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Jason Statham Profile |
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Birth Date: September 12, 1972
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Birth Place: London, England, UK
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Birth Name: Jason Statham
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Height: 5'11"
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Biography |
Jason Statham is an English actor, known for his roles in
the Guy Ritchie crime films Lock, Stock and Two Smoking
Barrels and Snatch. Jason also appeared in supporting roles
in several American films, such as The One and The Italian
Job, as well as playing the title role in The Transporter
and the Transporter 2. Statham is currently working on The
Brazilian Job, a sequel to The Italian Job.
Statham dated English model and actress Kelly Brook for
seven years but the couple separated.
Statham is the second son of a lounge singer and
dressmaker-turned-dancer who ran a black market operation.
He grew up, initially, following his parents' trail to
master the art of street theatre, a euphemism for hustling
tourists on London's Oxford Street.
Statham developed an interest in sports, diving in
particular, which led him to become an excellent athlete in
the sport; he was a member of Britain's National Diving
Squad for ten years, although he never competed in the
Olympic Games.
Statham's life in media began when he was spotted by a
talent agent specialising in athletes while training at
London's Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in the late
1990s. Afterwards, he became a model for the clothing brand
French Connection where he was introduced to then-fledgling
British director Guy Ritchie.
Ritchie was working on a film project and needed to fill the
role of a street-wise con artist. After learning about
Statham's past, Ritchie cast him to play the role of Bacon
in Ritchie's breakout 1998 hit, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking
Barrels. The movie was well received by both critics and
audiences, which helped catapult the unknown actor into the
public eye.
Statham's second collaboration with Ritchie came in the 2000
film Snatch. Cast alongside popular actors Brad Pitt, Dennis
Farina and Benicio Del Toro, and with the movie earning more
than $80 million in box-office revenues, Statham was able to
break into Hollywood and appeared in two movies in 2001:
John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars and the Jet Li vehicle, The
One.
Statham was offered more film roles, and in 2002 was cast as
the lead role of driver Frank Martin in the action movie The
Transporter. A sequel, Transporter 2, followed in 2005. He
also appeared in supporting roles in The Italian Job (2003),
Cellular (2004) before taking the lead role in Crank (2006).
In 2005, Statham was once again cast by Ritchie to star in
his new project, Revolver and has been billed to appear in
three film projects in 2006: In the Name of the King: A
Dungeon Siege Tale and The Italian Job sequel The Brazilian
Job. |
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Other Information |
Did nearly all of his own stunts in The Transporter (2002),
including car chase sequences, scuba diving sequences and
fight sequences.
His break into the entertainment business came when an agent
put him on an advertisement for the French Connection
clothing company.
Prior to The Transporter (2002) he already had a background
in martial arts which enabled him to perform his own fight
sequences. |
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