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Biography
At 6'5", the darkly attractive Vince Vaughn stands out in a crowd. Similarly, when the actor began his career with a series of guest appearances on TV programs, it was only a matter of time before his talent won out. The big break came with 1996's "Swingers", in which he co-starred as Trent, a smooth-talking, sexy retro-hipster who proved catnip to the ladies. Spouting such smart slang as "you're so money", Vaughn captivated audiences and saw his profile in Hollywood rise.

Born in Minnesota and raised in suburbs of Chicago, Vaughn proved a handful as a child. Hyperactive, he was sent by his school to a psychiatrist who wanted to prescribe Ritalin, but Vaughn's parents instead opted to put him in classes for children with behavioral problems. He also found an outlet in children's theater but, by the time he entered high school, shifted his focus to sports. A back injury at age 17 derailed any thoughts of a professional athletic career, so Vaughn auditioned for the school play and won a prominent role. At 18, he appeared in a national commercial that was part of Chevrolet's "Heartbeat of America" campaign. Convinced that would be his ticket to success, the budding thespian headed to the West Coast.

While it may seem naive in retrospect, the decision to relocate to Southern California eventually paid off. In September 1989, Vaughn made his primetime acting debut in the third season premiere of the Vietnam-era drama series "China Beach" (ABC). Over the next few years, he went on to appear in several "CBS Schoolbreak Specials" and found guest roles on various series including "21 Jump Street" and "Doogie Howser, M.D." In 1993, Vaughn landed his first supporting movie role in the football-themed "Rudy", and struck up a friendship with co-star Jon Favreau. Favreau had written a script about a group of single Los Angelenos who frequent the club scene and he eventually tailored one of the parts for Vaughn. When "Swingers" finally was released some three years later, both men were catapulted into the spotlight. Vaughn had the showier role and his darkly handsome bad boy made him the new "it boy". Suddenly, he was interviewed in various magazines and people like Steven Spielberg were considering him for roles. After working with Kate Capshaw (perhaps not co-incidentally Mrs. Spielberg) in the romantic drama "The Locusts" (1997), Vaughn landed one of the leads in the highly anticipated sequel "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" (also 1997). While the former offered the actor a meatier role, few saw it, while the latter (as expected) was a box-office smash.

With a growing credibility in the industry, the much in-demand Vaughn undertook a series of intriguing roles that may have been artistically fulfilling but did nothing to raise his stature as a box-office draw. He was somewhat subdued as a conflict, conscious-stricken hedonist in "Return to Paradise" and veered close to going over the top as a seductive cowboy-hatted serial killer in "Clay Pigeons" (both 1998). In both films, he co-starred with Joaquin Phoenix and they relationships between their characters were the most interesting things in each picture. Some might also argue that his turn in "Clay Pigeons" was a warm-up for his undertaking what was seen as the riskiest move in his relatively short career: stepping into the shoes of Anthony Perkins to play Norman Bates in the Gus Van Sant remake of "Psycho" (1998). A shot-by-shot color remake, Van Sant's take on the material really did not add anything new and Vaughn's interpretation of the role was pale, watered-down and inferior to Perkins' unforgettable portrayal. Whereas Perkins projected an androgynous fragility, Vaughn went for sheer madness and the difference was jarring. The actor offered a slightly better turn as a suddenly single father coping with career and familial demands in the little-seen "A Cool, Dry Place" (1999). Following this string of box-office disappointments, Vaughn took some time off to regroup.

His return, however, was far from impressive. In the overproduced, but visually intriguing "The Cell" (2000), the actor delivered a stilted performance as an FBI agent who enlists the aid of psychiatrist in tracking down the latest victim of a serial kidnapper-killer. Vaughn was overshadowed by the special effects, makeup and costumes and many had difficulty recalling that he was even in the movie. His other choices for 2000 proved a mixed bag. His turn as the foster brother on the wrong side of the law of a sheriff in "South of Heaven, West of Hell", singer Dwight Yoakam's directorial debut, was hardly memorable. On the other hand, Vaughn gave a fine turn in the low-budget indie "The Prime Gig", essaying a slick telemarketer who has the misfortune of working for the wrong businesses. His loose, sexy charm dovetailed with the script and allowed the actor to offer one of his better performances. Similarly, his long-awaited reteaming with Favreau in the gangster-themed "Made" (2001) proved to be inspired, with the two old friends brilliantly riffing with one anotherand veering hilariously from the page in the largely improvised film. Vaughn's unwavering characterization of Ricky as a dense but captivating man-child who follows all the wrong instincts proved to be the centerpiece of the film, both when bouncing off the rightfully restrained Favreau or squaring off against veteran scene-stealers like Peter Falk. His next film was 2001's lackluster thriller "Domestic Disturbance," in which he played the secretly villainous stepfather to John Travolta's biological son. The film had few admirers, but amid a muddled script Vaughn turned in a winningly sleazy performance, prompting critic Roger Ebert to note that the actor "plays a creep better than just about anybody else."

Perhaps sensing it was time to change things up again, Vaughn shifted gears and began focusing on showing off his then-underestimated comedic and improvisational skills. His performance in a short film aired during the 2003 MTV Movie Awards as Hollywood "ass wrangler" Frank Fanning--in which he tutors Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz on the proper ways to best display their posteriors on camera--was a comedic gold mine, and Vaughn surprised audiences with his deft and hysterical turn guest-hosting CBS's "The Late Show" in 2003 when David Letterman fell ill with the shingles. The actor's career suddenly vaulted into higher gear: Vaughn next teamed with comedy director Todd Phillips to play broader comedy in "Old School" (2003) as one of a trio of disillusioned middle age men who retreat from their boring lives to start an off-campus frat house, and he rejoined Phillips to play the comedic crime kingpin Reese Feldman in "Starsky & Hutch" (2004), a parody of the 70s TV cop drama starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson. As the charismatic slacker owner of the Average Joe gym, Vaughn took the lead in "Dodgeball" (2004), pitting a team of misfits again villain Stiller's brutal pros in a high-tech match of the schoolyard game, followed by a pivotal supporting role in the Will Ferrell comedy "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy" (2004). Then Vaughn turned in one of his most hilarious turns, playing the craven hip-hop talking, pimp-dressing music manager Raji in "Be Cool" (2005), the entertaining sequel to "Get Shorty" in which he improvised much of his non-stop barrage of urban-speak. After a small, highly amusing role in the Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie spy-themed action blockbuster "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" (2005) for his "Swingers" director Doug Liman, playing Pitt's mama's boy partner, Vaughn then teamed with Owen Wilson for the terrific comedy "Wedding Crashers" (2005), playing a pair of lovable cads who pick up lonely, vulnerable women by invading strangers' weddings, only to find themselves entangled with a pair of sisters in a family that threatens to be their undoing.

Ironically, in the same year that Vaughn appeared on-screen with rumored new couple Pitt and Jolie, he filmed "The Break-Up" (2006) in Chicago with Jennifer Aniston, then at the height of the media firestorm surrounding the dissolution of her marriage to Pitt. Vaughn and Aniston played a divorcing couple struggling to continue to cohabitate. Rumors swirled of a budding relationship between the two stars, but despite denials, they did appear to be a couple by the fall of 2005. By this time, Vaughn was well-established as a central figure in what many characterized as a comedic Rat Pack-style clique of actors who frequently teamed up and/or cameoed in each other's films -- a group that included Stiller, Ferrell, the Wilson brothers and Steve Carell.

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