Paul William Walker IV (September 12, 1973 – November 30, 2013) was an American
actor who began his career guest-starring in several
television shows such as
The Young and the Restless and
Touched by an Angel. Walker gained prominence with breakout roles in
coming-of-age and
teen films such as
She's All That and
Varsity Blues. In 2001, Walker gained international fame for playing
Brian O'Conner, one of the lead
protagonists in the
street racing action film
The Fast and the Furious, and would reprise the role in five of its
six sequels. He was also in films such as
Eight Below,
Timeline,
Into the Blue,
Joy Ride and
Running Scared. http://www.ultrahdwallpaper.in/
Outside of acting, Walker was the face of
The Coty Prestige fragrance brand
Davidoff Cool Water for Men, and starred in the
National Geographic Channel series,
Expedition Great White. He also founded the charity
Reach Out Worldwide (ROWW), an organization providing relief efforts for areas affected by
natural disasters.
Walker died in a
single-car accident on November 30, 2013, alongside friend Roger Rodas. Three of his films were released posthumously:
Hours,
Brick Mansions, and
Furious 7, which was released on April 3, 2015 in the
United States and the
United Kingdom. The song "
See You Again" by
Wiz Khalifa0 from the
Furious 7 soundtrack was a tribute to Walker. http://www.ultrahdwallpaper.in/
Early life
Walker was born in
Glendale, California,
and was the son of Cheryl (née Crabtree), a fashion model, and Paul
William Walker III, a sewer contractor and a fighter who was a two-time
Golden Gloves champion.Paul’s paternal grandfather had a boxing career as “'Irish' Billie
Walker”. Paul's ancestry was mostly English, with some German, Swiss, One of his grandfathers raced factory cars for
Ford in the 1960s.
The oldest of five siblings, Walker was raised primarily in the
Sunland community of
Los Angeles and attended high school in the
San Fernando Valley, graduating from
Sun Valley's
Village Christian School in 1991. He was raised as a member of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After high school, Walker attended several community colleges in
Southern California, majoring in
marine biology.
Career
Walker began his small screen career as a toddler, when he starred in a television commercial for
Pampers. He began modeling at the age of two and began working on television shows in 1985, with roles in shows such as
Highway to Heaven,
Who's the Boss?,
The Young and the Restless, and
Touched by an Angel. That same year, he starred in a commercial for
Showbiz Pizza. Walker's film career began in 1986, with the
comedy film Monster in the Closet. In 1987 he appeared in The Retailiator (aka Programmed to Kill), a low budget cyborg action film, with
Robert Ginty. He and his sister Ashlie were contestants on a 1988 episode of the game show
I'm Telling!; they finished in second place. In 1993 he played Brandon Collins on the CBS soap opera
The Young and the Restless. He and his co-star
Heather Tom,
who played Victoria Newman, were nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor
and Actress in a soap opera at the Youth in Film Awards. In 1998, Walker
made his feature film debut in the comedy
Meet the Deedles, which finally gained him fame. This subsequently led to
supporting roles in the movies
Pleasantville (1998),
Varsity Blues (1999),
She's All That (1999), and
The Skulls (2000). http://www.ultrahdwallpaper.in/
In 2001, Walker's breakthrough role arrived when he starred opposite actor
Vin Diesel in the successful
action film
The Fast and the Furious,
the first film in the franchise. The film established Walker as a
notable film star and leading man and led to his reprisal of the role in
the 2003 sequel
2 Fast 2 Furious. He continued his career with leading roles in films such as
Joy Ride (2001),
Into the Blue (2005), and
Timeline (2003); he had a supporting role in
Clint Eastwood's adaptation of
Flags of Our Fathers (2006).
Walker then starred in the crime
thriller Running Scared and
Walt Disney Pictures'
Eight Below, both released in 2006.
Eight Below garnered critical-acclaim and opened in first place at the box office, grossing over US$20 million during its first weekend. During the filming of
Running Scared, director
Wayne Kramer stated that "[Walker] is that guy on some level" when comparing Walker with his character in the movie, Joey Gazelle.
Kramer continued on to say that he "loved working with [Walker] because
as a director he's completely supportive of my vision of what the film
is. And even better, he's completely game for it."
Walker starred in the independent film
The Lazarus Project, which was released on DVD on October 21, 2008. He subsequently returned to
The Fast and the Furious franchise, reprising his role in
Fast & Furious, which was released on April 3, 2009.
Walker then appeared in the
crime drama Takers, which began filming in early September 2008 and was released in August 2010.
The
Coty Prestige fragrance brand
Davidoff Cool Water for Men announced in January 2011 that Walker was going to be the new face of the brand as of July 2011. He reprised his role in the fifth installment of
The Fast and the Furious series,
Fast Five (2011), and again in
Fast & Furious 6
(2013). For this film, he won the 2014 MTV Movie Award as best
on-screen duo, with Vin Diesel. He was part of an ensemble cast in Wayne
Kramer's
Pawn Shop Chronicles (2013), which was Walker's last film released before his death.
Shortly after his death, the
Hurricane Katrina based film
Hours, which he had completed earlier in 2013, was released on December 13, 2013. He had also completed the action film
Brick Mansions, a remake of the French film
District 13, which was released in April 2014. At the time of his death, Walker had been filming
Furious 7,
which was slated for release in July 2014. The film was completed by
using his brothers Caleb and Cody as his body doubles/stand-ins, and
CGI, and was released in April 2015.
Walker was also set to play
Agent 47 in the
Hitman film adaptation, but died before production began.
