Vin Diesel Wiki: Movie, Net Worth, 'The Fast And Furious' And Facts To Know

Mark Sinclair Vincent [Diesel's birth name] was born July 18, 1967 in New York City. He actually has a fraternal twin named Paul as well as two other siblings, a brother named Tim and a sister named Samantha. It alway's seems as if Diesel is Cuban or Puerto Rican in the 'Fast and Furious' films but when looking at his back ground we found out he actually doesn't know his biological father. All he knows is what his mother has told him, that he has many different connections to several different cultures. His mother however is of Scottish, English, and German decent. He was raised by his Caucasian mother and African-American step father. Diesel identifies himself as a person of color considering all of this and he was raised in an artist's housing projects in New York. He made his stage debut there in a children's play called 'Dinosaur Door.' From then on out Diesel contined working on theater projects throughout his adolescent years. These projects helped him become the actor, and star, he is today.

In the early 1990's, Diesel starred in a brief role in the drama film 'Awakenings.' Afterwards, he took his first step into writing, producing, and directing his first short film titled 'Multi-Facial' in 1994. A few years later in 1997, Diesel made his first full-legth film titled 'Strays.' After being written, directed and produced by Diesel the movie was selected for the Sundance Film Festival in 1997. This caught the attention of famous director Steven Spielberg. Soon after Diesel was cast in the film, 'Saving Private Ryan.' Two years later in 1999, Vin Diesel was chosen for the voice of 'The Iron Giant. It wasn't but two years after 'The Iron Giant' that Diesel landed two box office hits, both action movies, 'xXx' and 'The Fast and Furious.' Little did he know the role of Xander Cage and Dominic Toretto would blow up into the biggest roles of his life besides being the voice behind Groot in Marvel's 'Guardians of the Galaxy,' of course.

The first movie in the 'Fast and the Furious' series, titled 'The Fast and The Furious,' was released in 2001. The movie revolves around Dominic Toretto and his crew and a street racer who tends to get in quite a bit of trouble. Brian O'Conner, played by the late Paul Walker is a undercover cop who is assigned to stop a group of unknown hijackers who are using hi-performance race cars to hijack 18-wheelers. Diesel stars along side Michelle Rodriguez, the late Paul Walker, and Jordanna Brewster. It's said that inspiration for The Fast and The Furious film came from a magazine article titled "Racer X" which told in detail about a illegal street racing circuit in New York City. Obviously, this movie was directed to men and young teenage boys and it was an instant success. 'The Fast and The Furious' movie brought in $40 million dollars its opening weekend and after its worldwide run, it hit over $200 million dollars on a budget of $38 million. What a run, right!? The second installment in the series, '2 Fast 2 Furious,' did not star Diesel in the cast. One small thing you may not know about 'The Fast and The Furious' movies is that they were filmed and released out of order. It's a neat game to piece together if you saw each in theaters as they were released. For example, the third installment in the franchise was 'The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift' in 2006. This movie Diesel only cameoed in. 'Tokyo Drift's' focus was a bit a street racing but more so drifting, hence the title. It does all take place in Tokyo, again hence the title. Lucas Black who play's Sean Baswell is sent to Tokyo and shortly befriends a character named Han who becomes a front runner in the later 'Fast and Furious' films. 'Tokyo Drift' became the lowest grossing installment in the franchise at $158 million. Following 'Tokyo Drift,' the next installment in the franchise was 'Fast & Furious.' Diesel's character Dom Toretto and his crew teamed up once again for the fourth installment. This one brought in over $ 300 million dollars world wide. Diesel actually worked as a producer and actor for this one. The fifth film titled, 'Fast Five' started bringing the franchise up the ladder a lot more, which Diesel also helped produce as well as the fact that he starred in the film as well. It brought in a whopping $625 million dollars world wide. 'Fast & Furious 6' helped hike the franchise up even more for Diesel by bringing in over $700 million dollars and it ranked the highest in 'The Fast and Furious' franchise as of 2013. They sure didn't stop there though and following the sudden passing of co-star Paul Walker, 'Furious 7' knocked the box office out of the water, so to speak. Worldwide it made $1.516 billion dollars! This made 'Furious 7' the sixth highest ranking film of all time. In 'Furious 7,' Paul Walker was killed in a car accident before filming wrapped up. Being a close comrade of Diesel's and Diesel being one of the producers, this was a no brainer for 'Furious 7' to be dedicated to Paul Walker. Within 'The Fast and Furious' series, Paul Walker's character Brian O'Conner had dated Brewster's character Mia Toretto. Diesel stated before the release of 'Furious 7' and after Paul's death that his character would not be killed off. This was fans first speculation when they heard about Walker's death. Instead Walker's character had decided to step out of the street racing crew to settle down with his child and Mia. 'Furious 7' is definitely the most memorable of all 'The Fast and The Furious' movies.

The last movie that was released so far in the series is 'The Fate of the Furious.' 'The Fate of the Furious' had so much talk around it considering how they ended 'Furious 7,' and some people have even said they should have ended the series there and that it wasn't the same after Paul passed away during filming. This didn't stop Diesel from continuing to act in the series and after the success of the seventh film, Diesel stated in a heart felt comment that 'Furious 7' was for Paul, and 'The Fate of the Furious' was from Paul. This gave him and the team the determination they needed to make 'The Fate of the Furious' just as good if not better then the rest. The Fate of the Furious grossed over $1 billion worldwide making it the second in the franchise to hit $1 billion. Since the passing of Paul who's character was Diesel's characters best friend and brother, it was rumored that with Nathalie Emmanuel's debut in 'Furious 7' she would replace Paul in a way. If you've seen Furious 7 and The Fate of the Furious this is definitely not true at all. They've created character's for each new comer that is nothing like Paul Walker's Brian O'Conner. In fact, they each fit into the films in their own way, quite perfectly. After 'Furious 7,' Vin Diesel announced there would be another 3 films to come. Currently 'Fast And Furious 9' is in the works and obviously Vin will be in it, but the rest of the cast is still up in the air. Nothing but rumors are running through tabloids as to if The Rock, Ludacris, Tyrese Gibson, Nathalie Emmanuel, and the rest will return in 'Fast And Furious 9.' As far as shooting dates, 'Fast & Furious 9' was originally dated for 2019 but was bumped to 2020 for the spin off of 'Hobbs' (The Rocks character) to start filming. For now as of March 2018, 'Fast and Furious 9' is set to release April 10, 2020. There also hasn't been a director set for 'Fast and Furious 9.' It isn't even set that The Rock or Statham will return in 'Fast and Furious 9' considering they may have their own 'Fast and Furious' things in process. It has been announced the 'Fast and Furious' franchise will go on until a tenth film and then the series will come to an end.

Vin Diesel was introduced to us as a character named Xander Cage in the 2002 film 'xXx.' Xander Cage is a thrill seeking, sports enthusiast athlete who has, until now, been known as untouchable by the law. Xander Cage is hired by National Security as a spy and he is sent to Central Europe to infiltrate a group of potential Russian terrorist. The movie ended up making almost $300 million dollars world wide. This was another action packed film that helped launch Diesel into the spotlight..

A second movie was added into the 'xXx' franchise but it didn't have Diesel aka Xander Cage in it. The film in fact starred Ice Cube as its front runner. Ice Cube introduced Darius Stone to us, a new agent to the Triple X program is sent to DC to diffuse a power struggle between some national leaders. Box office number say this sequel didn't do so well, bringing in just over $71 million dollars. Its budget was $60 million dollars, so not bad, but not great. After that, it was obvious they had to bring Vin Diesel back in as Xander Cage. Last year in 2017 'xXx: The Return of Xander Cage' was released. The movie brought in over $300 million dollars wordwide. 'xXx: The Return of Xander Cage' bounced back the franchise quickly. Vin Diesel not only brought back the character he also helped produce 'xXx: The Return of Xander Cage.' It is said there will be a fourth installment in this series. In the first 'xXx,' it ended with Diesel's character dying but in 'xXx: The Return of Xander Cage' it is said that Cage faked his death. A fun fact about 'xXx: The Return of Xander Cage,' is that actor Tony Jaa also starred along side Diesel in 'Furious 7.' Also 'xXx: The Return of Xander Cage' marks the second franchise Diesel has not came back in the sequel, but instead, his character came back in the third installment.

In 2014, Vin Diesel was chosen for the voice of the extraterrestrial tree-like character, Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy.' Another addition to the Marvel franchise. Groot is actually an almost non-verbal character. The only English speaking phrase he can say is “I am Groot.” Some how Star Lord, Rocket Racoon, and Gimora can understand the tree creature. An interesting fact about Diesel voicing him is that he actually had to record himself saying the now famous phrase “I am Groot” more then a thousand times in several different tones as that may be all we hear him say. Each one means something different and with that being said, another fun fact is that it's been said that Diesel actually received a unique script in the first and second 'Guardians' and most likely 'Avengers: Infinity War' as well. Compared to the other cast and crew members, the difference was that for each 'I am Groot' it also had what each one of those actually meant so he would know what tone or attitude to say it with. This past year in 2017, the sequel to 'Guardians of the Galaxy' was introduced. Diesel reprised the now famous role of Groot but just in baby form. When asked if they had to do any voice over or tweaking to Diesel’s recordings the answer may actually impress you. According to films writer and director James Gunn, very little was done to Diesel’s voice as is done to any characters voice through out the film. Surprise! Tiny baby Groot’s voice is 99% Diesel!

This coming year, April 27 2018, Vin Diesel and Groot will join the 'Avengers' in 'Avengers: Infinity War,' the third 'Avengers' movie. 'Avengers: Infinity War' will contain a good large amount of Marvel characters all in one movie to fight the villain Thanos regarding the infinity stones. If you’ve seen some of the previous Marvel movies you’ll know the infinity stones have came into play several times now. 'Avengers: Infinity War' however Thanos is the 'Avengers' main threat. Thano’s is in the works of obtaining all of the infinity stones. 'The Avengers' must team up to stop his search of them before he finds them. Groot and the rest of the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' are included. 'Avengers: Infinity War' will be the first time we see this happen. So far through out all the movies the guardians have stayed solo. When asking Diesel about 'Avengers: Infinity War' and what he hopes to see for his character Groot, he answered by talking about a possible tussle with Groot and Hulk. Some where in the Marvel comics Groot and Hulk eventually have words but let’s hope 'Infinity War' is where we see this go down in real life!

In recent news Vin Diesel, he has been cast in a comic adaptation of 'Bloodshot.' 'Bloodshot' comes from Valiant comics and the editor in chief Jim Shooter is an ex-Marvel Comic editor-in-chief. In 2015, Valiant landed a five-picture deal with Sony to bring the comic to life. These movies will be something similar to the Marvel films. The 'Bloodshot' comic hails from the 1980's and the 1990's and it's being said that the movie adaptation of 'Bloodshot' will be heavily influenced by movies such as 'Robocop,' 'Terminator,' and 'Total Recall.' 'Bloodshot' as a character is a former soldier who has shapeshifting type powers as well as healing due to billions up on billions of nano computers in his blood. Due to the action adventure vibe the comic books have, its no doubt that Diesel will take on the roll perfectly. Fun fact: 'Bloodshot' is actually just a central character in another expanded universe of comic book characters similar to DC comics and Marvel.

Considering the rage in popularity of the 'Fast and Furious' franchise as well as the ever lovable Groot, we can't help but wonder just what exactly is Vin Diesel's net worth? With his career altering role as Dominic Toretto its obvious the number is not small. Our sources say as of May 2017 he is worth at least $160 million dollars. Just in 2015 alone Diesel earned $35 million dollars. I don't know about you but I would love to have that number as my income.

-Considering his friendship with his 'Fast and Furious' cast member Paul Walker, Vin actually named his youngest daughter Pauline after his Walker. -Something very random, Vin Diesel actually was in a 2006 Worldwide Game Day for the popular game 'Dungeons and Dragons.' Who knew he was a gamer? -Diesel was actually in a instructional break dancing video as a teenager. -Before 'Fast Five' cast anyone as the role of Luke Hobbs, the part was written with Tommy Lee Jones in mind. It wasn't until one day while searching through Facebook a comment was found that stated how cool it would be to see The Rock and Diesel acting in the same movie. Thats when the Rock was cast as Hobbs.