Jason Statham is a British action star who started out as a football player at a local Grammar school and pursued his dream of becoming a diver five years later. He practiced his diving technique on a daily basis and became a member of the British National Diving Squad. He stayed on the squad for more than 12 years before being spotted and landing a gig as a model for the French Connection clothing brand.

It is during his time at the French Connection that Statham was introduced to Guy Richie, a new face in the directing arena at the time. Jason Statham was cast in Guy’s breakout movie in 1998, the hit, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. It was said that Statham landed the role because Guy heard of Statham’s years as a Black Market Salesman. It was with this movie that both Statham and Guy Richie catapulted to stardom.

Jason Statham got together with Guy again two years later to create the popular movie Snatch that also starred Brad Pitt and Benicio Del Toro. This movie went on to earn more than $80 million in Box-Office sales. This is when Statham wanted to try his hand at making it in Hollywood. The year after Snatch was released he received his first American movie role in Ghosts of Mars and then went on to play Evan Funsch in The One, next to Jet Li.

He then landed the lead in The Transporter, where he was able to do most of his own stunts because of his martial arts background. The movie became a huge hit and went into franchise with a sequel Transporter 2 in 2005 and another one, Transporter 3 in 2008. After the first Transporter however, he played Handsome Rob in the Italian Job next to Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, and Edward Norton. The Italian Job is set for a sequel but no date has been announced yet.

The actor went from action blockbuster to action blockbuster, starring in movies like Cellular, London, Revolver, Chaos, Crank and War, where he once again met up with Jet Li. In War, Jason Statham plays a detective who seeks revenge against a mysterious assassin for murdering his partner. 2008 saw the release of three Statham movies, namely The Bank Job, Death Race and Transporter 3, as mentioned earlier. It was in 2009 that Crank went into franchise and a sequel was born, named Crank High Voltage, where Jason reprised his role as Chev Chelios.

In 2010 Jason Statham landed a role in the Blockbuster hit The Expendables and starred next to Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Steve Austin of WWE fame, Gary Daniels, Mickey Rourke, and once again, Jet Li. The Expendables is set for a sequel in 2012 and Statham will reprise his role as Lee Christmas. The movie was written and directed by Sylvester Stallone who also wrote and directed movies like Rambo and Rocky Balboa. Statham released six movies during 2011 namely, The Mechanic, Gnomeo and Juliet, Blits, Safe, The Killer Elite, and Pretty, Baby, Machine.