Jason Statham
☼ Born on 26 December 1967, in Shirebrook, Derbyshire, England, UK
Biography
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
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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.
In the role of actor
The Beekeeper (11/01/2024)
A retired black-ops assassin seeks revenge against a predatory phishing ring in The Beekeeper. Adam Clay (Jason Statham) has been living a quiet life working as a beekeeper on the farm of Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad). However, Eloise falls victim to a computer phishing scam, which empties her accounts, including over $2 million in charity […]
Expend4bles (21/09/2023)
The elite team of mercenaries fight to prevent the start of World War III in Expend4bles. The Expendables mercenary team consisting of Barney Ross (Sylvester Stalone), Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), Toll Road (Randy Couture), and new members Easy Day (Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson) and Galan (Jacob Scipio) are assigned by their […]
Fast X (17/05/2023)
It is the beginning of the end of The Fast Saga with Fast X. While enjoying family life with Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez) and his son Little Brian (Leo Abelo Perry), Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) is visited by a bloody Cipher (Charlize Theron). The Cipher’s criminal organization was hostility taken over by Dante Reyes (Jason […]
Fast & Furious Presents Hobbs & Shaw (01/08/2019)
The bitter rivals have to team together to save the world in Fast & Furious Presents Hobbs & Shaw. Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) is called in by the CIA and forced to reluctantly team with his hated rival Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) to recover a killer virus that was supposed stolen by a rogue MI6 […]
The Fate of the Furious (19/04/2017)
Dominic Toretto seemingly turns his back on family in The Fate of the Furious. While on honeymoon in Cuba with Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez), Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) is approached by cyberterrorist Cipher (Charlize Theron), who blackmails Dom into betraying his family, which he does while performing a job for Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson). After the […]
The Expendables 3 (18/08/2014)
The team of mercenaries recruit new blood to face an old foe in The Expendables 3. After freeing imprisoned Expendables member Doc (Wesley Snipes), Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) leads his team of Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), Toll Road (Randy Couture), and Hale Caesar (Terry Crews) to intercept an arms deal. Barney […]
Blindspot 2014: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (20/04/2014)
For this month’s blindspot, I go back to 1998 and the debut film of British director Guy Ritchie, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. Four friends, Eddie (Nick Moran), Tom (Jason Flemyng), Bacon (Jason Statham), and Soap (Dexter Fletcher), pool together £100,000 as the buy-in for a high-stakes card game Eddie is playing against crime […]
The Expendables 2 (18/08/2012)
When The Expendables came out in 2010, it was advertised as being the ultimate all-star action film. While it still turned out OK enough, it didn’t really turn out to be the film that it was hyped up to be. The Expendables 2, on the other hand, is exactly the film that I was expecting the […]
The Job (06/05/2012)
For my final film of Hot Docs, I saw this French documentary that filmed the recruitment process for an insurance company. Ten job seekers come in for the job, not even being told what it is, and they go through a recruitment process that I can best describe as both shocking and enthralling. To call […]
The Expendables (15/08/2010)
Considering all the hype that went into this film, it end up with more a whimper than a bang. It was alright enough a film, but it was a far cry from “the action film to end all action films.” Probably the most hyped scene in the movie that united Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, and […]
Crank: High Voltage (18/04/2009)
Sigh. It’s always disappointing when you see a film you were expecting to like and it ended up not being what you expected. It really seems they were trying hard to create a sequel to a film that had as complete an ending that you could think of. The result is a film that throws […]