Born on July 18, 1967, Vin Disel (Mark Vincent) has become a household name (at least for many females) over the past several years. He grew up in the Artistic West Village in Manhattan with his mother, an astrologist, (step) father, an actor/drama professor, a younger sister, a younger brother and fraternal twin brother Paul. His first true acting debut was at age 5 when he was cast as a horse in a childrens production of Cinderella, while his brother Paul was cast as Prince Charming. After falling victim to stage fright Vin stepped in to cover for Paul and a true star was born.
He did attend Hunter College majoring in English but eventually dropped out. As most of his fans know he later got a job as a telemarketer selling light bulbs and hardware. Then he took a job as a bouncer at a club called the Tunnel, this job as he stated in an interview was a stepping stone to becoming anything you wanted. His reason for stepping away from the night club life was seeing one of his friends get his throat cut, fortunately that friend lived and that experience caused Vin to look at other avenues in life.
Wanting to learn about acting he began to watch old films with Clark Gable, Sidney Poitier and Marlon Brando. He also started to hang out at movie theaters that showed films from many Sundance producers. In the fall of 1994 he had directed and starred in his own film about typecasting named Multi-facial which was screened at Cannes in 1995. He followed that film with Strays based on his interpretation of misogyny and that film featured in 1997 at Sundance.
Steven Spielberg saw his film(s) and decided to cast him in Saving Private Ryan (1998) as Private Adrian Caparzo. This was just the jumping off point for Vin Disel because after that film he has truly blossomed into one of the hottest Hollywood stars today. He did the voice of the giant in The Iron Giant (1999), starred as Riddick in Pitch Black (2000) and portrayed Chris in Boiler Room (2000). It was his role as Dominic Toretto in The Fast and The Furious where he really let it all go, showing he could play action, drama and (our favorite) romance. His top billing starring role was this summer/fall hit movie XXX in which he plays secret agent Xander Cage also known as Triple X. He also is starring in The Knockaround Guys as Taylor Reese. It has been said that Vin Disel could be the next James Bond for this millennium, we can only hope to see more of his talents in the upcoming years.
