Vin Diesel

Vin Diesel
Vin Diesel (Munich, April 2005)
Born	Mark Sinclair Vincent
Occupation(s)	Film actor, screenwriter, film producer
Years active	1990 - present

Vin Diesel (born Mark Sinclair Vincent, July 18 1967, New York City) is an American actor, writer, director, and producer. He has played roles of different cultural backgrounds, but prefers to identify himself as "multicultural", as a result of early difficulties finding roles due to his heritage. He founded the production companies OneRace Films, Tigon Studios, and Racetrack Records.

In an interview on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, he said that he changed his name to Vin Diesel while working as a bouncer, because in that business one's real name is not usually given out. The name "Vin" is simply a shortened version of "Vincent". He received the nickname "Diesel" from his friends who said he ran off diesel, referring to his non-stop energy.

Early life

Diesel made his stage debut at age seven when he appeared in the children's play Dinosaur Door, written by Barbara Garson. The play was produced at Theater for the New City in New York's Greenwich Village. His involvement in the play came about when he, his brother and some friends had broken into Theater for the New City's space on Jane Street with the intent to vandalize it. They were confronted by the Theater's Artistic Director, Crystal Field, who instead of punishing the kids, handed them scripts and offered them parts in the upcoming show. He remained involved with the theatre throughout adolescence, going on to attend the city's Hunter College, where his creative writing studies led him to begin screenwriting. Diesel became an active film-maker in the early 1990s, first earning notice for the short film Multi-Facial, which was selected for screening at the 1995 Cannes Festival.

Career

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 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. In 2005 he played a lighthearted role in the comedy film The Pacifier which was a 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. In 2006 he made a cameo appearance in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, reprising his role from The Fast and The Furious.

In 2007 he was to produce and star as Agent 47 in the video game adaptation of Hitman but eventually left the project. In 2008 his upcoming film release is the science-fiction action thriller Babylon A.D..

He is also currently rumored to be the new T-800 in the new Terminator movie, Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins. He has announced his intention to direct Hannibal the Conqueror, and star as the legendary Carthaginian general who crossed the Alps by elephant to attack Rome.

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.

On March 8 2006, Diesel revealed that he was working on a sequel to The Chronicles of Riddick which as of 2008 is still in production.

Personal life

While visiting the Dominican Republic in 2005, Diesel was accused in October of that year by Marianny Pimentel Orde, a 23 year old architecture student, of suggesting that the owner of a local bar booted her out of the place because she refused to go back to a local hotel with Diesel. Diesel denied the allegations as the club has had a history of problems unrelated to him.

Diesel reportedly claimed that he prefers dating in Europe, where he is less likely to be recognized and where celebrities are not romantically linked to each other. He prefers to maintain his privacy regarding his personal life. "I come from the Harrison Ford, Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino code of silence." Diesel remains guarded about his personal life. Diesel has played Dungeons & Dragons for over twenty years and wrote the foreword for the commemorative book 30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons. In the 30th Anniversary of Dungeons and Dragons issue of Dragon Magazine, they examine the fact that Diesel played Dungeons and Dragons, and reveal that he has a tatoo of his character's name, "Melkor," on his back. Vin Diesel also is a keen World of Warcraft player and uses a level 70 mage called Bagor.

Filmography

Year	Movie	Role	Other notes
1990	Awakenings	Orderly	Uncredited role
1994	Multi-Facial	Mike
1997	Strays	Rick
1998	Saving Private Ryan	Private Caparzo
1999	The Iron Giant	The Iron Giant (voice)	Animated
2000	Boiler Room	Chris Varick
	Pitch Black	Richard B. Riddick
2001	The Fast and the Furious	Dominic Toretto
	Knockaround Guys	Taylor Reese
2002	xXx	Xander Cage
2003
	A Man Apart	Sean Vetter
2004	The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury	Richard B. Riddick (voice)	Straight-to-DVD, animated
	The Chronicles of Riddick	Richard B. Riddick
2005	The Pacifier	Lieutenant Shane Wolfe
2006	Find Me Guilty	Jack DiNorscio	gained 30 pounds for the role
	The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift	Dominic Toretto	Cameo appearance
	Rockfish	voiceover	Announced; animated
2008	Babylon A.D.	Hugo Cornelius Toorop	Completed
2009	The Wheelman	The Wheelman	Announced
	The Fast and the Furious 4	Dominic Toretto	Confirmed
	Hannibal the Conqueror	Hannibal Barca	Announced

Producer - filmography

1. Multi-Facial (1994) (producer)
2. Strays (1997) (executive producer) (producer)
3. xXx (2002) (executive producer)
4. A Man Apart (2003) (executive producer)
5. Chronicles of Riddick (2004) (executive producer)
6. Life is a Dream (2004) documentary (executive producer)
7. Find Me Guilty (2006) (producer)
8. Hitman (2007) (executive producer)
9. Hannibal the Conqueror (2008) (producer)

Director - filmography

1. Multi-Facial (1994)
2. Strays (1997)
3. Hannibal the Conqueror (2008)

Writer - filmography

1. Multi-Facial (1994)
2. Strays (1997)

Games

Main article: Tigon Studios

1. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (2004)
2. The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (2008)
3. The Wheelman (2008)

Salary

• The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) $0 (After the film makers realized they were over budget, they weren't sure if Vin Diesel would accept the small part in the end of the film of which they had wished to include. To their surprise however, Vin Diesel did accept the part, even though he would receive no income for it.)
• The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) $11,500,000
• A Man Apart (2003) $2,500,000
• xXx (2002) $10,000,000
• The Fast and the Furious (2001) $2,000,000
• Saving Private Ryan (1998) $100,000

External links

• Vin Diesel at Curlie