Mark Vincent (born July 18, 1967), better known by the stage name Vin Diesel, 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.
History
Born in New York City to Delora Vincent and an unknown father, Diesel is considered to be of Irish, African-American, Scottish and Italian descent. The 1994 short film Multifacial starred Vin, and aimed to tell the story of Mike, a struggling actor whose multi-ethnic appearance proves problematic in auditions. Diesel also reportedly claimed that his mother is descended from the Sinclairs of Scotland. He has had major roles in a number of films including "Saving Private Ryan" , "The Fast and the Furious", "The Chronicles of Riddick", and "Pitch Black".
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 also a long time fan and player of Dungeons & Dragons and other role playing games, a fact that he proudly states in various interviews. He occasionally places references to D&D in his films, such as in XXX where one of the tattoos on Xander Cage (Diesel's character) read "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.) He has also written the foreword to the commemorative book 30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration of D&D, which chronicles the history of D&D through various stories and essays written by various authors and developers. It is also rumored (though never confirmed) that Diesel plays the popular game World of Warcraft under the alias "Dish".
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. In the meantime, he owns a mastiff by the name of Roman.
Filmography
| Year | Movie | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Hitman | Agent 47 | Announced |
| 2006 | Rockfish | voiceover | Announced; animated |
| 2006 | Hannibal | Hannibal Barca | Announced |
| 2006 | Find Me Guilty | Jack DiNorscio | Post-Production |
| 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 |
The Vin Diesel "Fact" Generator
There is a 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. They have been sighted in forum signatures and small compilations. This, however, is not an entirely original fact as it has been done with other people in the past (Shaq is a fine example) and all of these chain down from a Saturday Night Live Sketch about Bill Brasky.
Additional reading
External links
- Vin Diesel at IMDb
- Vin Diesel Online
- VinXperience detailed biography, interviews, news, articles
- Vin Diesel Video media files collection
- Random Vin Diesel Fact Generator