Los Angeles, a trailer for another game with
his likeness, entitled The Wheelman, was shown.
In a 2004 interview in USA Today,[4] Diesel denied
rumors that he is gay. In fact, actress Karrine Steffans
chronicled a sexual encounter she shared with him
in her controversial book, "Confessions of a
Video Vixen." She is quoted in saying, "I
like this muscle daddy."
For more information please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vin_Diesel
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