Arts & Entertainment

Vin Diesel Receives Hollywood Walk of Fame Star

Vin Diesel's star is located at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard in front of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

Actor and filmmaker Vin Diesel received the 2,504th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame today, two days before the premiere of his latest movie, "Riddick."

Michelle Rodriguez, who co-starred with Diesel in the "Fast & Furious" film series, was among those joining Diesel at the ceremony in front of the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel on Hollywood Boulevard.

"I never thought it would be here in public on a corner, but I guess in some strange way, 30 years ago I made my living by dancing on corners like this with crowds smaller than this," Diesel said.

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Born Mark Sinclair Vincent on July 18, 1967, in New York City, Diesel made his stage debut when he was 7 years old in a production of the children's play "Dinosaur Door" at Theater for the New City in New York's Greenwich Village.

Diesel's first film role was a brief uncredited appearance in the 1990 drama "Awakenings." Diesel wrote, produced, directed and starred in the 1994 independent short "Multi-Facial," which followed him on several auditions in which he is told he is either "too black" or "too white." Diesel's mother is white and his father is black.

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The film was shown at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, where it was seen by director Steven Spielberg, which led him to create the role of Pvt. Adrian Carparzo in "Saving Private Ryan" specifically for Diesel.

Diesel also wrote, produced, directed and starred in the full-length drama "Strays," which he described as a "multicultural 'Saturday Night Fever." It was selected to compete at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival.

Diesel's other film credits include "xXx"; the Disney comedy "The Pacifier"; "Babylon A.D."; the courtroom drama "Find Me Guilty"; "Boiler Room"; "Knockaround Guy"; the action-thriller "A Man Apart";  and the animated feature "The Iron Giant."

"Riddick" will be released Sept. 6. The action-adventure film is part of a series that began in 2000 with "Pitch Black" and continued in 2004 with "The Chronicles of Riddick."

Diesel's upcoming films include an adaptation of the 1970s CBS crime drama "Kojak" and the seventh installment of the "Fast & Furious" series.

Diesel is also the founder of the video game company Tigon Studios, which created and produced 2004's top-selling Xbox game, "The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay."

Diesel's stage name stems from his days as a bouncer at the New York nightclub Tunnel -- Vin is the shortened form of Vincent and friends nicknamed him diesel, saying he ran off diesel fuel, referring to his non-stop energy.

-City News Service   


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