Dwayne Johnson

Born: May 2nd 1972
Where: Hayward, California, USA

The self-mockery of Dwayne Johnson has provided a welcome respite from the musclebound vanity of Schwarzenegger and Stallone.

The grandson of Samoan wrestler High Chief Peter Maivia and the son of wrestler Rocky Johnson, he bounded onto the screen in the accomplished action adventure The Mummy Returns.

Since his breakthrough as The Scorpion King he has provided light-hearted brawn in outings ranging from Welcome To The Jungle to Doom.

In 2006, he starred in Soutland Tales, director Richard Kelly's follow-up to the cult hit Donnie Darko and also appeared in the sports drama The Gridiron Gang.

He had an uncredited cameo in the spoof crime caper Reno 911: Miami and played an NFL quarterback who suddenly discovers he has a daughter in the Disney comedy The Game Plan. Raised in California, the Johnson family eventually settled in Pennsylvania but things turned difficult when his father went bust around 1975.

Dwayne channelled his energies into sport, eventually ranking as one of the state's top ten high school football players.

He earned a scholarship to the University of Miami, where he majored in criminology but spent a lot of time partying, brawling and chasing women.

That behaviour stopped in 1991 after he met Dany Garcia, whom he married in 1997 when she was 22.

Following his 1994 graduation, he had hoped for a a career with the NFL but found himself taken on by the Canadian Football League and he moved to Calgary.

Disheartened after a short time, he quit professional sports and opted to go into the family business - wrestling. After first emerging as a clean-cut opponent, he adopted a brash bad boy persona - using the nickhame The Rock - to which audiences quickly responded.

He became a popular figure in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), winning the championship belt six times between 1998 and 2001.

In February 1999, The Rock moved into acting, appropriately cast as his own father in an episode of the hit Fox sitcom That '70s Show.

The following year, he could be seen in Star Trek: Voyager but it was his March 2000 appearance on Saturday Night Live that made Hollywood take notice.

He showed viewers that he was more than just a muscle man; gamely donning drag, displaying a pleasant singing voice and a flair for sketch comedy.

Although other wrestlers (like Hulk Hogan) had tried to segue to movies, none really achieved true film stardom but The Rock persevered.

Having fielded a variety of offers, he made his feature acting debut as The Scorpion King in the 2001 sequel to The Mummy Returns.

Although his screen time was limited, he displayed a strong, charismatic presence, enough for the studio to develop his own starring vehicle, The Scorpion King, released in 2002, for which he earned a reported £3.8m.

The following year he starred alongside Seann William Scott in the amiable action caper Welcome To The Jungle.

In 2004, he played the vengeful returning US soldier Chris Vaughn in Walking Tall and went on to star alongside John Travolta and Uma Thurman in the Get Shorty sequel Be Cool.

Firmly grasping Schwarzenegger's mantle, recent work includes the role of Sarge in the big screen adaptation of the video game Doom.