Vincent Peter Jones was born on 5 January 1965 and is a British actor, presenter, and former professional footballer.
43 Facts About Vinnie Jones
2.
Vinnie Jones played professionally as a defensive midfielder from 1984 to 1999, notably for Wimbledon, Leeds United, Sheffield United, Chelsea, and Queens Park Rangers.
3.
Vinnie Jones played for and captained the Welsh national team, having qualified through a Welsh grandparent.
4.
Vinnie Jones played 184 games in the Premier League, in which he scored 13 goals.
5.
Vincent Peter Vinnie Jones was born on 5 January 1965, in Watford, Hertfordshire, the son of Glenda and gamekeeper Peter Vinnie Jones.
6.
Vinnie Jones attended schools in nearby Bedmond and Abbots Langley, and captained his school's football team, and played for his local football team in the village of Bedmond, in the Three Rivers District of Hertfordshire.
7.
Vinnie Jones's grandmother was Welsh, which later qualified him to play for Wales.
8.
Vinnie Jones combined playing football with working as a hod carrier on construction sites.
9.
Vinnie Jones played one season on loan with Swedish club IFK Holmsund in 1986, helping to lead the team to the Division 3 Mellersta Norrland title.
10.
Wimbledon cemented their status as a formidable First Division side during this time, with Vinnie Jones making his name as an enthusiastic and uncompromisingly tough midfielder and a leading member of Wimbledon's famed Crazy Gang.
11.
Vinnie Jones proved he could thrive, and under the stewardship of Howard Wilkinson, he received only three yellow cards during the entire season.
12.
Vinnie Jones played a total of 35 matches for The Blades in the First Division, scoring two goals.
13.
Vinnie Jones went on to make 52 total appearances for Chelsea, scoring 7 goals and receiving only 3 yellow cards.
14.
Vinnie Jones announced his retirement from football in late 1998 at the age of 34.
15.
In December 1994 Vinnie Jones was named in the Welsh national squad, qualifying under FIFA rules via his Ruthin-born maternal grandfather.
16.
Vinnie Jones had previously sought to play for the Republic of Ireland due to eligibility through a grandparent.
17.
Vinnie Jones was known for his "hard man" image on the pitch.
18.
Vinnie Jones was sent off 12 times in his career, as well as holding the record for the quickest ever booking in a football match, being booked after just five seconds for a foul on the opposition player Dane Whitehouse, in an FA Cup tie between Chelsea and Sheffield United in 1992.
19.
Vinnie Jones was the presenter of the infamous Soccer's Hard Men video released in 1992, which featured archived footage of him and many other "hard men" of the game, and included advice for budding "hard men".
20.
Vinnie Jones explained that he had "mixed up" the date of the hearing, for which he received a four-match ban and was told by Football Association officials to "grow up".
21.
Vinnie Jones made an appearance for Carlisle United, coming on as a second-half substitute in 2001 in a friendly against Irish team Shelbourne, teaming up with friend Roddy Collins who was manager at the time.
22.
Vinnie Jones briefly served as club president of non-league Soham Town Rangers.
23.
In 2020, Vinnie Jones appeared on the ITV show Harry's Heroes, It featured former football manager Harry Redknapp attempting get a squad of former England international footballers back fit and healthy for one last game, vs a Germany Legends team.
24.
In 1998, Vinnie Jones made his film debut in Guy Ritchie's crime comedy Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, in which he played a mob enforcer named Big Chris.
25.
Vinnie Jones has since been typecast in similar roles as criminals or villains, including the dapper gun-for-hire "Bullet-Tooth Tony" in Guy Ritchie's 2000 follow up Snatch, for which Jones won the Best British Actor at the 6th Empire Awards in 2001.
26.
Vinnie Jones became known to American audiences in the 2000 film remake of Gone in 60 Seconds, in which he played Sphinx.
27.
Vinnie Jones teamed up with director Dominic Sena again the following year for the thriller Swordfish, in which he played one of John Travolta's henchmen.
28.
Vinnie Jones played Danny Meehan in Mean Machine, a 2001 British remake of the Burt Reynolds film The Longest Yard.
29.
Vinnie Jones played a former captain of the England national football team, who is sent to prison and subsequently takes control of a team of inmates who play against the prison guards' team.
30.
Vinnie Jones played another football role as Mad Maynard, the leader of a Manchester United football hooligan firm, in the 2004 film EuroTrip.
31.
Vinnie Jones said that he would like to play Juggernaut in a spin-off.
32.
Vinnie Jones was a housemate on the reality television show Celebrity Big Brother 7 in 2010, and celebrated his 45th birthday while he participated.
33.
Vinnie Jones received loud cheers as he entered the house and was the favourite to win going into the house, but he did not maintain popularity with the public; the crowd chanted "get Vinnie out" on the final night and booed him as he left the house after he finished in third place.
34.
Vinnie Jones played a professional killer in the Kazakhstani film Liquidator in 2011.
35.
Vinnie Jones's character is an elite assassin invited to eliminate the main character.
36.
Vinnie Jones played a role in the Hungarian film The Magic Boys in 2012.
37.
Vinnie Jones co-starred alongside Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the action-thriller Escape Plan, released in 2013, and was featured with Danny Trejo in the 2014 horror-thriller Reaper.
38.
In 2021, Vinnie Jones competed in the third season of the Australian version of The Masked Singer as "Volcano".
39.
In November 2013, Vinnie Jones received treatment after finding signs of skin cancer below his eye.
40.
Vinnie Jones was at her bedside during her death of cancer on 6 July 2019.
41.
Vinnie Jones discussed her death during an appearance on Piers Morgan's Life Stories in September 2020, and said that he does not plan to remarry.
42.
In 1998, Jones penned an autobiography called Vinnie: The Autobiography, which was later revised and reprinted to include information on his first film appearance.
43.
Vinnie Jones is a supporter of the Conservative Party and once described himself as "very proud of being British, very pro the monarchy, and very conservative".