Jason Statham

Jason Statham born July 26 1967 is an English actor He is known for portraying characters in various actionthriller films who are typically tough hardboiled gritty or violent Statham began practicing Chinese martial arts kickboxing and karate recreationally in his youth while working at local market stalls An avid footballer and diver he was a member of Britains national diving team and competed for England in the 1990 Commonwealth Games Shortly after he was asked to model for French Connection Tommy Hilfiger and Levis in various advertising campaigns His past history working at market stalls inspired his casting in the Guy Ritchie crime films Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels 1998 and Snatch 2000 The commercial success of these films led Statham to star as Frank Martin in the Transporter trilogy 20022008 After starring in a variety of heist and actionthriller films such as The Italian Job 2003 Crank 2006 War 2007 The Bank Job 2008 The Mechanic 2011 Spy 2015 and Mechanic Resurrection 2016 he established himself as a Hollywood leading man However he has also starred in commercially and critically unsuccessful films such as Revolver 2005 Chaos 2005 In the Name of the King 2007 13 2010 Blitz 2011 Killer Elite 2011 Hummingbird 2013 and Wild Card 2015 He regained commercial success as a part of the ensemble action series The Expendables 20102014 and the Fast Furious franchise In the latter he has played Deckard Shaw in Fast Furious 6 2013 Furious 7 2015 The Fate of the Furious 2017 F9 2021 and the spinoff Fast Furious Presents Hobbs Shaw 2019 He was credited as a coproducer on Hobbs Shaw receiving his first production credit His acting has been criticized for lacking depth and variety but he has also been praised for leading the resurgence of action films during the 2000s and 2010s According to a BBC News report his film career from 2002 to 2017 generated an estimated 15 billion 11 billion in ticket sales making him one of the film industrys most bankable stars