Vin Diesel Biography / Pictures

Vin Diesel, who was cast in 1998's Saving Private Ryan, broke through to mainstream audiences with the 2001 film The Fast and the Furious and the 2002 film xXx. He is next set to reprise his role as Pitch Black's Riddick in the upcoming release The Chronicles of Riddick, and will thereafter take on the titular role in Hannibal, as the Carthaginian general who crossed the Alps by elephant to attack Rome.

Vin Diesel owns his own production company, One Race Productions, with long time producing partner George Zakk.

Biography

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, Pitch Black, and The Chronicles of Riddick.

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.

Vin 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.) It has been alleged that his portrayal of Richard Riddick in the Pitch Black series of movies and games is based somewhat off of this favorite character, a Drow "witch-hunter" who was a loner, and is reputed to have 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, 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. He owns a mastiff by the name of Roman.

Paul Walker and Vin Diesel in The Fast and the Furious.

Filmography

• 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, akin to Chuck Norris. 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 [1]. 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 (Shaq is a fine example) and all of these are predated by a Saturday Night Live sketch about Bill Brasky. The growing popularity has caused Chuck Norris, Mr. T, and Bob Saget generators to be created, however even with all the commotion, it seems Vin Diesel has yet to find out about his fact generator as Chuck Norris has. Vin, however, is a big Internet buff, rumored to have played (or is still playing) World of Warcraft under the moniker Joana, and may very well know about his fact site.