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• Born: 18 July 1967
• Birthplace: New York, New York
• Best Known As: Star of the hot-rod thriller The Fast and the Furious

Name at birth: Mark Vincent

Vin Diesel wrote, directed and starred in Multi-Facial and Strays and made his name at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. Steven Spielberg took notice and cast him in Saving Private Ryan (1998, with Tom Hanks), and the following year Diesel was the voice of The Iron Giant. He also appeared in the sci-fi thriller Pitch Black (2000) and in The Boiler Room (2000, with Ben Affleck). In 2001 he starred with Paul Walker in the car-chase summer flick The Fast and the Furious, with Diesel as the charismatic leader of a gang of car thieves. The next year Diesel established himself as a big-screen action hero in XXX, a secret-agent flick that co-starred Samuel L. Jackson. Diesel's other films include A Man Apart (2003), The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), The Pacifier (2005) and Find Me Guilty (2006).

• Born: Jul 18, 1967
• Occupation: Actor, Writer, Director
• Active: '90s-2000s
• Major Genres: Action, Crime
• Career Highlights: Saving Private Ryan, The Iron Giant, The Fast and the Furious
• First Major Screen Credit: Strays (1997)

Biography

Actor, producer, writer, and director Vin Diesel had a charmed entry into the world of screen acting: after seeing Multi-Facial, a short that Diesel wrote, produced, financed, directed, and starred in, Steven Spielberg created the role of Private Caparzo specifically for the talented young newcomer in his Saving Private Ryan (1998).

Born in New York City on July 18, 1967, Diesel made his stage debut at the age of seven in "Theatre for the New City," which was produced in Greenwich Village. He continued to be involved with the theatre throughout his adolescence, and he went on to attend the city's Hunter College, where his studies in creative writing led him to begin writing screenplays. Diesel became active in filmmaking in the early '90s, first earning notice for the short Multi-Facial, which was selected for screening at the 1995 Cannes Festival. He followed up Multi-Facial with his first feature-length film, 1997's Strays, an urban drama in which he cast himself 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, which led to a deal with MTV to turn it into a series.

Following the success of Saving Private Ryan, Diesel could be heard voicing the title character of the animated The Iron Giant (1999), another critically praised feature. He then starred with fellow young actors Giovanni Ribisi, Ben Affleck, Jamie Kennedy, and Nicky Katt in Boiler Room, an off-Wall Street drama that cast him as one of the members of a shady brokerage firm. He also flexed his sci-fi muscles in Pitch Black (2000), an interplanetary thriller that featured him and fellow Earthlings doing battle with a host of nasty alien mutants. Diesel jumped genres yet again as a devious, determined hot-rodder in The Fast and the Furious (2001), a cheeky, action-packed street racing picture in the vein of '50s exploitation flicks. The low-profile, star-free summer release left skid marks at the box office as it grossed over $40 million dollars in its first weekend alone -- more than enough to cover its production costs, and enough to lead many to believe that Diesel had finally arrived as a bankable leading man.

Indeed Diesel was growing increasingly comfortable in his role as a tough guy action icon, though the ex-NYC club bouncer's prominant smirky scowl (usually accompanied by a hearty smile and laugh) proved almost a wink to his fans that while it worked well for him, he didn't take the image altogether seriously. The following year found Diesel teetering on the edge of mega-stardom with the release of his eagerly anticipated reteaming with The Fast and the Furious director Rob Cohen, XXX. With images of a bulky Diesel adorning movie theaters nationwide and an advertising campaign that left almost no viable stone unturned, the duo were undoubtably aiming to repeat the success of the muscle-car extravaganza. This time setting their sights on breathing life into the ailing secret agent action adventure genre, XXX's protagonist, a former extreme sports athlete recruited by the government to take on a dangerous mission, would prove a large-scale attempt at bringing James Bond style thrills into the 21st century. ~ Rebecca Flint, All Movie Guide

The Chronicles of Riddick Buy this Movie	A Man Apart Buy this Movie	XXX Buy this Movie	The Fast and the Furious Buy this Movie
Knockaround Guys Buy this Movie	Boiler Room Buy this Movie	Pitch Black Buy this Movie	The Iron Giant Buy this Movie

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actor; writer; movie director; movie producer

Personal Information

Born Mark Vincent on July 18, 1967, in New York, NY; father taught theater and his mother was a psychiatrist and astrologer.
Education: Theater for the New City, studied theater; Hunter College, studied English.

Career

Actor. Multi-Facial (also director, producer, writer), 1994 ; Strays (also director), 1997; Saving Private Ryan, 1998; The Iron Giant, 1999; Boiler Room, 2000; Pitch Black, 2000; The Fast and the Furious, 2001; Knockaround Guys, 2001; Diablo, 2001.

Life's Work

Vin Diesel's first film was a short about an actor who would portray a character of any race, just to get a part. In real life, Diesel would never divulge his ethic background, but played Italian, Jewish, Latino, and black in his films. That chameleon capability propelled Diesel, who was careful about the roles he chose, to the attention of high-profile director Steven Spielberg, who tailored a role in his World War II drama Saving Private Ryan specially for the unknown actor. Diesel went on to draw strong reviews in films such as Strays, The Iron Giant, Pitch Black, and Boiler Room, and to form his own production company, One Race Productions, named for, as he said in Madison, "the important and relevant race"--the human race.

Diesel was born in New York City in 1967. His father taught theater and his mother worked as a psychiatrist and astrologer. "Vin Diesel" is not the name his parents gave him. He was born Mark Vincent and described his ethnic background as "complicated." Diesel's fraternal twin brother, Paul Vincent, also grew up to work in the movie business, as an editor.

Diesel was raised in Manhattan, and grew up wanting to be both respected and successful. Among those in his crowd, respect and success did not always "go hand in hand," he said in Interview magazine. In the interview he cited a "certain level of machismo" that New York men seem to have in their personalities for landing people he grew up with--guys who were respected in his neighborhood--in jail or dead.

Fortunately for him, Diesel also grew up around a number of "artistic and cerebral" people, he recalled in Interview. Both of his parents were educated, and emphasized the importance of education. In Interview he credited his father for teaching him how to be a "stand-up man." He admired his father for putting his own aspirations of directing theater on hold to raise his family.

Broke Into Theater--Literally

Diesel got his start in theater as a delinquent. When he was seven, he and some friends broke into an old theater and vandalized it. A woman from the theater caught them and told them they were welcome to play there--and handed them scripts. Later, he worked at several Manhattan nightclubs as a bouncer. He studied theater at the Theater for the New City and studied English at Hunter College.

Diesel dropped out of college to make his first film, called Multi-Facial. He wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the film, a short about a struggling actor who would portray any race to get a part. Madison writer David Kirby called the film, which Diesel made for about $3,000 and shot in two-and-a-half days, "moving and hilarious." The film was accepted and screened at the Cannes Film Festival, in Cannes, France, in 1995. Diesel also wrote, directed, produced, and starred in a full-length film called Strays. He and a friend raised the $50,000 it took to make the film working as telemarketers. Strays was accepted and screened at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

A skillful self promoter, Diesel attracted enough attention to his small-budget films that even high-profile director Steven Spielberg took notice of his work. Spielberg was so intrigued by Diesel in Multi-Facial that he tailored a role for the unknown actor in his World War II epic Saving Private Ryan, which starred Tom Hanks. Diesel played the doomed Private Caparzo, a tough G.I. with a heart of gold. To prepare them for the film, all the actors had to go through weeks of grueling boot camp. "We were so committed to bringing honor to these soldiers that by the time boot camp ended, we almost resented being actors again," he recalled in Madison.

Provided "Spark" in Pitch Black

Diesel's deep, gravelly voice was featured in the 1999 animated feature The Iron Giant. The film is about a young boy who befriends a 50-foot-tall robot whose frightening size and capability for destruction belie his good intentions. In the $25-million science-fiction thriller Pitch Black, Diesel portrayed a psychotic killer stranded on a planet overrun with flying, carnivorous aliens. Riddick was a role Diesel called in Madison, "the best character I'd read in a long time. He's a remarkable creature with a complex personality...." He found the role exciting, he continued, "because I finally got to be the character I always loved as a kid. You know, Conan and the Terminator and Mad Max." Though many critics found Pitch Black's premise predictable, Diesel earned strong reviews for his part. Interview critic Amy Gwiazda wrote that, of the cast, "only the devilish Vin Diesel...provides any real spark."

After his adventurous role in Pitch Black, Diesel was careful to not be typecast as "Mr. Action," he told Entertainment Weekly. In the next role he chose, he worked in an office rather than on an alien-infested planet. As a suburban Italian-American stockbroker involved in shady dealings in the 2000 film Boiler Room, Diesel appeared alongside Ben Affleck and Giovanni Ribisi.

Just a few major films into his career, Diesel had earned a reputation for being a difficult actor to work with. Although he wouldn't comment on it, he had been, according to Entertainment Weekly, "thrown off" the film Reindeer Games, which starred Ben Affleck and Charlize Theron, for his demands before filming had even started. David Twohy, director of Pitch Black, defended the actor. Twohy had heard rumors about Diesel's bad attitude, but found the reputation unearned. "Vin was always good energy for me," he told Entertainment Weekly. In an interview, Madison writer David Kirby found the actor "generous of spirit and time...one of those increasingly rare creatures in Hollywood--a good guy."

Diesel had his attentions focused on an array of projects at any given time. After he'd finished shooting Knockaround Guys, starring John Malkovich and Dennis Hopper, and the action thriller The Fast and the Furious, he was in production on Diablo. In addition to his film work, he also was writing Doormen, a script based on his days as a bouncer. Whether writing, directing, producing, or acting, Diesel has hoped to create, as he told Madison, "something of importance and made some logic out of all of this outrageous good fortune."

Works

Selected filmography

• Multi-Facial (also director, producer, writer), 1994.
• Strays (also director), 1997.
• Saving Private Ryan, 1998.
• The Iron Giant, 1999.
• Boiler Room, 2000.
• Pitch Black, 2000.
• The Fast and the Furious, 2001.
• Knockaround Guys, 2001.
• Diablo, 2001.

Further Reading

Periodicals

• Entertainment Weekly, February 25, 2000, p. 58.
• Interview, February 1999, p. 40; February 2000, p. 94.
• Madison, March 2000, p. 132.
• Vibe, April 2001.

Other

• Additional material was obtained online at the Internet Movie Database website, http://www.imdb.com, the Electronic Urban Report, http://www.eurweb.com, and was provided by Stan Rosenfield & Associates Public Relations, 2001.

— Brenna Sanchez

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