Jason Michael Statham (; born 12 September 1972) is an English actor and martial artist, known for his roles in the Guy Ritchie crime films Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels; Revolver; and Snatch. Statham has appeared in supporting roles in several American films, such as The Italian Job, as well as playing the lead role in The Transporter, Crank, The Bank Job, War (opposite martial arts star Jet Li), and Death Race. He insists on doing all of his fight scenes himself.

Early life

Statham was born in Sydenham, London, the son of a lounge singer and dressmaker-turned-dancer. Statham has a son, Aaron North (b. 1990) from a two year marriage to Debbie North that ended in 1989. He later moved to Great Yarmouth, Norfolk and grew up initially following in his parents' footsteps to master the art of street theatre. He also played football for the local grammar school (1978-83), but his real passion was diving -- in particular, he finished 12th in the World Championships in 1992. He was also a member of Britain's National Diving Squad for twelve years.

Statham's life in media began when he was spotted by a talent agent specializing in athletes while training at London's Crystal Palace National Sports Centre. Afterwards, he became a model for the clothing brand French Connection. Statham is an expert of martial art Kickboxing.

Career

While working for French Connection, he was introduced to fledgling British director Guy Ritchie who was developing a film project and needed to fill the role of a street-wise con artist. After learning about Statham's past, Ritchie cast him to play the role of "Bacon" in Ritchie's breakout 1998 hit, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. at Filmbug The movie was well received by both critics and audiences, which helped catapult the unknown actor into the public eye. Statham's second collaboration with Ritchie came in the 2000 film Snatch. at the Internet Movie Database Cast alongside popular actors Brad Pitt, Dennis Farina and Benicio del Toro, and with the movie earning more than $80 million in box-office revenues, Statham was able to break into Hollywood and appeared in two movies in 2001: Ghosts of Mars and The One.

Statham was offered more film roles and in 2002 was cast as the lead role of driver Frank Martin in the action movie The Transporter, in which his background in martial arts enabled him to do most of his own stunts. A sequel, Transporter 2, followed in 2005 and a third Transporter film was released in 2008. He also appeared in supporting roles in The Italian Job (2003) (in which he played Handsome Rob) and Cellular (2004), and had a cameo in Collateral before taking the lead role in Crank (2006). Statham compares his role in Crank to his real life in the September 2006 issue of Maxim. In 2005, Statham was once again cast by Ritchie to star in his new project, Revolver. His most recent releases were the films In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, Transporter 3 and Crank: High Voltage.
thumb|right|Statham in 2006
In 2008, American film critic Armond White hailed Statham's ascension as the leading international action film star. On the occasion of Death Race, White championed Statham's "best track record of any contemporary movie star." Later in 2008, White praised Statham's Transporter 3 as a great example of kinetic pop art.

Statham is currently developing The Grabbers, written by David Peoples and Janet Peoples (Twelve Monkeys). Statham stated “We’ve got a movie we’re trying to do, written by David Peoples and Janet Peoples, in the vein of an old film, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. It’s not a remake or anything, but it’s a little bit like that, about relationships and how greed contaminates the relationships these three people have. The working title is The Grabbers."

Ritchie and Statham will reunite to work in a new musical, described as a cross between "Wurzel Gummidge and Bullitt", The Sun reports.

He will also star in the action film, The Killer Elite. According to Variety the film will be based on real events, which were the subject of Ranulph Fiennes' book The Feathermen. Statham will play a former Navy SEAL who comes out of retirement in order to save an old friend.

Filmography

Box office performance

Since 1998, Statham has appeared in over 20 films. Several have been box office hits, such as Snatch and The Bank Job. He has starred in two sets of film series, The Transporter and Crank. The films he has been in have grossed a total of more than $1 billion USD at the box office, with the highest individual film being Transporter 3.

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