Celebrity Online NewsOnline Celebrity Gossip and News

Paul Walker extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please help improve the article by updating it. There may be information on the talk page. (April 2009)

Paul Walker
Walker at a premiere for Fast & Furious in March 2009
Born	Paul William Walker IV September 12, 1973 (1973-09-12) (age 35) Glendale, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1985–present

Paul William Walker IV (born September 12, 1973) is an American actor. He became well known in 2001 after starring in the surprise summer hit The Fast and the Furious and has since gone on to star in its sequels 2 Fast 2 Furious and Fast & Furious. His other successful movies include Joy Ride, Running Scared, and Eight Below.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Personal life 4 Filmography 5 Awards 6 References 7 External links

Early life

Walker was born in Glendale, California and raised in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles County.¹ The son of Paul Walker III (a sewer contractor)² and Cheryl (née Crabtree; a former fashion model),³ he is the second oldest of his four siblings (two brothers and two sisters).⁴ Walker was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormon, church. While he has stopped practicing the religion, his family are still members of the church.⁵ Walker attended and graduated from Village Christian School.⁶⁷ After high school, he attended several community colleges, seeking a degree, and a career, in marine biology.⁶

Career

Walker's small-screen career began as a toddler, when he starred in a television commercial for Pampers.⁸ He began modeling at the age of 2⁹ and began working on television shows in 1985, with roles in shows such as Highway to Heaven, Who's the Boss?, The Young and the Restless and Touched By an Angel.

Walker's film career began in 1987, with the horror/comedy film Monster in the Closet. He has continued with roles in several other movies without much success. It wasn't until 1998 that Walker made his feature film debut in the comedy Meet the Deedles, which finally gained him fame. This subsequently led to supporting roles in the movies Pleasantville, Varsity Blues, She's All That,Into the Blue, and The Skulls.

In 2001, Walker's breakthrough role arrived when he starred opposite actor Vin Diesel in the successful action film The Fast and the Furious. The film established Walker as a notable film star and leading man and led to his reprisal of the role in the 2003 sequel 2 Fast 2 Furious. He continued his career with leading roles in films such as Joy Ride, Into the Blue, and Timeline, and also had a supporting role in Clint Eastwood's 2006 adaptation of Flags of Our Fathers.

Walker's most recent feature films are crime thriller Running Scared and Walt Disney Pictures' Eight Below, both released in 2006. Eight Below garnered critical-acclaim and opened in first place at the box office, grossing over US$20 million during its first weekend.¹⁰ During the filming of Running Scared, director Wayne Kramer stated that, "[Walker] is that guy on some level but he’s not really"¹¹ when comparing Walker with his character in the movie, Joey Gazelle. Kramer continued on to say that he "loved working with [Walker] because as a director he’s completely supportive of my vision of what the film is. And even better, he’s completely game for it."¹¹

Walker starred in the independent film The Lazarus Project which was released on DVD on October 21, 2008. He subsequently returned to The Fast and the Furious franchise, reprising his role in Fast & Furious, which was released on April 3, 2009.¹²

Walker has been cast opposite Matt Dillon and Hayden Christensen in the crime drama Takers, which began filming in early September 2008.¹³

Personal life

Walker, who was named as one of People's Most Beautiful People in 2001,¹⁴ currently resides in Santa Barbara, California, with his Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Boone.²¹⁵ His daughter, Meadow Rain³ (born in 1999), lives in Hawaii¹⁶ with her mother, a former girlfriend of Walker's. He is an avid surfer.¹⁷

Filmography

Year	Film	Role
1987	Monster in the Closet	"Professor" Bennett
	Programmed to Kill	Jason
1994	Tammy and the T-Rex	Michael
1998	Meet the Deedles	Phil Deedle
	Pleasantville	Skip Martin
1999	Varsity Blues	Lance Harbor
	She's All That	Dean Sampson
2000	The Skulls	Caleb Mandrake
2001	The Fast and the Furious	Brian O'Connor
	Joy Ride	Lewis Thomas
2003	2 Fast 2 Furious	Brian O'Connor
	Timeline	Chris Johnston
2004	Noel	Mike Riley
2005	Into the Blue	Jared
2006	Running Scared	Joey Gazelle
	Eight Below	Jerry Shepard
	Flags of Our Fathers	Hank Hansen
2007	The Death and Life of Bobby Z	Tim Kearney
2008	The Lazarus Project	Ben Garvey
2009	Fast & Furious	Brian O'Connor
2010	Takers	Heist Leader

Awards

Year	Award	Category	Film/TV Show	Result
1988	Young Artist Award	Best Young Actor – Guest Starring in a Television Drama For episode "A Special Love"	Highway to Heaven	Nominated
1993	Young Artist Award	Best Young Actor in a Daytime Series	The Young and the Restless	Nominated
1994	Soap Opera Digest Award	Outstanding Male Newcomer		Nominated
	Young Artist Award	Best Youth Actor in a Soap Opera		Nominated
2000	Young Hollywood Award	Exciting New Face – Male		Won
2001	Hollywood Breakthrough Award	Breakthrough Male Performance Received at the Hollywood Film Festival		Won
	Young Hollywood Award	New Stylemaker – Male		Won
2002	MTV Movie Award	Best On-Screen Team Shared with Vin Diesel	The Fast and the Furious	Won
		Breakthrough Male Performance		Nominated
2003	Teen Choice Award	Choice Movie Chemistry For Paul Walker and his car	2 Fast 2 Furious	Won
(Source: IMDb.com)

References

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Paul Walker

External links

• Paul Walker at the Internet Movie Database
• Paul Walker at Yahoo! Movies
• Paul Walker at Allmovie