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Vin Diesel (born Mark Sinclair Vincent; July 18, 1967) 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. Huge, hulking and with a neatly shaved skull and a voice that sounds like granite scraping on granite, New York-born Vin Diesel started his career as a child actor with the Theatre for the New City. After studying English at Hunter College, he began penning screenplays and making films. His short "Multi-Facial" debuted at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival and his first full-length feature, "Strays" (1997) premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Written, co-produced, directed and starring Diesel, "Strays" was an ensemble drama about male friendship that many compared (sometimes unfavorably) with 1977's "Saturday Night Fever" and 1982's "Diner". Vin Diesel was born Mark Sinclair Vincent in New York City, the son of Delora, a psychiatrist and astrologer. Diesel has African American and Italian ancestry. He has described himself as "definitely a person of colour" and stated that he is "of ambiguous ethnicity - Italian and a lot of stuff". Diesel has never met his biological father, and was raised by his African-American stepfather, Irving, an acting instructor and theatre manager. He 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. 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. 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 suprise 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. The deep-voiced, muscular actor landed a high profile supporting role as the tough New Yorker Private Carparzo in Steven Spielberg's acclaimed WWII drama "Saving Private Ryan" (1998). After voicing the title character in the delightful--if underperfoming--animated adventure "The Iron Giant" (1999) Diesel got his first taste of leading man success in director David Twohy's cult sci-fi film "Pitch Black" (2000), in which the actor played a convict who, after his starship crash lands on a hostile planet, proves to be the salvation for the survivors. He also was a strong presence in the ensemble of the Wall Street-centered thriller "Boiler Room" (2000), but his true breakout role came with his performance as hard-driving car thief and street gang racer Dominic Toretto (sample dialogue: "I live my life a quarter-mile at a time. For those 10 seconds, I'm free.") in the surprise summer blockbuster "The Fast and the Furious" (2001), in which New York Times critic Elvis Mitchell characterized Diesel as a "slacker Robert Mitchum, if that's not redundant." In between writing and directing his second feature, "Doormen," based in part on his own experiences as a bouncer at NYC nightclubs, Diesel found time to star in his "The Fast and the Furious" helmer Rob Cohen's action yarn,"XXX" (2002), a box-office bonaza that was routinely panned by the critics but nevertheless solidified the actor's status as an heir apparent to A-list action stars like Stallone and Schwarzenegger; and in the mob comedy, "Knockaround Guys", playing tough-guy Taylor, a young mobster-in-training desperate to retrieve a bag full of stolen cash. Released in 2001 in Italy, under the title "Dangerous Company", "Knockaround Guys", an ensemble film in which Diesel co-stars alongside Barry Pepper, Seth Green, John Malkovich and Dennis Hopper, was released in the United States in 2002, in an attempt to cash in on Diesel's high-wattage star power as a result of "XXX"'s healthy box office earnings. Instead of opting for a big payday on the sequel "Too Fast, Too Furious," which he declined to appear in, Diesel instead opted for features like the crime drama "A Man Apart" (2003), an action-lite tale that offered the actor prime opportunity to emote instead; many critics took minor swings at Diesel's sensitive side, but few could deny his strong screen presence and charisma, even in a middle-of-the-road film. The actor returned to the explosive, big budget world of sci-fi action when he reprised the role of "Pitch Black's" Richard Riddick for Twohy's inflated sequel "The Chronicles of Riddick" (2004). Taking a page from Arnold Schwarzenegger, Diesel next tried to expand his repertoire with a stint at broad comedy in Disney's "The Pacifier" (2005), playing a disgraced Navy SEAL charged with protecting the bratty brood of a deceased government scientist whose enemies are searching for his top secret experiment. In 2007, he was set to produce and star as Agent 47 in the video game adaptation of Hitman, but eventually pulled out from the role and served as executive producer on the film instead. 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 4. While visiting the Dominican Republic in October 2005, 23 year old architecture student Marianny Pimentel Orde accused Diesel of suggesting that a local bar owner kick Orde out because she refused to go back to Diesel's hotel room. Diesel denied the allegations, citing the fact that the club 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 tattoo of his character's name, "Melkor," on his back. |
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