1. Jason Statham is an English actor, martial artist, and producer.
43 Facts About Jason Statham
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Jason Statham is known for portraying tough, gritty, or violent characters in various action thriller films, and has been credited for leading the resurgence of action films during the 2000s and 2010s.
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Jason Statham went on to play supporting roles in the American action films Turn It Up, Ghosts of Mars and The One.
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Jason Statham went on to play leading roles in the commercially successful films Crank, The Bank Job, The Mechanic, Homefront, Mechanic: Resurrection, The Meg, Wrath of Man, Meg 2: The Trench, and The Beekeeper.
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Jason Statham was born in Shirebrook on 26 July 1967, the son of dancer Eileen and street seller Barry Statham.
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Jason Statham's father worked odd jobs as a house painter, coal miner, and singer in the Canary Islands.
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Jason Statham moved to Great Yarmouth, where he initially chose not to follow his father's career working the local market stalls, instead practising martial arts.
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Jason Statham grew up alongside football player Vinnie Jones, with whom he would later act; Jones introduced him to football, and Statham went on to play for the local grammar school, which he attended from 1978 to 1983.
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Jason Statham was passionate about diving, practising daily to perfect his techniques.
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Jason Statham was a member of Britain's National Swimming Squad for 12 years, and competed for England at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in the 10 metre, 3 metre, and 1 metre events.
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Jason Statham said in a 2003 interview that his time with the national squad was a "great experience" that taught him "discipline, focus, and certainly [kept him] out of trouble".
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Jason Statham was spotted by the sports modelling agency Sports Promotions while training at London's Crystal Palace National Sports Centre.
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Jason Statham was signed by Tommy Hilfiger, Griffin, and Levi's for various modelling contracts during their 1996 spring and summer collections.
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Jason Statham's look is just right for now: very masculine and not too male-modelly.
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Jason Statham was then able to break into Hollywood and appeared in two films in 2001: the science fiction action horror film Ghosts of Mars and the science fiction martial arts action film The One.
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Jason Statham was offered more film roles and was cast in the lead role of driver Frank Martin in the action film The Transporter, written by Luc Besson.
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Jason Statham played supporting roles in Mean Machine, The Italian Job, and as the lead villain in Cellular.
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In 2005, Jason Statham was cast by Ritchie to star in his new project, Revolver, which was a critical and box office failure.
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Jason Statham played a dramatic role in the independent film London in 2006.
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Jason Statham was asked to promote Crank during the 2006 San Diego Comic-Con Convention.
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In 2008, Jason Statham starred in the British crime thriller The Bank Job and Death Race, a remake of Death Race 2000.
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In 2009, Jason Statham started to develop a new movie written by David Peoples and Janet Peoples.
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In 2010, Jason Statham appeared alongside fellow action stars Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren and Mickey Rourke, among others, in the ensemble action film The Expendables.
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Jason Statham plays Lee Christmas, a former SAS soldier and expert at close quarters combat using knives.
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Jason Statham was then cast in the action film Killer Elite.
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Jason Statham played an assassin named Danny who comes out of retirement to save an old friend, played by Robert De Niro.
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Jason Statham played Parker, the criminal antihero previously played by Mel Gibson in 1999's Payback and by Lee Marvin in 1967's Point Blank.
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Jason Statham was signed on to reprise his role as Lee Christmas in The Expendables 2 in 2012.
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Jason Statham reprised the character, this time as the main antagonist, in Furious 7, which was released in April 2015.
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Jason Statham starred opposite James Franco in the thriller Homefront, written by Sylvester Stallone, and headlined the British thriller Hummingbird.
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The latter film was praised by critics for pushing Jason Statham's acting abilities to new heights.
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Jason Statham made a cameo in the 2014 music video Summer of Calvin Harris as one of the car racers.
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Jason Statham was nominated for the Critic's Choice Award for Best Actor in a Comedy for his role in Spy.
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Jason Statham was offered a three-film contract to reboot the Transporter series in late 2015, but turned it down because he was not given the script before the signing date and unhappy with its compensation package.
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Jason Statham played the lead, former Naval captain Jonas Taylor, in the 2018 action-horror film The Meg, which was released on 10 August.
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In 2022, Jason Statham established his own production company, Punch Palace Productions.
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Jason Statham himself cites Stallone, Bruce Lee, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, and Clint Eastwood as his inspirations.
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An article by Times Higher Education reported that Manchester University Press commissioned an academic study analysing the impact Jason Statham has had on the British and American film industries from his debut in 1998 to 2018.
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In 2003, Jason Statham appeared in three British television commercials for the Kit Kat chocolate bar.
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Jason Statham has been in a relationship with model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley since 2010.
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Jason Statham enjoys wakeboarding, jet skiing, wind surfing, and rock climbing.
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Jason Statham is known for performing many of his own stunts.
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In 2014, Jason Statham was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame.