"'Jason Statham"

Jason Statham born 12 September 1967 is an English actor and former diver, known for his roles in the Guy Ritchie crime films Revolver, Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Statham appeared in supporting roles in several American films, such as The Italian Job, as well as playing the lead role in The Transporter, Death Race, Crank, The Bank Job and War (opposite martial arts star Jet Li). Statham also appeared alongside established action film actors Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Jet Li and Dolph Lundgren in The Expendables. He usually performs his own fight scenes and stunts.

Statham was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, the son of Eileen (née Yates) and Barry Statham, a lounge singer. He moved to Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, where he chose not to follow his father's career working the local market stalls, and decided to pursue the arts. He grew up with Vinnie Jones, alongside whom he would later go on to act. Jones introduced him to football, and Statham went on to play for the local grammar school (1978–83), which he had attended since the age of eleven, but his real passion was diving. He practised daily in perfecting his diving techniques – in particular, he finished 12th in the World Championships in 1992. He was also a member of Britain's National Diving Squad for twelve years.

Statham's life in the media began when he was spotted by a talent agent specialising in athletes while training at London's Crystal Palace National Sports Centre. Afterwards, he became a model for the clothing brand French Connection.

While working for French Connection (FCUK), he was introduced to fledgling British director Guy Ritchie who was developing a film project and needed to fill the role of a street-wise con artist. After learning about Statham's past as a black market salesman, Ritchie cast him to play the role of "Bacon" in his 1998 Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. The movie was well received by both critics and audiences, and helped catapult Statham into the public eye. Statham's second collaboration with Ritchie came in the 2000 film Snatch, playing the role of "Turkish". Cast alongside popular actors Brad Pitt, Dennis Farina and Benicio del Toro, and with the movie earning more than $80 million in box-office revenue, Statham was able to break into Hollywood and appeared in two movies in 2001: Ghosts of Mars and 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, in which his background in martial arts enabled him to do most of his own stunts. He has studied Wing Chun kung fu, karate, and kickboxing. The film spawned two sequels, Transporter 2 (2005) and Transporter 3 (2008). He also played in supporting roles in Mean Machine (2002), The Italian Job (2003) (in which he played Handsome Rob), and Cellular (2004) in which he played the lead villain. In 2005, Statham was once again cast by Ritchie to star in his new project, Revolver, which was a critical and box office failure. He also played a dramatic role in the independent drama London in 2006. In 2006 he played the lead role in Crank. Statham compares his role in Crank to his real life in the September 2006 issue of Maxim. The success of Crank led to a sequel in 2009 titled Crank: High Voltage.

In 2008, Statham starred in the British crime thriller The Bank Job which was both a critical and box office success. In 2008, American film critic Armond White hailed Statham's ascension as the leading international action film star. On the occasion of Death Race, White championed Statham's "best track record of any contemporary movie star." Later in 2008, White praised Statham's Transporter 3 as a great example of kinetic pop art.


In 2009, Statham started to develop a new movie written by David Peoples and Janet Peoples (Twelve Monkeys). Statham stated "We've got a movie we're trying to do, written by David Peoples and Janet Peoples, in the vein of an old film, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. It’s not a remake or anything, but it's a little bit like that, about relationships and how greed contaminates the relationships these three people have. The working title is The Grabbers."

In 2010, Statham appeared alongside fellow action stars Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Jet Li and Mickey Rourke, among others in The Expendables. Statham plays Lee Christmas, a former SAS soldier and expert at close quarters combat using knives. In 2011, Statham starred in the remake of the 1972 Charles Bronson film, The Mechanic, and returned to British film in the police drama Blitz.

He also starred in the action film Killer Elite. The film was based on real events, which were the subject of Sir Ranulph Fiennes' fictional novel The Feather Men. Statham played an assassin named Danny who comes out of retirement to save an old friend, who was played by Robert De Niro. In August 2011, he is to begin filming Parker, for director Taylor Hackford; Statham will star as Parker, the criminal antihero previously played by Mel Gibson in 1999's Payback and by Lee Marvin in 1967's Point Blank.

Statham was in a seven year relationship with model Kelly Brook, until 2004. Since April 2010, he has been dating Victoria's Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.