The life of Paul Walker

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Paul William Walker (September 12, 1973 – November 30, 2013) was an American actor. Walker 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 incoming-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.

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 Khalifa from the Furious 7 soundtrack was a tribute to Walker.

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.^[3]^[4]^[5] Paul’s paternal grandfather had a boxing career as “'Irish' Billie Walker”. Paul's ancestry was mostly English, with some German, Swiss,^[6] and Irish.^[7]^[8]^[9] One of his grandfathers raced factory cars for Ford in the 1960s.^[3] The oldest of five siblings, Walker was raised primarily in the Sunland community of Los Angeles and attended high school in theSan Fernando Valley, graduating from Sun Valley's Village Christian School in 1991.^[10]^[11] He was raised as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.^[4] After high school, Walker attended several community colleges in Southern California, majoring in marine biology.^[12]

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.^[13] Walker's film career began in 1986, with the horror/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 moviesPleasantville (1998), Varsity Blues (1999), She's All That (1999), and The Skulls (2000).

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)
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