People | June 08, 2015 03:44 PM EDT
50 Interesting Facts About Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson
Dwayne Johnson is a Canadian and American actor, professional wrestler and producer. Here are some 50 interesting facts about him.
- His full name is Dwayne Douglas Johnson.
- He is famously known by his wrestling ring name The Rock.
- He was born to Ata Johnson (a descendant of Samoan heritage) and professional wrestler Rocky Johnson on 2 May, 1972 in Hayward, California.
- He lived with his mother’s family in Auckland, New Zeeland for some time in his early days. In the later years he was bestowed with noble title of Seiuli by the Samoan people and received a partial Samoan tattoo in his left arm.
- During his stay in Auckland he attended Richmond Road Primary School before returning to United States.
- He completed his grade 10 in Honolulu, Hawaii. But was required to relocate to Pennsylvania due to his father’s job.
- Freedom High school is where he started playing football and taking part in the schools track and field and wrestling games. He was considered as a very good football prospect.
- Many division I leagues offered him place in the team but he chose to do full scholarship from the University of Miami. Soon in 1992 he was selected in Miami Hurricanes national championship team.
- He graduated with a Bachelor of General Studies in Criminology and physiology in the Year 1995 from the University of Miami.
- He joined one of the clubs in Canadian Football League, Calgary Stampeders in the same year as a backup linebacker.
- He met his wife Dany Garcia in University of Miami while pursuing his degree. Having dated for years he didn’t meet her parents until before his marriage. He married her a day after his 25th birthday.
- They have a daughter Simone Alexandra, born on 14 August, 2001. In 2007 Johnson spilt with his wife amicably vouching to be good friends all their lives.
- Johnson wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and join professional wrestling. Initially his father was against it but then decided to train him himself.
- The Wrestling seemed to run in the family as most of his non-blood relatives were famous professional wrestlers including his cousins Solofa (Rikishi), Rodney (Yokozuna), Eddie (Umaga) and his uncles Afa and Sika Anoai ( The Wild Samoans).
- In the year 1996, he got tryout matches with the help of Pat Patterson, a veteran wrestler. He won against The Brooklyn Brawler but lost to Chris Candido and Owen Hart.
- He initially began wrestling under his real name but changed to “Flex Kavana” in “United States Wrestling Association.”
- He won the “World Tag Team Championship” twice with Bart Sawyer there and signed the WWF contract.
- He started his career in WWF under the name “Rocky Maivia” which he disliked. This was the combination of his father and grandfather’s ring name. He was given the character face (good guy) and was pushed heavily despite his inexperience in the field.
- He made his debut in November 1996 in the “Survivor Series” in an eight man elimination tag team and was the sole survivor. Despite his victory, fans rejected him due to his character in the ring.
- He defeated Hunter Hearst Helmsley on Monday Night Raw to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship. He successfully defended his title in the forthcoming matches but always received “Die, Rocky Die” and “Rocky Sucks” chants. Audiences disliked the Maivia despite being a face.
- He lost the championship belt to Owen Hart on 28 April, 1997 and suffered a knee injury which kept him out of the profession for some time. This worked in his favor as he returned as a heel (bad guy).
- The change of character also brought about change in his ring name. He preferred to call himself in the third person as “The Rock”.
- As his success in Wrestling grew he also set foot in the music world. In the year 2000, he appeared briefly in Wyclef jean’s single “It doesn’t Matter” and in its video too. He also recorded for WWF The Music, Vol 5.
- He even hosted Saturday Night Live with fellow wrestlers Mike Foley, Triple H and The Big Show appearing in the show. He attributes the success of this show for him receiving offers from Hollywood studios.
- Johnson had a guest role in Star Trek: Voyager as an alien that uses his famous move the Rock Bottom. He even stared as his father Rocky Johnson in That 70’s Show.
- His debut in the major motion picture was in the movie “The Mummy Returns” as “The Scorpion King”. The movie was financially very successful. This resulted in him getting the leading role in the spinoff “The Scorpion King”.
- In 2007, he was listed in the Guinness World Records as the highest paid actor in his debut film, $5.5million for the leading role.
- Johnson was also considered for the leading role of “Johnny Bravo” in the movie of the same name, but the movie was shelved in the production stage.
- In the movie “The Scorpion King” where he and fellow actor Michael Clark Duncan fought, the swords broke which was unintentional. He later termed it as dangerous as it wasn’t planned and anyone could have got hurt.
- Not surprising that Johnson as any other movie star used stunt double to avoid injuries. Surprising fact is that he used his own cousin Tanoai Reed in most of his films.
- He acted in the movie “The Game Plan” as a famous football player Joe Kingman. He had stated that this would be the last movie where he will be credited as “The Rock”.
- In the movie he suffered a separated shoulder injury that keeps him out of the big game. In real life too he suffered the same while playing the defensive tackle in a football game for University Of Miami in the year 1991.
- Johnson is a huge Elvis Presley fan and he brought that to his character in the movie too. He came up with this idea and the director accepted it. Most of the Elvis memorabilia shown in the movie originally belongs to Johnson.
- Johnson suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon during a football practice session and that pushed the production to several months.
- In the movie he sang “Are you lonesome tonight.” Incidentally he sang it in the show Saturday Night Live when he hosted it for the first time.
- Johnson presented the award for best visual effects in the 80 Academy Awards in 2008.
- He was nominated for best actor role in the movie “The Game Plan” at Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards but, was piped by Johnny Depp in “Pirates of Caribbean- At World’s End.”
- Johnson appeared as Luke Hobbs in the Fifth installment of the “Fast and Furious” series. This was mostly because Vin Diesel received many comments where audiences wanted to see both of them together in a movie.
- With his inclusion the movie created a sort of record grossing $86 million in the opening weekend. This being the biggest opening for Johnson as well as the movie franchise.
- He has expressed his desire to be a villain in a James Bond movie following his grandfather’s footsteps. Peter Maivia played as a villain in the movie “You Only Live Twice” in 1967.
- Johnson played the character Roadblock in the movie “G.I.Joe Retaliation” in 2013. He is the second WWF star to play a Joe in a movie. The first being Robert Remus.
- The famous dialogue of the wrestler The Rock is - “If You Smell What the Rock Is Cooking.” According to the original comics the character Roadblock is a chef.
- He was considered for the role of Willie Wonka in “Charlie and the Chocolate factory” but the role went to Johnny Depp.
- After making big in the film industry he fulfilled his dream by presenting his parents with a house. First time he ever bought anything for himself was a Rolex watch.
- He was recently honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- In the year 2006, he founded Dwayne Johnson Rock Foundation for betterment of terminally ill children.
- In 2007, he along with his ex-wife donated a million dollar to the University of Miami for renovation of its football facility. This is the largest donation to the university by its former students.
- Johnson co-authored his autobiography titled “The Rock Says” in 2000. It stayed as the number one best seller in The New York Times Best Sellers List for several weeks.
- In December 2013, he was named by Forbes as the Top Grossing actor of the year. They attributed it to the success of “Fast and Furious 6” and his regular acting work.
- On May 21, 2015, he was again in the Guinness World Records for most selfies within 3 minutes, during the Premiere of his latest movie San Andreas, when he took 105 selfies with his fans.
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