PAUL WALKER

'Paul William Walker IV' (born September 12, 1973) is an American actor and former fashion model. He became known during the early 2000s, after starring in several major Hollywood films, including ''The Fast and the Furious'' (2001) and "Into The Blue" (2005).

Contents

Biography

Early life

Career

Personal life

Trivia

Filmography

References

External links

Biography

Early life

Paul was born in Glendale, California to Paul William Walker III, a retired sewer contractor, and Cheryl Crabtree, a former fashion model. His paternal grandfather, William Walker (aka. "Irish" Billy Walker), was a Pearl Harbor survivor and a Navy middleweight boxing champion, while his maternal grandfather commanded a tank Battalion that invaded Italy under General Patton during World War II.^[1] He has two younger brothers, Caleb and Cody, and a younger sister, Ashlie. Walker has Irish and German ancestry.^[2] He was raised a Mormon, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in a conservative household,^[3][4][5] He grew up in Glendale, California, and nearby Sunland, California. He attended The Carden Lee School, Alfred Nobel School and later Village Christian High School, graduating in 1991.

Career

Walker's small-screen career began with commercials as a child, and he was later cast for the first season of the sitcom ''Throb''. He began modeling in the late 1980s. His big-screen career began with appearances in several low-budget B movies, including ''Monster in the Closet'' (1987) and ''Tammy and the T-Rex'' (1994). He also had a brief stint on the soap opera ''The Young and the Restless'' in 1993 . In 1998, he starred in his first widely released film, the critically-derided ''Meet the Deedles'' as well as the well-received ''Pleasantville'', playing a high school basketball player along with Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon. Between 1999 and 2001, Walker appeared in a few notable films aimed at a teenage audience, including ''She's All That'' and ''Varsity Blues''.
His breakthrough came in 2001, when he starred opposite Vin Diesel in the highly successful action film ''The Fast and the Furious'', which established Walker as a notable film star and leading man. Consequently, Walker played the lead role in a number of action-adventure films, the most financially successful of which was ''2 Fast 2 Furious'' (2003). His other 2001 film, ''Joy Ride'', received very positive reviews by critics. Walker was also originally set to star in the film ''S.W.A.T.'' (2003), but left the project and was replaced by Colin Farrell. In 2002, he was chosen by ''People Magazine'' as one of the "50 most beautiful people in the world".
In February 2006, Walker starred in two films; ''Running Scared'', an action thriller, and ''Eight Below'', an adventure set in Antarctica. ''Eight Below'', a family-friendly Disney film, opened in first place at the box office, grossing over $24 million during its first four days.^[6] The film received positive reviews and was considered a success for Walker, whose most recent films, including ''Timeline'' and ''Into the Blue'', were financial and critical failures. Walker filmed ''Running Scared'' in 2004, wanting to participate in a darker-edged film; the film's director, Wayne Kramer, has commented that the film's character is closer to Walker's own personality than any of his previous roles.^[7] In fall 2006, Walker appeared in ''Flags of Our Fathers'', a war movie directed by Clint Eastwood.

Personal life

Walker resides in Santa Barbara and Huntington Beach, California. He has a daughter, Meadow Rain (born November 4th 1998) from a former girlfriend (Rebecca); she lives with her mother in Hawaii. One of his close friends is actor Scott Caan, who appeared alongside Walker in several films, including ''Varsity Blues'' and ''Into the Blue''. He also formed a close friendship with Tyrese Gibson during the filming of ''2 Fast 2 Furious''.

Trivia

★ Has studied several martial arts forms including Brazilian Jujutsu and Taekwondo. He currently studies Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do and Filipino Kali (a.k.a. Eskrima). He has stated that he wishes to enroll as a student in Keysi Fighting Method when it comes to the United States.

★ One of Walker's stunt doubles Oakley Lehman has been one of Paul's best friends since they were 7 years old.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	''Tammy and the T-Rex''	Michael aka Teenage T-Rex
1998	''Pleasantville''	Skip Martin
	''Meet the Deedles''	Phil Deedle
1999	''Varsity Blues''	Lance Harbor
	''She's All That''	Dean Sampson
	''Brokedown Palace''	Jason	uncredited
2000	''The Skulls''	Caleb Mandrake
2001	''Joy Ride''	Lewis Thomas
	''The Fast and the Furious''	Brian O'Conner
2002	''Life Makes Sense If You're Famous''	Mikey
2003	''Timeline''	Chris Johnston
	''2 Fast 2 Furious''	Brian O'Conner
2004	''Noel''	Mike
2005	''Into the Blue''	Jared
2006	''Flags of Our Fathers ''	Hank Hansen
	''Running Scared''	Joey Gazelle
	''Eight Below''	Jerry Shepard
2007	''The Death and Life of Bobby Z''	Tim Kearney
2008	''The Heaven Project''	NA

References

1. http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/living/13949075.htm
2. http://www.infilm.com.au/features/paulwalker.htm
3. http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2005-09-27-paul-walker_x.htm
4. http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2003/11/21/prettyBoyIsPrettyCoyWalkerTalksTheTalk
5. http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/Entertainment/2003/11/23/266213.html
6. http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1524607/02212006/story.jhtml
7. http://movies.about.com/od/runningscared/a/runningwk021406.htm

External links

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