- Born
- Nicknames
- Jay
- The Stath
- Height5′ 10″ (1.78 m)
- Jason Statham was born in Shirebrook, Derbyshire, to Eileen (Yates), a dancer, and Barry Statham, a street merchant and lounge singer. He was a Diver on the British National Diving Team and finished twelfth in the World Championships in 1992. He has also been a fashion model, black market salesman and finally of course, actor. He received the audition for his debut role as Bacon in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) through French Connection, for whom he was modeling. They became a major investor in the film and introduced Jason to Guy Ritchie, who invited him to audition for a part in the film by challenging him to impersonate an illegal street vendor and convince him to purchase fake jewelry. Jason must have been doing something right because after the success of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) he teamed up again with Guy Ritchie for Snatch (2000), with co-stars including Brad Pitt, Dennis Farina and Benicio Del Toro. After Snatch (2000) came Turn It Up (2000) with US music star Ja Rule, followed by a supporting actor role in the sci-fi film Ghosts of Mars (2001), Jet Li's The One (2001) and another screen partnership with Vinnie Jones in Mean Machine (2001) under Guy Ritchie's and Matthew Vaughn's SKA Films. Finally in 2002 he was cast as the lead role of Frank Martin in The Transporter (2002). Jason was also in the summer 2003 blockbuster remake of The Italian Job (1969), The Italian Job (2003), playing Handsome Rob.
Throughout the 2000s, Statham became a star of juicy action B-films, most significantly Crank (2006) and Crank: High Voltage (2009), and also War (2007), opposite Jet Li, and The Bank Job (2008) and Death Race (2008), among others. In the 2010s, his reputation for cheeky and tough leading performances led to his casting as Lee Christmas in The Expendables (2010) and its sequels, the comedy Spy (2015), and as (apparently) reformed villain Deckard Shaw in Fast & Furious 6 (2013), Furious 7 (2015), The Fate of the Furious (2017), and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019). Apart from these blockbusters, he continued headlining B-films such as Homefront (2013).
In 2017, he had his first child, a son with his partner, model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Mikedavies86
- ChildrenJack Oscar StathamIsabella James Statham
- ParentsEileen YatesBarry Statham
- RelativesLee Statham(Sibling)
- Often works with director Guy Ritchie
- Gravelly voice and British accent
- Buzz cut
- Roles in action films
- Muscular physique
- Jason Statham spent 12 years on the British national diving team, competing on the 10-meter platform and the 3-meter springboard. In 1992, he was ranked 12th in the world as a platform diver.
- A competent martial artist with a background in kickboxing, wing chun and karate, Statham frequently does his own stunts and, prior to his acting career, toyed with the idea of being a stuntman himself. Throughout his career, Statham has frequently called for there to be an Academy Award to celebrate the work of stunt men and women, being quoted as saying "I think it is an overlooked category, especially considering how much responsibility these coordinators have for some of the greatest entertainment in action movies. I mean, all of the stunt men-these are the unsung heroes. They really are. Nobody is giving them any credibility. They're risking their necks. And then you've got poncy actors pretending like they're doing [the stunts].".
- Well trained in Mixed Martial Arts and is an expert in Kickboxing/Jujitsu.
- Did nearly all of his own stunts in The Transporter (2002), including car chase sequences, scuba diving sequences and fight sequences.
- He is trained in Karate, Wushu, Wing Chun Kung Fu, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Kickboxing.
- You ain't ever gonna get an Academy Award for doing Crank (2006) and you certainly won't for doing all the other movies I've done.
- [on being directed by Sylvester Stallone in The Expendables (2010)] He is someone that you have to respect and with that he runs a very relaxed set.
- [on preparing for action roles] I go to this gym full of stunt men. There aren't any TVs or treadmills there. This is a spit-and-sawdust kind of place. It has a lot of great training aids - trampolines and bags and every weapon ever invented to do harm to a human being. If you want to know how to throw a knife it's great.
- Growing up where I did, you met a lot of colorful characters whose business was on the other side of the law, or more likely you didn't know what they were up to, and you never would. So playing those kinds of characters now, I can draw on that. The rest of it, you can practice or learn from books. But mostly, I draw from my experiences. That's all I have, you know.
- You see a lot of action films, and it's almost (like) you can't tell who's doing what. It's chopped up so much, you just see a fist, a leg - it's all driven by the sound, boom, pow, boom. You wouldn't know what was happening otherwise. The people who inspired me growing up, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, that's the real deal. You see them, the camera's way back, there aren't a lot of cuts - you feel like you're really in there. Today, there's so much technology and green-screen and CGI, you can turn your grandma into an action star. But people are getting wise to that, I think. There's no substitute for the real thing.
- Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019) - $13,000,000
- The Italian Job (2003) - $450,000
- The Transporter (2002) - $750,000
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