Mark
Vincent (born July 18, 1967 in New York City), better
known by his stage name of Vin Diesel, is an American
actor. Diesel is multi-racial, a fact upon which he
based his well-received 1994 short film Multi-Facial,
about a struggling actor who is rejected for part after
part because he doesn't look "black/white/Jewish"
enough. He attended Hunter College in New York City.
He's quoted as saying his mother is descended from the
Sinclairs of Scotland. Also, he has a dog, a mastiff
by the name of Roman.
Diesel, who was cast in 1998's Saving
Private Ryan on the strength of Multi-Facial, 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 will thereafter
take on the titular role in Hannibal, as the Carthaginian
general who crossed the Alps by elephant to attack
Rome.
Diesel has his own film production
company, One Race Productions, with long time producing
partner George Zakk. In 2002, he founded Tigon Studios,
a video game production company; it is named after
the tigon, the hybrid offspring of a male tiger and
a female lion.
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.
Filmography
Year Movie Role Other notes
2006 Hannibal Hannibal Barca Announced
2005 Find Me Guilty Jack DiNorscio Filming
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
source from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
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