We have compiled for you the life of American actor and producer Vin Diesel, whose real name is Mark Sinclair Vincent and is known for playing Dominic Toretto in the Fast and the Furious series.
Vin Diesel was born on July 18, 1967 in Alameda County, California. Real name: Mark Sinclair Vincent. His mother, Delora Sherleen Vincent, is an astrologer. Diesel was raised by his mother and his step African-American father, Irving H. Vincent, who was an acting instructor and theater manager. He has a twin (Paul), a younger brother (Tim) and a sister (Samantha). Diesel stated that he is of "undetermined ethnicity". His mother has English, German and Scottish roots. He never met his biological father and said that "all I know from my mother is that I have connections to many different cultures."
Diesel made his stage debut at the age of seven, acting in the children's play Dinosaur Door, written by Barbara Garson. The play was produced at the Theater for the New City in Greenwich Village, New York. His involvement with the play came about when he and his older brother and some of his friends entered the Theater for New City's Jane Street area to smash them. They were brought before Crystal Field, the theater's artistic director. Instead of calling the police, he gave them the script and offered them roles in the upcoming show.
Diesel remained interested in theater through his teenage years and attended Hunter College in NYC. He described himself as an "all-round" actor. While Sinclair was working as a bouncer at New York nightclub Tunnel, he went by the stage name Vin Diesel, wanting a tougher name for his profession. Vin is from his mother's married surname Vincent; The Diesel surname, on the other hand, comes from his friends due to his tendency to be energetic.
After several years of struggling to gain acting roles, Diesel decided to make his own short film to raise funds for his first feature film. In 1994, he wrote, directed, produced and starred in the short drama Multi-Facial, a semi autobiographical film. The film was selected to be screened at the 1995 Cannes Festival.
In 1997, Diesel raised money to make his first feature film, Strays. Written, directed and produced by Diesel, the film was selected to compete at the 1997 Sundance Festival. Director Steven Spielberg caught his attention after seeing Diesel in Multi-Facial. And then he cast him as a minor soldier in the 1998 Oscar winning war movie "Saving Private Ryan." This was Diesel's first major Hollywood movie role.
He got his breakthrough lead role as the anti-hero Riddick in the sci-fi movie Pitch Black (2000). Later, Diesel reached the stardom of action hero with two blockbuster hits. These are: the street racing action movie Fast and the Furious (2001) and the action thriller XXX (2002).
He turned down a chance to reprise his roles in the sequels 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) and XXX: State of the Union (2005). Instead, he chose to reprise his role as Riddick in "The Chronicles of Riddick", which was a box office failure given the big budget. Unlike his previous action hero roles, he played a cheerful role in the 2005 box office hit comedy "The Pacifier".
In 2006, he chose a dramatic role as real-life gangster Jack DiNorscio in the movie Find Me Guilty. Although Diesel received great acclaim for his performance, the movie failed at the box office. Later that year, Diesel had a small role in Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift and reprized his role in Fast & Furious.
In 2007, Diesel was ready to star as Agent 47 in the movie adaptation of the video game Hitman, but eventually gave up and served as the casting director instead. In 2008, he starred in the critical and box office failure science fiction action thriller "Babylon AD". Diesel returned to the Fast & Furious series with most of the main cast from the original 2001 film in Fast & Furious 4, which was released in April 2009.
In 2011, Diesel returned for Fast & Furious 5: Rio Heist, the fifth movie in the series. And he reprized his role in Fast and Furious 6 (2013). He played the lead role in Riddick, which was scheduled for release in October 2013. Diesel invested almost his entire fortune in this movie, and this venture resulted in international success and a huge box office return. He played the role of an undead witch hunter in the supernatural action movie The Last Witch Hunter (2015). He subsequently reprized the role with the sequels Furious 7 (2015), The Fate of the Furious (2017), and F9 (2021).
In August 2013, Diesel received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2014, he voiced Groot in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Guardians of the Galaxy. Likewise, Diesel reprized his role as Groot in the crossover films Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019), which combined the superhero teams of the Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers.
Diesel played the Valiant Comics character Bloodshot in the movie of the same name, which was released in March 2020. In September 2020, Diesel announced his music venture with the release of the song "Feel Like I Do", produced by Kygo. The song debuted on The Kelly Clarkson Show on September 24.
Private life
Diesel is famous for his distinctive deep voice. Around 2001, Diesel dated his co-star in Fast and the Furious, Michelle Rodriguez. In a relationship with Mexican model Paloma Jimenez since 2007. The couple has three children: daughter Hania Riley, sons Vincent Sinclair and Pauline. The last one was named in honor of his costar and close friend Paul Walker, who died in November 2013.
He prefers to keep his privacy about his personal life. Diesel expresses his love for the Dominican Republic and his commitment to its multicultural aspect. Diesel is a fan of Dungeons & Dragons and played for about 20 years. Although we see them embellishing it with ink in the movie industry, he doesn't actually have a tattoo. Before becoming a professional actor, he worked with dreams of becoming a rapper and break dancer.
In addition to being a famous actor, he owns a production company called One Race Films and a game development company called Tigon Studios. And these are all companies built for passion, not just to make money.