PAUL WALKER

Date of Birth
12 September 1973, Glendale, California, USA

Birth Name
Paul William Walker IV

Height
6' 1¼" (1.86 m)

Mini Biography
Paul William Walker IV (born September 12, 1973) is an American actor with Albanian heritage. He became well known in 1999 after his role in the hit film Varsity Blues. He is also known for starring in the surprise summer hit The Fast and the Furious. His other films include Joy Ride, Running Scared, Into the Blue and Eight Below. The films he has starred in have grossed more than $1.1 billion. He also appears in the National Geographic Channel series Expedition Great White.
Early life
Walker was born in Glendale, California and raised in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles County, the son of Cheryl, a fashion model, and Paul Walker III, a sewer contractor. His paternal grandfather was a professional boxer. He is the oldest of five, having two brothers and two sisters. Walker was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormon, church. He attended and graduated from Village Christian School. After high, he attended several community colleges where he majored in marine biology.

Career
Walker's small-screen career began as a toddler, when he starred in a television commercial for Pampers. He began modeling at the age of 2 and began working on television shows in 1985, with roles in shows such as Highway to Heaven, Who's the Boss?, The Young and the Restless and Touched by an Angel.

Walker's film career began in 1987, with the horror/comedy film Monster in the Closet. He and his sister Ashlie were contestants on a 1988 episode of the game show I'm Telling!, finishing in second place. He has continued with roles in several other movies without much success. It was not until 1998 that Walker made his feature film debut in the comedy Meet the Deedles, which finally gained him fame. This subsequently led to supporting roles in the movies Pleasantville, Varsity Blues, She's All That, and The Skulls.

In 2001, Walker's breakthrough role arrived when he starred opposite actor Vin Diesel in the successful action film The Fast and the Furious. The film established Walker as a notable film star and leading man and led to his reprisal of the role in the 2003 sequel 2 Fast 2 Furious. He continued his career with leading roles in films such as Joy Ride, Into the Blue, and Timeline, and also had a supporting role in Clint Eastwood's 2006 adaptation of Flags of Our Fathers.

Walker then starred in the crime thriller Running Scared and Walt Disney Pictures' Eight Below, both released in 2006. Eight Below garnered critical-acclaim and opened in first place at the box office, grossing over US$20 million during its first weekend. During the filming of Running Scared, director Wayne Kramer stated that "[Walker] is that guy on some level" when comparing Walker with his character in the movie, Joey Gazelle. Kramer continued on to say that he "loved working with [Walker] because as a director he's completely supportive of my vision of what the film is. And even better, he's completely game for it."

Walker starred in the independent film The Lazarus Project, which was released on DVD on October 21, 2008. He subsequently returned to The Fast and the Furious franchise, reprising his role in Fast & Furious, which was released on April 3, 2009.

Walker appeared with T.I., Idris Elba, Chris Brown, Matt Dillon, and Hayden Christensen in the crime drama Takers, which began filming in early September 2008 and was released in August 2010.

The Coty Prestige fragrance brand Davidoff Cool Water for Men announced in January 2011 that Walker was going to be the new face of the brand as of July 2011.

He reprised his role in the fifth installment of The Fast and the Furious series, Fast Five.

Personal life
Walker currently resides in Santa Barbara, California, with his dogs, one of which is a Chesapeake Bay Retriever. Paul and his then-girlfriend Rebecca had a baby daughter, Meadow (born in 1998), who lives with her mother in Hawaii. He is an avid surfer and enjoys the beach. Walker holds a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Ricardo "Franjinha" Miller at Paragon Jiu-Jitsu.

Walker's first passion was marine biology, with his idol being Jacques Cousteau, and he joined the Board of Directors of The Billfish Foundation in 2006. He recently fulfilled a lifelong dream by starring in a National Geographic Channel series Expedition Great White, which premiered in June 2010. He spent 11 days as part of the crew, catching and tagging 7 great white shark off the coast of Mexico. The expedition, led by Chris Fischer, founder and CEO of Fischer Productions, along with Captain Brett McBride and Dr. Michael Domeier of the Marine Conservation Science Institute take measurements, gather DNA samples, and fasten real-time satellite tags to the great white sharks. This will allow Dr. Michael Domeier to study migratory patterns especially those associated with mating and birthing over a 5-year period of time.

In March 2010, Walker went to Chile, specifically to Constitución, to offer his help and support to the people injured in the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck on February 27. He also flew with his REACH OUT team to Haiti to lend a helping hand to the 2010 Haiti earthquake victims. He is also an avid car enthusiast who currently competes in the Redline Time Attack racing series in which he races a M3 E92 and is on the AE Performance Team. His car is currently sponsored by Etnies, Brembo Brakes, Ohlins, Volk, OS Giken, Hankook, Gintani, and Reach Out Worldwide.

Source
The Mini Biography is from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Walker. IMDb is not affiliated with, and neither endorses, nor is endorsed by Wikipedia or any of the authors who contributed to this article. The Wikipedia content may be available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, version 3.0 or any later version, available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. Additional or other terms may apply. See Wikipedia Terms of Use for details. This webpage may use the Freebase schema, licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/.


Trivia
Has a daughter with ex-girlfriend, Rebecca, named Meadow Rain, born November 4, 1999.

Graduated from Village Christian High School (located in Sun Valley, California) class of 1991.

Chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful Persons in the world in 2001.

He doesn't like to watch himself on screen and will only watch his own movies once.

Describes himself as a "total gear head" and he owns the Nissan Skyline R34 which he used in 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

Is a keen traveller and has visited countries such as India, Fiji and Costa Rica

Has four siblings; brothers, Caleb and Cody and sisters, Ashlie and Amie.

His grandfather Paul Walker, Jr. (aka. "Irish" Billy Walker) was a professional boxer, raced cars for Ford and is a Pearl Harbor survivor.

Is a fan of marine biologist Jacques-Yves Cousteau.

Scored his break into show business through modeling.

Owns a Labrador named Zero, a Chesapeake Bay puppy and a horse named Cowboy.

Resides in Huntington Beach and Santa Barbara, California where he surfs every day he's at home.

He was set to star in S.W.A.T. (2003) as Jim Street but backed out. Colin Farrell was cast instead.

Frequently works with Scott Caan. (Varsity Blues (1999), Life Makes Sense If You're Famous (2002) and Into the Blue (2005)).

Friends with Kylie Tyndall & Keaton Tyndall

Is of Irish descent.

Was listed as a potential nominee on both the 2004 and 2006 Razzie Award nominating ballots. He was suggested in the Worst Actor category on the 2004 ballot for his performances in the films 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) and Timeline (2003). And he was suggested again two years later in the Worst Actor category of the 2006 Razzie nominating ballot for his performance in the film Into the Blue (2005) . He failed to receive either nomination.

His mother, Cheryl, was a model.

He wanted to enroll in the US Army when the Gulf War first broke out.

Was considered for the role of Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four (2005).

Audtioned for the role of Anakin Skywalker but was too old for the part. He has said it was the only role he's ever really wanted.

Referenced in made-for-TV movie, Spring Break Shark Attack (2005) (TV), and in the TV show "Happy Endings" (2011) episode, "Happy Endings: The Girl with the David Tattoo (#1.8)" (2011).

Received his brown belt in BJJ under Ricardo "Franjinha" Miller at the Paragon BJJ Academy.

Best friends with Oakley Lehman since childhood.


Personal Quotes
You know, all that really matters is that the people you love are happy and healthy. Everything else is just sprinkles on the sundae. - in Flaunt Magazine, July 2001.

Some people say that you should go to all the parties, to the nightclubs, the Viper Room, and make contacts, and I look at them and say, 'You don't want to have contacts with those people.' Look at what happened to River Phoenix (who died in 1993 of a drug overdose outside the Viper Room). If you get caught up in that, it ruins you. Hollywood is garbage.

Surfing soothes me, it's always been a kind of zen experience for me. The ocean is so magnificent, peaceful, and awesome. The rest of the world disappears for me when I'm on a wave.

I'm into being a dad, that's where my focus is most of the time. I'm an actor that's my job, but it's not my life. I have a lot of other interests too.

I'm a dreamer. I've got this whole thing where I think I'm supposed to be a musician. I live by the seat of my pants, but I'd like to think that I'm also pretty sensible.

I want to get married. I think about it a lot. But I also think about my cars, so maybe my priorities aren't exactly in line just yet.

Life's too short. And the biggest curse is falling in love with somebody.

I'm much more likely to give myself a kick in the butt than a pat on the back.

I like low maintenance, natural, outdoor, shy girls.

I'm a Christian now. The things that drove me crazy growing up was how everyone works at fault-finding with different religions. The people I don't understand are atheists. I go surfing and snow boarding and I'm always around nature. I look at everything and think, 'Who couldn't believe there's a God? Is all this a mistake?' It just blows me away.

(2010) I'm passionate about animals and I hunt too. It's like I save and I kill. I'm a walking, talking contradiction. I'm all about preserving the environment but I'm racing cars on the weekend. I tell everyone I'm a gun-loving hippy.


Salary
The Fast and the Furious (2001) $1,000,000
2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) $7,000,000
Timeline (2003) $3,000,000

Where Are They Now
(January 2004) Filming Noel (2004).

(January 2004) Filming Into the Blue (2005) with "Dark Angel" (2000)'s Jessica Alba.

(November 2005) living in Santa Barbra

(March 2010) In Chile, helping the victims of the earthquake

(2010) He is currently working in Guadalupe catching, tagging and studying Great White Sharks. He can be seen on the new TV show, "Shark Men" (2010) as a Deckhand.