After gaining worldwide recognition as a wrestler, Hollywood came calling. In 2002, Dwayne landed the starring role in The Scorpion King and received the largest salary ever for an actor in his first lead role. Since then, Dwayne has branched out beyond action movies and starred in comedies and family favorites like The Game Plan, Race to Witch Mountain and, his latest, Tooth Fairy. Worldwide, Dwayne’s movies have grossed $1.5 billion.
When he was in his early 20s, Dwayne says he only had $7 in his pocket, but that didn’t stop him from setting lofty goals. “One was to buy my parents a house. We had never lived in a house before,” he says. “The other one was to marry Dany, who was my college sweetheart. We married and wound up getting a divorce, but now we’re business partners and we’re very, very close. The other one was to pay off all debt. The other one was to graduate. And the other one was to take care of my grandmother’s situation. At that time, my grandmother didn’t have a place to live.”
Over the years, Dwayne says he accomplished all of these goals…and then some! “There’s a quote that I grew up with, and it was, ‘If you’ve ever been hungry, then you’ll never be full,’” he says.
Now, this athlete-turned-action-star has a new goal—to help people who don’t know anything about sports sound knowledgeable when Super Bowl Sunday rolls around.
