Before rocketing to stardom in one of Hollywood’s most beloved film franchises, this famous actor was best known for his impressive dance moves.
In the 1980s, this artist spent his youth break dancing in Columbus Circle and, across town, in Washington Square Park.
In a resurfaced video of the artist instructing others on how to break dance, he looks completely unrecognizable without his trademark bald head and ripped physique.
While his muscles could now rival those of a professional bodybuilder, the boy in the video was just a tall, lanky teenager trying to impress the audience by doing the upside-down worm on the ground.
Can you guess who the ambitious young man with the sweatband on his head is?
Before rocketing to stardom in one of Hollywood’s most beloved film franchises, this famous actor was best known for his dance moves.
In the 1980s, this artist spent his youth break dancing on Columbus Circle in Columbus Circle and, across town, in Washington Square Park.
It’s Vin Diesel! He is best known for his role as Dominic Toretto in the Fast & Furious franchise, alongside the late Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster and Tyrese Gibson.
Over the years, the 56-year-old father of three has talked about his past as a break dancer on several talk shows, including an appearance on the Tonight Show With Jay Leno in 2011.
After Leno pulled out the VHS tape showing a group of young dancers, including a baby-faced Diesel, the actor began laughing as he called that period of his life “the good old days.”
Four years later, Kelly Ripa and her then-cohost Michael Strahan pulled out the same old tape and asked what it was like to be a street performer.
“It was my first concert,” he said. “Those are the good days… people know I was a bouncer, but the real reason I started doing it was because I loved to dance and I danced for free.”
In 2021, Jimmy Fallon asked about the video and asked Diesel if he remembered making it.
‘Yes, I remember doing this. It was the highlight of my life!’ she reflected.
Diesel made his stage debut at age seven, at the Theater for the New City in Greenwich Village, when he appeared in the children’s play Dinosaur Door.
It’s Vin Diesel! He is best known for his role as Dominic Toretto in the Fast & Furious franchise, alongside the late Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster and Tyrese Gibson.
The star appears with Walker in 2001’s The Fast And The Furious.
According to the Vin Diesel Handbook, he broke into the theater with his brother and friends with the intention of destroying it.
After being caught by a play director, they were offered roles in the next show instead of having the police call them.
He continued to be involved with theater while attending Hunter College, where he studied creative writing, for three years.
At the time he worked at a nightclub called The Tunnel.
Diesel, considered one of the highest-grossing actors in the world, rose to fame after appearing in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan in 1998.
He then landed films like Boiler Room, The Pacifier, Find Me Guilty as well as voice work for video games like The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, and the voices of Groot I. and Groot. II in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).