The Fast, but Not Furious, Life of Paul Walker - Assignment Example

March 26, The Fast, but Not Furious, Life of Paul Walker With a mother who was a former fashion model and a father who wasa contractor, Paul Walker, born on September 12, 1973 in Glendale, Southern California, inherited good looks and the desire to have early success. Paul has two brothers, Caleb and Cody, and one sister, Ashlie. Walker began his career as a child actor and model, starting with acting roles in Charles in Charge, Highway to Heaven, and Whos the Boss (“Paul Walker”). He made his film debut in 1986, through the horror comedy, Monster in the Closet. He also starred in TV shows, such as Throb. He is widely known for his role in the critically-acclaimed film, Pleasantville, too, although The Fast and The Furious franchise is the one that has put his name high up in the Hollywood famous list. Though Walker is well-known as an action star and racecar driver, not many people know his marine biology educational background, love for different kinds of sports, humanitarian efforts, and struggles and triumphs as a father. As a young man, Walker was excelling in sports and passionate for surfing. Walker had a carefree approach to life. His friends called him “Vagrant” because he did not stay in any place for a long time. In other words, he liked adventure and the freedom to move around as he pleases. Walker graduated from Village Christian high school. He was unsure yet of what to course to take, so he attended a number of community colleges before majoring in Marine Biology (“Paul Walker” 1). Though he definitely wanted to pursue a marine biologist career, his acting career was becoming more demanding of his time, and he decided to focus on it instead (“Paul Walker” 1). Walker’s first feature film debut is the comedy movie, Meet The Deedles (1998), with Steve Van Wormer, A.J. Langer and Dennis Hopper. Though it was considered a funny film, it did not gain much public attention. His film Pleasantville (1998), with Reese Witherspoon and Tobey Maguire, became more famous and even had positive critical reviews. His next films improved his popularity as an actor: Brokedown Palace (1999), Varsity Blues (1999) and Shes All That (1999). In 2000, Walker starred with Joshua Jackson in The Skulls, an action suspense thriller. After that, Walker starred in another action suspense psycho-killer in Squelch. These films did not match the revenues and fame that the next franchise gave to Walker. Walker became more famous as an action star and racecar driver in The Fast and The Furious franchise, which matches his real-life racecar driving passion. He acted in The Fast And The Furious (2001) that pushed him to stardom. The film was produced for $30 million, but earned $207 million (Fitzsimmons). Walker was also in the sequel, 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) which earned $236,350,661. His last appearance was in Fast & Furious 6 (2013), which was being filmed when he died in a non-related car accident. Walker was already racing though before The Fast and The Furious franchise. Walker enjoyed racing enough to build a car collection that has the following cars: Porsche 911 GT3 and a 1964 Chevrolet Impala (Fitzsimmons). Grady Smith of PopWatch.com also believes that it is likely that Walker has driven as an amateur street racer, since it is a popular sport in San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, where the actor grew up. Walker once told George Lopez, “I didn’t race,” while winking and grinning (Smith). This suggests that Walker might have once raced during his youth, though he did not want to publicly admit it, probably because some of these races are criticized as being too risky and dangerous. Walker is known to love car racing, nevertheless. He once told Automobile magazine that while doing the film The Skulls in 1999, he told his director Rob Cohen, “I want to do a movie where I’m racing cars or I’m an undercover cop” (Smith). His wish was granted two years later, when Cohen hired him to do his next movie, The Fast and the Furious, which first showed in 2001. Walker’s love for racing only increased after the box-office success of The Fast and the Furious. His interest is showed in his racing competitions and racecar business. In 2010, he used his BMW M3 E92 and participated in the Redline Time Attack series (Smith). Redline Time Attack was a series of North American auto racing events that Nikolas Malechikos and Chris Willard established. The format of the time-attack racing is competing for the fastest single lap on a paved road course. Aside from semi-professionally racing in the Redline Time Attack series, Walker is also in the racecar business. He is a part-owner of Always Evolving, a racecar performance shop. Although Walker is famous for his racing skills in The Fast and The Furious, before that, he is more fascinated with studying marine life as a marine biologist than racing as a career. Smith reports that Walker frequently stresses that the French oceanographer and conservationist Jacques Cousteau is his idol. This is not surprising because Walker majored in marine biology when he studied at a community college before, and he intended to pursue it as full-time career (Smith). Pleasantville, however, gave him a series of work afterwards that took all his time. Nevertheless, Walker continues his passion for marine life by surfing and making movies about ocean life, such as Into the Blue. Besides loving marine life, Walker is also involved in different sports. He enjoys surfing because it “soothes” him like “a kind of Zen experience” (Smith). He expresses his deep love for connecting with Nature through the ocean: “The ocean is so magnificent, peaceful and awesome. The rest of the world disappears for me when I’m on a wave” (Smith). Walker is also a brown belter in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. The celebrated coach Ricardo Miller, also known as “Frajinha,” is his teacher (Smith). Walker also does hunting and archery, among many other sports, though he has stopped hunting and focused on birding and photographing wildlife instead. Apart from sports, Walker is also a low-profile humanitarian. He participated in a disaster response in Haiti in 2010 after an earthquake hit it. He also formed the organization, Reach Out Worldwide (ROWW), a disaster relief organization that helps give resources and access to survivors of calamities (Smith). In three years, ROWW has sent medical teams to Indonesia after the 2010 tsunami and gave an entire crew of workers to participate in the clean-up effort in Alabama after tornadoes damaged the communities (Smith). Walker bought most of the tools and let his people use his pickup truck for the relief effort (Smith). Walker said that ROWW is about teamwork and sacrifices: We put something out there that we believed in, and others have jumped on. We have some really talented people. Doctors that have 25, 30 years of experience that have volunteered their time readily. Weeks of their life every year to the cause (Smith). In line with ROWW, Walker already earned his EMT certification and said that he wanted to study becoming a paramedic (Smith). He was fully dedicated in helping people. Finally, Walker discovers the ups and downs of being a father. When he got his girlfriend Rebecca McBrain pregnant when he was 25 years old, he was not ready for any serious relationship. His career was just taking off and he was not planning to get married anytime soon. In an interview with WENN, he said his fears about marriage: It was tough. I went to Christian high school, and I was told Mom and Dad were supposed to be together. I knew where I was at with chicks and having fun. I mean, I was sleeping with her friends, for crying out loud. You know what I mean? I was an animal (Smith). He felt that he was too carefree to be a married man and dedicated father. As a result, he did not get to know his daughter, Meadow, closely for the first 12 years of her life, since she and her mother lived in Hawaii (Smith). Walker said he “felt guilt” for not being there for his daughter, and that: “What left me off the hook emotionally was at least I was providing financially, but emotionally I wasn’t there yet” (Smith). In 2011, Meadow migrated to California to live with her dad, which Walker believed changed his life (Smith). He told EW of his excitement as a hands-on father: “ My heart was desperate for so many years with the situation with my daughter. My daughter lives with me full time now and she’s the best partner I’ve ever had. It’s so nuts. I’ve never had anything like this in my life. I’ve been so transient. I’ve been on my own since I was 16. I didn’t even have my own place until I was 32 years old. I literally lived out of bags for 16-plus years” (Smith). He felt more mature and responsible because of fatherhood. Walker describes the bonding moments he has with his daughter, when he drives her to school in the morning: “I just shut up, sit back and stay quiet. She opens up and reveals a whole lot. The trick is to not ask questions, just listen. Im figuring it out” (Miller). Walker was clearly enjoying being a parent. Apart from striving to be a better father, Walker is certainly famous; stardom, however, is not something that Walker wants to be in all the time. He describes himself as uncomfortable with his celebrity status. Mr. Walker tried his best to avoid tabloids and he also did not attend the Hollywood party scene (Fitzsimmons). He did not even live in Hollywood to avoid the paparazzi and he lived in Santa Barbara instead (Fitzsimmons). In March, Walker said to Entertainment Weekly that he did not particularly enjoy the limelight: “I’ve always been one foot in, one foot out of this game because I’m not comfortable with being on the pedestal or the poster. That’s just not who I am. I’m more like the grunt. I want to be the guy behind the guy” (Fitzsimmons). Walker is not the kind of actor who wants to be always out in the open for the press and he desires a more private life. Walker died in a car accident on November 30, 2013 at the early age of 40. He was in Santa Clarita, California, attending a charity event for Reach Out Worldwide. The event aimed to raise money for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. He was at the passenger seat of a red 2005 Porsche Carrera GT that Always Evolving CEO, Roger Rodas, was driving on Rye Canyon Loop in Valencia, about 30 miles northwest of Los Angeles (Fitzsimmons). Speed was believed to be the factor that led to loss of control of the car. They crashed into a tree and the car burst into flames (Fitzsimmons). Walker and Rodas died on the spot at 3:30 p.m. (Fitzsimmons). Since he died while doing charity, it was evidence that, even in the last day of his life, Walker wants to help other people in need. Walker is generally known as The Fast and The Furious’ handsome actor, but he is more than that. He lived a fast life, but it was not furious in the sense that it was full of fun and games only. It might be fun and games during his youth, but all that changed as he grew up as an adult and decided to become a better person. Instead of a fully carefree life, Walker lived a rich life with sports, education, and family goals and events filling his identity. It was a life that he wanted to dedicate more to his daughter and people in need. He was even improving his knowledge and skills to become a better member of his humanitarian efforts. Walker had so much hope and dreams for humanity and his family. Life can be abrupt, but Walker sure did make it as meaningful as he could. It was a fast life, but it was a good and memorable one. Works Cited Fitzsimmons, Emma G. “Paul Walker, 40, Star of ‘Fast and Furious’ Movies, Dies in Crash.” The New York Times (1 Dec. 2013). Web. 4 Apr. 2013. Miller, Samantha. “Paul Walker: Inside His Life as a Dad to Meadow Rain, 15.” People.com 2 Dec. 2013. Web. 4 Apr. 2013. “Paul Walker: Biography.” Biography.com 2013. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. Smith, Grady. “The Sides of Paul Walker You May Have Missed.” PopWatch.com 1 Dec. 2013. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. Read More