Jason Statham

Born: September 12 1972
Where: London, England, UK

A one-time Olympic diver, fashion model, and black-market salesman, Statham came to acting by way of 'street theatre' - a euphemism for hustling tourists on London's Oxford Street.

Big screen highlights now include the lead in the Riviera crime caper The Transporter and Mark Wahlberg's wheelman in the American remake of the Italian Job.

However, he has also been saddled with the dubious honour of starring in the "worst gangster film of all time" - Guy Ritchie's Revolver.

Statham was a member of the 1988 British Olympic Team in Seoul, Korea, and remained on the National Diving Squad for ten years.

In the late '90s, a talent agent specialising in athletes landed Statham a job in an ad campaign for the clothing retailer French Connection.

Meanwhile, Statham had also earned local fame as a street corner con man, selling stolen jewellery and counterfeit perfume out of a briefcase.

So, when French Connection's owner became one of the biggest investors in Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, he introduced Jason to Guy Ritchie, who was searching for 'real' people instead of character actors.

Ritchie invited him to audition for a part in the film by challenging him to impersonate an illegal street vendor and convince him to purchase a piece of imitation gold jewellery.

The con worked and Statham was cast as Bacon in the box office hit which inspired a host of imitators.

He re-teamed with Ritchie to play Turkish in Snatch alongside Brad Pitt and went on to feature in the New York-set action drama Turn in Up with Ja Rule.

Next came supporting roles in sci-fi chiller The Ghosts of Mars, Jet Li's actioner The One and Vinnie Jones' prison football caper Mean Machine.

In 2002, Statham was cast in the lead role of Frank Miller in the Luc Besson-scripted action thriller The Transporter alongside a mainly French cast.

Action director F Gary Gray then cast him as Handsome Rob in the routine remake of the 1969 classic The Italian Job.

In 2004 he had a blink-and-you'll-miss-it role in Michael Mann's Collateral with Tom Cruise and the part of a crooked cop in the thriller Cellular.

In 2005, he starred as philosopher-gangster Jake Green in Guy Ritchie's critically derided Revolver and didn't fare much better with an uncredited cameo in the Steve Martin remake of The Pink Panther.

He returned to form with the hi-adrenalin thriller Crank and re-teamed with Jet Li for the martial arts actioner War.

In 2008, he played a dodgy car dealer-turned-heistmeister in the likeable British robbery caper The Bank Job.

Recent work includes Paul WS Anderson's remake of Death Race 2000 starring Statham as a prisoner who has to beat all-comers in a do-or-die car rally if he is to get out of jail.