Film Career
| Vinnie Jones | |
|---|---|
Vinnie Jones, Leslie Bibb, and Bradley Cooper at San Diego Comic-Con International promoting the film The Midnight Meat Train in July 2007 |
|
| Born | Vincent Peter Jones (1965-01-05) 5 January 1965 (age 47) Watford, Hertfordshire, England, UK |
| Other names | Vinnie Jones |
| Occupation | footballer, actor, film producer, composer, singer |
| Years active | 1993–present |
| Spouse(s) | Tanya Jones (1994–present) |
| Website | |
| www.vinniejones.co.uk | |
Jones made his 1998 feature film debut in Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. He later starred in Guy Ritchie's next blockbuster Snatch as Bullet-Tooth Tony.
He became known to American audiences in the 2000 film remake of Gone in 60 Seconds where he played "the Sphinx." Although Jones had a major role as well as significant on-screen time, he only had one line in the entire film but was portrayed as a silent tough brawler.
Jones went back to his football days to play Danny Meehan in Mean Machine, a 2001 British take of the Burt Reynolds' film The Longest Yard (a.k.a. Mean Machine for its UK release). He plays a former captain of the English National Football Team, who is sent to prison and subsequently takes control of a team of inmates who play the guards.
He played another football role as Mad Maynard the leader of a Manchester United football hooligan firm, with scenes in a fictional London pub (the Feisty Goat), Paris and Rome in the 2004 film EuroTrip .
His next big piece was in the 2006 film, X-Men: The Last Stand, as the mutant, Juggernaut. Jones said that he would like to play Juggernaut in a spin-off. His line in the film, "I'm the Juggernaut, Bitch!", was based on a pre-existing Internet parody.
In 2007 he played the part of McStarley in "The Condemned", a depraved English killer who was purchased along with 9 other killers awaiting the death penalty to fight for their lives on an island.
Jones played a role of a professional killer in a Kazakhstani film called Ликвидатор ("Eliminator"), 2011. Jones's character is an elite assassin invited from abroad in order to eliminate the main character. Producers of the film have dealt with the language barrier rather interestingly – Jones's character is mute and does not say a single word throughout the film.
He also played a role in the Hungarian film The Magic Boys. The film is slated for theatrical release in autumn 2012. The film's producer, Gabor Koltai, was arrested on major tax fraud charges in December 2010 and was remanded to the Budapest prison. He was released in April 2011 and is currently awaiting trial. The film co starred Michael Madsen and was directed by his father Robert Koltai.
Jones is said to have been cast as The Kurgan in the remake of the 1986 cult classic Highlander.
He played a major role in the 2004 Japanese film Survive Style 5+, where he plays a thuggish hit-man from Britain who kills several people and, with the help of his translator, tries to discover what everyone's function in life is.
Jones also played a part in the film Kill the Irishman, where he played the character Keith Ritson, an ex-Hells Angels who works as an enforcer. He also played Mahogany in Midnight Meat Train. He also played the role of a sadistic former SAS soldier in 'The Condemned'.
In 2012, Jones voiced Freddie The Dog in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. He is set to star alongside Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the upcoming Action/Thriller The Tomb, set to be released in 2013.
Read more about this topic: Vinnie Jones
Famous quotes containing the words film and/or career:
“Film music should have the same relationship to the film drama that somebody’s piano playing in my living room has to the book I am reading.”
—Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
““Never hug and kiss your children! Mother love may make your children’s infancy unhappy and prevent them from pursuing a career or getting married!” That’s total hogwash, of course. But it shows on extreme example of what state-of-the-art “scientific” parenting was supposed to be in early twentieth-century America. After all, that was the heyday of efficiency experts, time-and-motion studies, and the like.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)