Profile of Vin Diesel on Famous Like Me

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, of African-American, Scottish and Italian descent, 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.

Diesel was cast in 1998's Saving Private Ryan on the strength of 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 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.

During his teens, he performed breakdancing in an instructional video on the subject.

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.

Diesel is currently dating British model Lucy Clarkson and has commented that he will concentrate on his career until the age of 40; at that point, he will consider marriage and family life. In the meantime, he owns a mastiff by the name of Roman.

Filmography

Vin Diesel 'Facts'

There is a meme growing around Vin Diesel, where is alleged that he is responsible by many absurd, when not just surreal, 'facts'. They are always focused into his (alleged) greatness, prowess and awesomeness, in a very humorous way. They have been sighted in forum signatures and small compilations, and have not hit 'mainstream' yet.

A few are listed below as example:

• Vin Diesel was the first person to walk up to a cow and say, "Whatever comes out of these things when I squeeze them, I'm drinking."
• When Vin Diesel does a pushup, he isn't lifting himself up, he's pushing the Earth down.
• Vin Diesel can divide by zero.
• It takes 14 puppeteers to make Vin Diesel smile, but only 2 to make him destroy an orphanage.
• Vin Diesel is the only person who knows why paper can beat rock.
• Vin Diesel invented the internet

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