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| Vin Diesel at the San Diego Comic Con International in San Diego, California, July 19, 2013. Photo by Gage Skidmore. |
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| Vin Diesel
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Forecourt Ceremony held on Wednesday, April 1, 2015
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Born: Mark Sinclair, July 18, 1967, in Alameda County, California
Age at the time of the ceremony: 47 |
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Vin Diesel is of a newer generation of stars. Driven to become a movie star, Diesel took risks, pushed and did well with every opportunity which came his way. While Hollywood snoozed, Diesel's films were suddenly making a fortune.
Vin Diesel is one of two fraternal twin boys born to Delora Sherleen in California. He has never met his biological father; raised in New York City, his mother remarried to acting coach and theatre manager Irving H. Vincent.
At the age of seven Mark and his pals were in the process of vandalizing the Theatre for the New City in Greenwich Village, when they were confronted by the theatre's artistic director Crystal Field, who offered to
cast the boys in the play Dinosaur Door. Mark remained with the New City Theatre for the remainer of his childhood and into his attending Hunter College, where he studied acting and writing for the stage.
His film debut was not auspicious; he played a hospital orderly in Awakenings (released in December 1990) with Robert De Niro, but he patiently bidded his time. In 1995, Diesel wrote, produced, directed, wrote the music and starred in the 21-minute short Multi-Facial (released on DVD in 1999) about his trials during the auditioning process. He followed this up with an ultra low-budget feature. Diesel wrote, directed, co-produced and starred in Strays (released in January 1997) with Joey Dedio.
Both Strays and Multi-Facial found their way to the hands of director Steven Spielberg, who wrote a part for Diesel to play in his film Saving Private Ryan (which played the Chinese in July 1998) with Tom Hanks; the film placed Diesel firmly on the map. He then immediately did the voice for The Iron Giant (released in August 1999) with Harry Connick Jr.
Working with writer / director David Twohy, Diesel starred in the Riddick films. To promote them, Diesel appeared first in the TV movie The Chronicles of Riddick: Into the Pitch Black with Brian Gant, aired over The Sci-Fi Channel in January 2000. Then came the release of the first Riddick feature, Pitch Black (released in February 2000) with Cole Hauser. Diesel has remained with the franchise ever since.
Then came pure gold: Diesel accepted the role of car-jacking Dominic Toretto in The Fast and the Furious (released in June 2001) with Paul Walker. The film was a godsend to all the gear heads out there, who made the film a hit.
His Fast director Rob Cohen also directed Diesel in another franchise where the actor was also an executive producer on xXx (released in August 2002) with Asia Argento. It was a bigger hit than Fast and the Furious.
Diesel was a co-producer for the big budget The Chronicles of Riddick (released in June 2004) with Judi Dench, but the film only scraped along. Babylon A.D. (released in August 2008) with Michelle Yeoh, didn't exactly set any box office records either.
With director Justin Lin becoming series director for awhile, Diesel returned as Dominic Toretto and was also a producer on Fast & Furious (which played the Chinese in April 2009) with Paul Walker, which was a whopping hit.
With a slightly bigger budget, Lin directed while Diesel co-produced and starred in Fast Five (released in April 2011) now with Dwayne Johnson in the cast. The film made twice what Fast & Furious made. Home studio Universal Pictures was loving this.
And so, Justin Lin directed with Diesel co-producing and starring in
Fast & Furious 6 (released in May 2013) with Paul Walker. The franchise showed no signs of slowing down.
Working on a much lower budget befitting his role as co-producer and star, Riddick (released in September 2013) with Karl Urban, did only so-so at the box office, but his doing the voice for Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy (which played the Chinese in August 2014) with Chris Pratt, brought Diesel another money-making franchise.
Vin Diesel was imprinted in the Chinese Theatre Forecourt in the morning, with the world premiere in the evening, of the
James Wan directed Furious 7 (which played the Chinese in April 2015) with Paul Walker. The $190 million picture brought in $1.5 billion.
Diesel starred and was also co-producer on The Last Witch Hunter (released in October 2015) with Elijah Wood; the film performed moderately. For director Ang Lee, Diesel appeared in Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (released in November 2016) with Joe Alwyn.
He starred and also co-produced xXx: Return of Xander Cage (which played the Chinese in January 2017) with Donnie Yen, which was a hit also. Diesel starred and co-produced The Fate of the Furious (which played the Chinese in April 2017) with Jason Statham as the new Bad Guy.
Diesel
did the voice for Baby Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (which played the Chinese in May 2017) with Chris Pratt, then did grown-up Groot in both Avengers: Infinity War (which played the Chinese in April 2018) with Robert Downey Jr. and Avengers: Endgame (which played the Chinese in April 2019). Diesel returned to the screen to play a comic book hero, Bloodshot (which played the Chinese in March, 2020). Diesel returned as Dominic in F9: The Fast Saga (which played the Chinese in June 2021).
For those who cannot get enough, Vin stars once more in Fast X (which played the Chinese in May 2023). |
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| TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX®, Hollywood, California. Vin Diesel Forecourt block. Executed by unknown, Wednesday, April 1, 2015. 30 x 20 inches. |
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| TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX®, Hollywood, California. Vin Diesel Forecourt ceremony, Wednesday, April 1, 2015. Vin Diesel seems to be enjoying placing his hands in the wet cement. |
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