Jason Statham Biography

Jason Statham was born on 26 July 1967, to Eileen Yates, a dancer, and Barry Statham, a street seller and lounge singer. Footballer Vinnie Jones was his childhood friend. He played football at grammar school.

He was a member of Britain’s National Diving Squad for 12 years, competing on the 10-meter platform and the 3-meter springboard. He finished 12th in platform diving in the 1992 World Championships.

Jason Statham came into the limelight when the agency Sports Promotions spotted him while training at London’s Crystal Palace National Sports Centre. Later, he became a model for the clothing brand French Connection.

In order to make ends meet, he was forced to follow in his father’s footsteps, and took to selling fake perfume and jewelry on street corners—something he never wanted to do.

From 1993 to 1995, he made appearances in music videos including Comin’ On Strong by The Shamen, Run to the Sun by Erasure and Dream a Little Dream of Me by The Beautiful South.

Jason Statham collaborated with Guy Ritchie in the 2000 movie Snatch in which he played the role of Turkish alongside popular actors like Brad Pitt, Dennis Farina, and Benicio del Toro.

With Snatch, he was able to break into Hollywood. In 2001, he appeared in two movies: Ghosts of Mars and The One. His impressive performance helped him in getting more roles.

From 2002 to 2004, Jason Statham played supporting roles in a number of movies, including Mean Machine. In The Italian Job he played Handsome Rob and portrayed the lead villain in Cellular.

In 2006, he played a dramatic role in the film London. He played Chev Chelios in the action film Crank and in its sequel Crank: High Voltage.

In 2008, he appeared in the crime thriller The Bank Job, and was then seen in Death Race, a remake of Death Race 2000. He was hailed as the leading action film star.

In 2010, he appeared in The Expendables alongside action stars Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li, and Mickey Rourke. Jason Statham played Lee Christmas, a former SAS soldier and expert at close quarters combat.

In 2011, he starred in the remake of the Charles Bronson film, The Mechanic. He then acted in the British film Blitz, a police drama.

He played an assassin named Danny in Killer Elite, who comes out of retirement to save his friend played by Robert De Niro. It was based on real events from Sir Ranulph Fiennes’ fictional novel The Feather Men.

His 2012 releases were The Expendables 2, in which he reprised his character Lee Christmas, and Safe. He also had a cameo role in Fast & Furious 6.

He starred as the antihero in Parker, directed by Taylor Hackford, and released in 2013. From 2015 to 2019, he was seen in movies like Furious 7, Mechanic: Resurrection, The Meg, and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw. In 2021, he played Hargreaves in the action thriller heist film Wrath of Man.

Jason Statham got his first major break in 1998 by Guy Ritchie in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels which was well-received.

In 2002, he played Frank Martin in The Transporter. He performed all his stunts himself as he had studied Wing Chun kung fu, karate, and kickboxing. He reprised his role in Transporter 2 and Transporter 3.

Jason Statham dated British model-turned-presenter and screen actress, Kelly Brook, for seven years, and later Sophie Monk, an Australian singer/actress and former member of popular music group, Bardot. He also dated Alex Zosman.

Since 2010, he has been dating English model and actress, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, 20 years his junior. The news became public after they were seen attending the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival together. In January 2016, Statham and Rosie announced their engagement. In June 2017, they welcomed their son Jack Oscar.

Jason Statham was once a member of Britain's National Diving Squad and competed in the World Championships.