Vin Diesel

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Image:VinD.pitchBlack01.jpg Vin Diesel (born Mark Sinclair Vincent on July 18, 1967) is an 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.

1 Biography
2 Portfolio
- 2.1 Filmography
3 The Vin Diesel "Fact" Generator
4 References
5 External links

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Biography

Vin Diesel was born in New York City and raised in Greenwich Village by his mother Delora Vincent, a psychologist, and stepfather Irving Vincent, a teacher. He has never known his biological father. Diesel is of multiracial descent, usually reported as African-American-Italian-American; however, Diesel has said that his mother is descended from the Clan Sinclair of Scotland. He has a fraternal twin brother, Paul Vincent, who was born fourteen minutes after him. His brother currently works as a film editor.

In an interview on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, he stated that he changed his name to Vin Diesel when he was working as a bouncer because bouncers usually do not give out their real names. His friends started calling him Vin Diesel and it stuck.

Diesel produced, directed, and starred in the 1994 short film Multi-Facial, which tells the story of "Mike", a struggling actor whose multi-ethnic appearance proves problematic in auditions. He has had major roles in a number of films including Saving Private Ryan, The Fast and the Furious, Pitch Black, and The Chronicles of Riddick.

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Portfolio

Diesel was cast in 1998's Saving Private Ryan on the strength of his performance in Multi-Facial, and followed it up with Boiler Room (2000). 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, and afterwards took on the titular role in Hannibal, as the Carthaginian general who crossed the Alps by elephant to attack Rome.

Diesel is a long time fan and player of Dungeons & Dragons and other role playing games, including Warhammer 40,000, a fact that he proudly states in various interviews.<ref name=mtv>MTV interview. June 8, 2004.</ref> 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 has been rumored to be dating many celebrity women. Currently, he is rumored to be dating British model Lucy Clarkson, but the actor has never confirmed this. He added that he plans to concentrate on his career until the age of 40 at which time he will consider marriage and family life. He owns a mastiff by the name of Roman. In an 2004 interview in USA Today [1], Diesel denied rumors that he is gay. Image:Paul walker3.jpg

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Filmography

Year	Movie	Role	Other notes
2007	Hitman	Agent 47	Announced
2006	Rockfish	voiceover	Announced; animated
	Hannibal	Hannibal Barca	Announced
	Find Me Guilty	Jack DiNorscio
2005	The Pacifier	Shane Wolfe
2004	The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury	Richard B. Riddick
2004	The Chronicles of Riddick	Richard B. Riddick
2003	A Man Apart	Sean Vetter
2002	XXX	Xander Cage
2001	Knockaround Guys	Taylor Reese
2001	The Fast and the Furious	Dominic Toretto
2000	Pitch Black	Richard B. Riddick
2000	Boiler Room	Chris Varick
1999	The Iron Giant	The Iron Giant Voice
1998	Saving Private Ryan	Private Caparzo
1997	Strays	Rick
1994	Multi-Facial	Mike
1990	Awakenings	Hospital Orderly

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The Vin Diesel "Fact" Generator

There is an Internet meme growing around Vin Diesel, where the joke is to suggest superhuman feats supposedly accomplished by him. They are always focused into his (alleged) greatness, prowess and "awesomeness," in a humorous way. 800 or so of the original facts come from a thread in the SomethingAwful forums [2] by forum member ScootsMagoo. They have been cited in forum signatures and small compilations. Examples include "In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Vin Diesel could use to kill you, including the room itself." This, however, is not an entirely original fact as it has been done with other people in the past and all of these are predated by a Saturday Night Live sketch about Bill Brasky. These all owe lineage to tall tales such as those of Paul Bunyan.

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