Dwayne Johnson

DWAYNE JOHNSON

Dwayne Johnson

World Famous People -  Dwayne Johnson first rose to fame as "The Rock", a popular wrestling figure. He went on to become a box-office star, appearing in films including 'The Scorpion King,' 'Hercules' and 'The Fast and the Furious' franchise. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was born into a professional wrestling family in 1972. An injury ended his college football career, so he entered the ring with WWE.

As "The Rock," he famously feuded with wrestler Steve Austin and won the WWE Heavyweight title multiple times. Johnson then parlayed his wrestling fame into a film career, appearing in projects such as 2001's The Mummy Returns and 2010's Tooth Fairy. Later projects include the HBO series Ballers and starring roles in The Fast and the Furious and Jumanji franchises as well as voice acting as a demi-human the god Maui in Moana. 

Johnson was born on May 2, 1972, in Hayward, California. The grandson of professional wrestler Peter "High Chief" Fanene Maivia and the son of wrestler Rocky Johnson, young Johnson grew up watching his father perform in the ring. With no plans to follow in his footsteps, Johnson played college football at the University of Miami, showing promise with his size and athleticism until hampered by injuries. With few prospects in professional football, Johnson turned to wrestling, making his WWE debut against Brooklyn Brawler in Texas. After several more matches, including a tag team win with Bart Sawyer, WWE signed him under the name Flex Kavana. 

A year later, he joined The Nation of Domination, eventually assuming its leadership and naming himself The Rock. He then joined another group of elite wrestlers known as The Corporation and began a famous feud with Steve Austin. Also known as "The People's Champ", The Rock went on to win a total of 17 WWE titles during his illustrious career. Outside the wrestling ring, The Rock launched a successful acting career, dropping the stage name and simply using Dwayne Johnson. He first made a splash as the supernatural villain Scorpion King in 2001's The Mummy Returns. 

Johnson returned to the role the following year for The Scorpion King. Dabbling in comedy, he appeared in Be Cool with John Travolta and Uma Thurman in 2005 and The Game Plan in 2007. Johnson's acting career continued to grow through his appearances in films such as Driver (2010) and Fast & Furious 6 (2013). 

In 2014, he played the titular strongman in Hercules. Johnson has also returned to wrestling from time to time, including his 2014 appearance with Hulk Hogan and Stone Cold Steve Austin at WrestleMania 30. HBO's 'Ballers' In 2015, Johnson dominated the big screen with two major action films. He appeared in Furious Seven and starred in San Andreas. Johnson also debuted his first dramatic comedy series that same year, playing Spencer Strasmore, a retired professional footballer turned financial planner, in Ballers. 

In 2016, teaming with Kevin Hart for the action comedy Central Intelligence, Johnson voiced the demigod Maui for Disney's hit animated film Moana. He was a busy man in 2017, taking on the lead role in The Fate of the Furious, a big screen adaptation of the 1990s lifeguard series Baywatch and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. 

Until 2018, with Jumanji increasing ticket sales to become the actor's highest-grossing film to date. He also managed to stand out during the advertising blitz that accompanied the Super Bowl in February, debuting the trailer for the film Skyscraper, in which he took part in a death-defying stunt with a prosthetic leg. At the same time, Johnson announced that he would host a 10-episode unscripted competition show, The Titan Games, to "create a platform that gives ordinary people the opportunity to change their lives and do something extraordinary." The next action star is Rampage, based on the popular 1980s arcade game, which hits theaters a few months before the release of Skyscraper in July. Johnson returned to her wrestling roots by appearing as herself in Fighting with My Family (2019), based on the true story of women's wrestling champion Saraya "Paige" Bevis. 

Later that year, he returned to action mode with the Fast & Furious spin-off Hobbs & Shaw, alongside Jason Statham. In 2021, Young Rock, a television series about Johnson's life, premiered. The show stars Johnson and another actor who plays the younger version of the actor. 

In August 2020, Johnson announced that he was teaming up with his wife and a sports management company to buy the XFL, which had gone bankrupt earlier in the year, for $15.