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Jason Statham (born on 12 September, 1972, in Sydenham, Lewisham, London) is an English actor, known for his roles in the Guy Ritchie crime films Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. Statham also appeared in supporting roles in several American films, such as The One and The Italian Job, as well as playing the lead role in The Transporter, Transporter 2 and Crank. Statham is currently working on The Brazilian Job, a sequel to The Italian Job and has recently signed up for Baker Street.

Early years

According to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), Jason Statham was born on 12 September, 1972, in London. Several sources, including The New York Times, have incorrectly reported his birthday to be 10 September, 1968, which is in fact the birthday of Guy Ritchie.

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.

Statham's careers

Diving

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.

Modeling

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.

Acting

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.

Personal life

Statham dated English model and actress Kelly Brook for seven years but the couple split when Kelly met actor Billy Zane on the set of Survival Island.

In 2005, Statham began dating Bardot singer Sophie Monk however, Monk has been said to now be dating Good Charlotte band member Benji Madden http://news.softpedia.com/news/Jason-Statham-Is-Dating-Again-9726.shtml

Filmography

Video game voice-overs

• Red Faction II (2002) – Shrike
• Call of Duty (2003) – Sgt. Waters

References

External links

• Fan site

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