Real Name: Dwayne Douglas Johnson
Birthday: 05/02/1972
Birthplace: Hayward, California, USA
Occupation: Actor
Sign: Taurus
Dwayne Douglas Johnson’s father is former professional wrestler 'Soulman' Rocky Johnson. His maternal grandfather was also a wrestler and Johnson would find himself traveling a lot during childhood, moving from Florida to Tennessee to Georgia and then Hawaii to watch his father perform in the ring.
The family eventually settled in Pennsylvania and Johnson excelled in sport at school, ranking as one the state's top ten high school football players.
Earning a scholarship to the University of Miami to study criminology, Johnson played in the football team and in 1991 was part of the Miami Hurricanes' National Championship team. An injury forced him to retire early though and despite initially enjoying the party life when he arrived, he met his future wife Dany Garcia - also attending the university. The two were married in 1997.
After graduating in 1995 Johnson was drafted by the Canadian Football League and moved to Calgary. Disenchanted by the prospect of making football a lifelong career option though, he left professional sport soon after and returned to Miami.
It was perhaps inevitable that the grandson and son of professional wrestlers would eventually follow suit. In 1996 Johnson made his debut as 'Flex Kavana' on the minor wrestling circuit. Moving then to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) he traded on his father's heritage and changed his stage name to Rocky Maivia (combining both his father's and grandather's ring names) but made the mistake of trying to retain a nice guy image. Realising this was never going to establish him as a top pro wrestler, Johnson dropped the nice act and re-invented himself as ‘The Rock’ in 1997. The brash bad boy persona did the trick and audiences responded quickly.
Johnson was pushed heavily from the start, despite his lack of in-ring experience, but won the Intercontinental Championship from Hunter Hearst Helmsley in February 1997, after only three months in the company. He soon became known as one of the most electrifying man in sports entertainment as The Rock. But it was more than his ability to 'layeth the smacketh down' in the wrestling ring that made Johnson an international superstar. His quick wit, charisma and ability to talk up the crowds earned him legions of loyal fans.
In July 2002, Johnson had won his record-breaking seventh and final WWE (replacing WWF) Championship, which was then under the banner of WWE Undisputed Championship. However when Mick Foley suffered injury and humiliation at the hands of Evolution in 2004, Johnson returned to wrestling to reform the Rock 'n' Sock Connection, and the two competed as a team at WrestleMania XX in a losing effort. That was the last time Johnson, known as 'the People's Champion', competed in a WWE ring.
Although Johnson is no longer active with WWE, the company still sells The Rock merchandise, and he continues to be featured prominently in the opening montages of their television programming.
In 1999, Johnson made the move from wrestling into acting when he was cast as his own father in an episode of the hit sitcom That '70s Show. However it was Johnson's appearance on Saturday Night Live in 2000 that truly made Hollywood take notice though. He showed viewers he was more than just a muscle man by willingly dressing in drag, singing in sketches and showing off his comedic abilities. Despite other past wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan having paved the way for such acting transition, it seemed Johnson actually had the talent to succeed.
Having fielded a variety of offers, Johnson made his feature acting debut as the Scorpion King in the 2001 sequel The Mummy Returns. Although his screen presence wasn't immense, Johnson displayed a strong potential to take his acting career further, so much so that the studio offered him his first lead role in The Scorpion King (2002) - a spin-off from the his character in The Mummy Returns. Laughing all the way to the bank, Johnson reportedly banked a $5.5 million dollar pay cheque.
Johnson was now poised to step into the void of action hero characters left open by aging stars like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Following his Scorpion King outing, critics and audiences were pleasantly surprised by Johnson's witty and charming turn in the crowd-pleasing action-comedy The Rundown (2003). The success of the film, paired with the fact he was still pulling in big screen roles three years after his acting adventure began finally established him as a fully-fledged movie star.
In June 2007, Johnson and his wife announced that they would be splitting up after 10 years of marriage.
No matter how much time he spends away from the ring though, Dwayne The Rock Johnson still remains one of the most beloved WWE wrestling champions and if his acting career continues to climb, he can be sure to have a wealth of fans of both talents, throughout the world.- Johnson is the first ever 7 time WWE World Champion.
- Johnson's favourite eyebrow trademark (not including his own) is Groucho Marx's.
- Johnson owns the rights to name 'The Rock' (including logos, phrases, etc).
- Johnson is the third youngest superstar to hold the IC Championship. Jeff Hardy is the youngest at 23, and Randy Orton is the second youngest, also at 23, only a few months older than Hardy.
- Johnson's cousin, Tanoai Reed, is his stunt double for many of his movies.
- Johnson has a fear of spiders.
- In 2006, he donated $2 million to the University of Miami.
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