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No
Encounters at this time
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Before They
Were Celebrities They Were Bouncers |
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Jesse
James
the host of TV's Monster Garage without being too
obsequivious. Lots of insight into the creative
process behind some of the most sought after custom
chopper currently on the market. Who would've known
that Jesse James, the television personality started
his career as a barroom bouncer. Filled with
hundreds of candid personal photos and hard to find
rare pictures of Jesse's early custom motorcycle
creations. |
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Vin
Diesel
was born Mark
Sinclair Vincent on July 18, 1967 in New York City.
He was raised in Greenwich Village by his mother
Delora who is a psychologist and stepfather Irving
Vincent, a teacher. Vin Diesel's name actually came
from a job he had as a bouncer. As he
once explained, bouncers usually don't give out
their real names and he went by Vin Diesel as a
bouncer. That name eventually stuck. He got involved
in acting at an early age. At the age of seven he
was involved in "Theatre for the New City" in
Greenwich Village doing stage work. Diesel is
multiethic and is part African-American, Italian and
Scottish. Vin has a fraternal twin brother, Paul
Vincent who is younger by fourteen minutes. Paul
Vincent is also involved in the movie industry and
works as a film editor. |
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Michael Clarke Duncan
at 6'5" and in excess of 300 pounds, cuts an
imposing figure and it comes as no surprise that his
resume includes stints working in security. But this
gentle giant, a jovial man with a warm personality
and keen sense of humor proved his mettle as a
screen actor with his powerful performance as the
death row inmate John Coffey in "The Green Mile"
(1999), Frank Darabont's adaptation of the Stephen
King novel. The Chicago native was encouraged by his
mother to pursue acting, and despite obtaining a
college degree in communications, Duncan found
himself digging ditches for the local gas company.
Moonlighting as a bouncer and guard at
various clubs on the city's South Side, he met one
of the producers of the touring stage show, "Beauty
Shop, Part 2" and was hired as the producer's
personal security. Although he often asked for the
opportunity to act in the play, the producer would
not let him. |
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Jean Claude Van Damme's
life story has the perfect makings for a
mid-afternoon soap opera. Growing up he was by all
reports, a very awkward child. He was short, thin,
wore glasses and was in the ballet. It's hard to
believe that this nerdy little kid would grow into a
martial arts super star. He started martial arts at
the age of 11, his father introduced him to martial
arts when he saw that Van Damme was physically weak.
Jean-Claude started with Shotokan Karate. He later
studied Kickboxing, Taekwon-Do, and Muay Thai.
He took English
classes while working as carpet layer, pizza
delivery man, limo driver, and thanks to Chuck
Norris he got a job as a bouncer at a
club. He gave Van Damme a small role in the movie
'Missing in Action', but it wasn't good enough to
get anybody's attention. Then in 1984 he got a role
as a villain named Ivan in the low-budget movie _No
Retreat, No Surrender (1985). |
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Danny
Aiello
An
Italian-American character actor with a beefy
physique, no-nonsense expression, and intimidating
presence, Danny Aiello came to acting late in life,
having been a bus driver, a transport labor
official, a night-club bouncer, and (he claims) an
occasional thief. Aiello made his screen debut in
Bang the Drum Slowly (1973), and he went on over the
next 15 years to play a succession of tough guys,
cops, brutes, slobs, and "ordinary guys" in a wide
variety of movies, but broke out of that mold when
he portrayed Cher's fiancée in
Moonstruck
(1987).
For his portrayal
of a pizza parlor owner in Spike Lee's Do the Right
Thing two years later, Aiello received a Best
Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. He went on to
become one Hollywood's more prolific character
actors; between 1989 and 1996, he appeared in 26
feature films. |
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Alec Baldwin |
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Forest
Whitaker
Oscar-winning
actor FOREST WHITAKER was stabbed while working as a
doorman at a nightclub - but lived to tell the tale.
The
Last King of Scotland star is used to violence on
the movie set - acting in
films
such as Blown Away and The Shield - but wasn't so
happy when he sustained a multitude of injuries in
real-life.
He says, "In real
life - from when I used to do a bit of bouncing - I
have been stabbed a few times. "It was a guy who was
a little... I don't really want to talk about it. He
was just pissed (annoyed) at something going on and
I was trying to control him, so ultimately he pulled
a knife on me. I've got stabs and bites from people.
I haven't been shot though!" |
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Mr.T
actor,
performer. Born Laurence Tero Tureaud on May 21,
1952, in Chicago, Illinois, as the youngest boy in a
family of 12 children. His father was a minister who
left the family when Tureaud was only five years
old, leaving his mother to raise him and his
siblings.
A constant
daydreamer, Tureaud's head-in-the-clouds attitude
earned him average grades. Instead, he excelled at
athletics and became a football star and three-time
wrestling champion in high school. Upon graduation,
Tureaud won a scholarship to play football for the
Prairie View A&M University Panthers in Prairie
View, Texas. In 1971, he decided to attend Prairie
View and pursue a bachelor's degree in mathematics.
He was expelled after only one year.
Deciding
school was not for him, Tureaud became a military
policeman in the U.S. Army. After his short stint in
the military, Tureaud decided to try out for the
Green Bay Packers, a professional football team in
Green Bay, Wisconsin. A debilitating knee injury
kept him from making the team.
In the mid
70s, Tureaud returned to Chicago and found a job as
a doorman. His days as a military policeman helped
him gain a reputation as one of Chicago's toughest,
and most infamous, bouncers. Always the consummate
showman, Tureaud adopted a Mohawk hairstyle inspired
by a National Geographic photo of an
African Mandikan warrior. He started sporting piles
of gold jewelry, which he claimed to have taken from
misbehaving customers. He also adopted the name Mr.
T, claiming the new moniker would force customers to
show him respect.
Mr. T's
position as a bouncer for one of Chicago's hottest
nightclubs frequently put him in contact with
celebrities. His outrageous reputation and his
famous connections earned Mr. T the new job of
celebrity bodyguard. Charging more than $3,000 a
night, Mr. T began protecting stars such as Steve
McQueen, Diana Ross, and Muhammad Ali. The job
lasted nearly ten years, until a chance meeting with
actor Sylvester Stallone in 1980 changed everything.
After spotting
Mr. T on a televised bouncer competition, Stallone
decided to cast the bodyguard in his film, Rocky
III (1982). Mr. T played Clubber Lang, a boxer
pitted against the film's main character, Rocky
Balboa. It was during the filming of this movie that
Mr. T coined the catch phrase "I pity the fool!" The
film became a blockbuster hit, grossing over $125
million at the box office. Audiences loved Mr. T's
over-the-top character, and his performance made him
an overnight sensation. |
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Al Capone
is one of the
most recognized names in American history. Alphonse
was born to Neapolitan immigrants Gabriel and
Teresa. His surname, originally Caponi, had been
Americanized to "Capone". The Capone family included
James, Ralph, Salvatore (Frank), Alphonse, John,
Albert, Matthew, Rose and Mafalda. Capone was proud
to be an American "I'm no Italian. I was born in
Brooklyn", he often said. At fourteen he quit school
after striking a teacher. Capone and Lucky Luciano
joined a gang known as the Five Pointers, on
Manhattan's Lower East Side. Capone worked for Frank
Yale, president of the Unione Siciliane, as a
bouncer and bartender. One night he made a remark
about the sister of Frank Galluciano, and Galluciano
slashed Capone's face with a pocket knife, leaving
three large scars on the left side of his face. For
much of his criminal career, newspapers would call
Capone by the hated name "Scarface". Incredibly,
Capone choose to forgive Galluciano and, years
later, hired him as a bodyguard. |
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