If you can smell what the Rock is cookin’ then you’re no doubt familiar with superstar wrestler Dwayne Johnson’s swaggeringly cocky alter ego. With his trademark right eyebrow raised and a penchant for implementing the patented “People’s Elbow” to unwary opponents, the self-proclaimed “Most Electrifying Man in Sports-Entertainment” slammed, crashed, and crushed his way to becoming the youngest Intercontinental Champion in WWF history at the age of 24 before winning the WWF title record six times. After conquering the world of sports-entertainment, Johnson next set his sights on conquering Hollywood.
In 2000, Johnson made his literary debut by publishing his autobiography, The Rock Says. It debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list and remained on the list for several weeks. Johnson is also an actor, and his first leading role, in 2002, was in The Scorpion King. For this film, he received the highest salary for an actor in his first starring role, earning $5.5 million. He has since appeared in movies such as The Rundown, Be Cool, Walking Tall, Gridiron Gang, The Game Plan, Get Smart, Race to Witch Mountain, Planet 51, Tooth Fairy, Doom, Why Did I Get Married Too?andThe Other Guys..
Hailing from Miami, FL, Johnson became a third-generation wrestler after shifting from a career in professional football to professional wrestling when an injury sidelined his gridiron aspirations. After flexing his acting muscles on television in Saturday Night Live, That ’70s Show (in which he played his own father), and The Net, the Rock made his feature debut with his role as the dreaded Scorpion King in The Mummy Returns (2001).
Returning as the same character the following year in the appropriately titled The Scorpion King, Johnson did little to enhance his reputation of a trained thespian, though he did get the summer film season off to a rousing start for audiences hungering for some energetic escapist fun. Recalling John Milius’s 1982 hit Conan the Barbarian (another film that launched the cinematic action career of a then-little known athlete named Arnold Schwarzenegger), the sword and sand adventure raked in 36 million dollars on its opening weekend and stuck at the top of the box office in the weeks following its impressive debut.
Though he would return to the ring for the remainder of 2002, it didn’t take The Rock long to soften on the prospect of a return to the silver screen – and with the following year’s The Rundown he did just that. Cast as a bounty-hunter who is sent to Brazil to retrieve the son of a well-known mob boss (American Pie’s Sean William Scott).
the film provided The Rock with the sort of opportunity to display his notable comic flair – a notable talent that was mostly neglected in the special-effects laden Scorpion King. By this point his screen career had earned the wrestler-turned-actor a notable fanbase that reached well beyond the WWE universe, and in 2004 he took the law into his own hands with the feature remake (in name and general concept only) Walking Tall.
Based on the exploits of hard-case Southern sheriff Buford Pusser (played by Joe Don Baker in the original 1973 version of Walking Tall) – the film found The Rock cast as an hoest, retired soldier who – upon return to his small, rural Washington State hometown – discovers his former high school rival Jay Hamilton (Neal McDonough) has corrupted the once prosperous town by introducing drugs and gambling and effectively shutting down the once-prosperous lumber mill. Anyone who saw the original (and even those who didn’t) could no doubt tell what follows – and if there ever was a man to lay the smackdown to the criminal element few could doubt that The Rock would be up for the task.
Johnson was featured in the 2007 Guinness Book of World Records for having the highest salary as an actor in his first starring role, receiving $5.5 million. He appeared at the 80th Academy Awards on February 24, 2008 as a presenter for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. He was nominated for Favorite Movie Actor at the 2008 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards for his role in The Game Plan, but lost out to Johnny Depp, who won for his performance in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
On March 20, 2009, Johnson appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Johnson hosted the 2009 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards on March 28. Johnson also appeared on the Wizards of Waverly Place episode “Art Teacher” as part of his stint with The Walt Disney Company.
Johnson has made various guest appearances on Saturday Night Live, reviving his character of The Rock Obama, a parody of The Hulk. When you make Barack Obama angry, he turns into The Rock Obama. Johnson also made an uncredited cameo in the 2010 film Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too? as a handsome psychiatrist who asks out the recently widowed Patricia Agnew (Janet Jackson).
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