Blond haired, blue-eyed Paul Walker could be the poster boy for Southern Californian life. He has a look that is almost too good to be true, and which is much-loved by legions of adoring fans.

Paul William Walker was born on September 12, 1973 in Glendale, California. He modeled as a child, starring in commercials for Pampers, and just about everything else imaginable. His mother was also a model. He began acting when he was only a child, but he only studied it after graduating high school. In 1986, Paul played Professor Bennet in the movie, Monster in the Closet. He then stared in the TV series. In 1992-3 Paul had a role in the soap opera, "Young and the Restless". He played Brandon Collins. His next film was Tammy and the T-Rex in 1994.

He then had given up acting for the time being and tried to pursue his hopes to be a marine biologist. He majored in Marine Biology at some California community colleges, but wanted to get back into acting,..mainly at first just to make money. Then in 1996, he was cast in an episode of Touched by an Angel. This time he wanted to get back into acting for good. It was then, in 1998 that he starred in Meet the Deedles. Then, playing the interest of Reese Witherspoon, Paul played a basketball star in the movie "Pleasantville" This movie also featured Tobey Maguire and William Macey. 

In 1999, Paul starred in "Varsity Blues," a high school football drama. The movie also starred James Van Der Beek and Jon Voight. Paul played Lance Harbor, the star football quarterback who gets injured and can no longer play football. 
For his next movie, "She's All That" he played Freddie Prinze, Jr.'s (Zack Syler) friend who makes a bet that he can turn ugly duckling Laney Boggs into the Prom Queen. He claims he has enjoyed the characters that he has been able to play, but also hopes to find more dramatic roles for himself. 
In 2000 he starred in the high school thriller The Skulls (also featuring Joshua Jackson).

 

He is interested in playing a character that is more his age, as opposed to a teenager in most of his previous films. He achieved that in the 2001 blockbuster "The Fast And The Furious" opposite Vin Diesel. He is also interested in doing a period piece in the future. He also has hopes to produce a movie one day. His career is truly taking off, and Paul is keeping an open mind about it all, and stays away from the Hollywood hype.

Paul enjoys surfing, snow-boarding, skiing, snorkeling, sailboarding, sailing, soccer and just about every other sport. He is close to nature and lives out of the back of his ford explorer with only the essentials,...and a surfboard. His friends call him "vagrant" because he doesn't live anywhere for that long. He still stays close to nature even though he is working in the midst of Hollywood. His love of animals doesn't fade, even when he is away from home. "I watch the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet all the time," he says. 

Facts about Paul Walker:

Has a daughter, Meadow, by an ex-girlfriend.

Graduated from Village Christian High School (located in Sun Valley, Ca) class of 1991.

He was pretty popular in High school and has admitted that he was a jerk sometimes. But he says that he has greatly changed since those days. He met his current girlfriend on the set of Varsity Blues. 

Salary earned for Timeline (2003): $3,000,000.

Paul has also kept close to his family: brothers Caleb and Cody, and sister, Ashlie. His parents are very supportive of his career.

Personal quotes:

"You know, all that really matters is that the people you love are happy and healthy. Everything else is just sprinkles on the sundae." - in Flaunt Magazine, July 2001

"I'm into being a dad, that's where my focus is most of the time. I'm an actor that's my job, but it's not my life. I have a lot of other interests too."

"There is no inner beauty will my character." 
- Paul Walker in an interview to Teen People, talking about his role in She's All That

"For as long as I can remember, my parents took us camping by the beach, so I started body boarding when I was four years old. I kept it up and then I got a surf board and started surfing in junior high school. I loved playing baseball and a lot of other sports, but surfing is my favorite and I know it's something I'll be doing all my life."

"He's so beautiful, its painful" 
- Ali Larter (one of his co-stars in Varsity Blues) when asked about Paul.

"I'm a dreamer. I've got this whole thing where I think I'm supposed to be a musician. I live by the seat of my pants, but I'd like to think that I'm also pretty sensible."

"Paul Walker is a very gifted, natural actor and is also such a free-spirit. His life experience of surfing and growing up around surfers is exactly what we wanted a real Deedle to be."
- Director of Meet the Deedles

"I've always wanted to be a marine biologist. I took a bunch of marine bio and oceanography classes in school. I still love it. I watch the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet all the time." Paul Walker in YM Magazine April 1999

"You know, all that really matters is that the people you love are happy and healthy. Everything else is just sprinkles on the sundae." - Paul Walker, Flaunt, July 2001

"I love photography. I'm considering going to art school. I have an F100 35mm Nikon and I'm getting a Mamiya 645. I shoot people, animals, buildings, sailboats and sunsets," in Teen Movieline magazine's Fall 2000.

"Some people say that you should go to all the parties, to the nightclubs, the Viper Room, and make contacts. And I look at them and say, 'You don't want to have contacts with those people.' Look at what happened to River Phoenix. If you get caught up in that, it ruins you. Hollywood is garbage... It's the scene that's garbage, not Hollywood. The best thing I could do for my career is to stay away from that scene as much as possible, to keep working on my acting." Dallas Morning News, Feb. 1999

"I've really gotten into it. It's not about working anymore, its about doing work I can be proud of... I want to do movies that I want to see. It's as simple as that."Flaunt, July 2001

"When my scenes come up, I close my eyes. It's so painful."

"I'm a sterotypical Southern California boy. I like to surf and skate in my down time."

"I love the Cohen brothers. I love Raising Arizona and Fargo and The Big Lebowski. They're probably my favorites. Actor-wise, Paul Newman. I love Paul Newman. I mean, there's a bunch. I love Julia Ormand and Sophie Marceau for several reasons. I think they're two of the most beautiful women in the world."

"I didn't know if acting was what I wanted to do -- It seemed like a wierd career in La-La Land."

"I swear a lot. It bothers me sometimes. But it's fun."

"I like people to see me as a regular Joe, 'cause that's what I am."

"When you say model, and stuff like that, I just did that as a little kid, when I was a baby, basically."

"Growing up, I was into girls and sports. Acting was just a hobby."

"My clothes are comfortable: Dickies, 501's, Abercrombie & Fitch cargo pants."

"I had this vertigo fear for a while, but I conquered it by jumping out of a plane."

"My friends used to call me 'The Vagrant.' Now they call me 'Hollywood,' 'Movie Star,' 'Big Shot'...lame stuff like that."

"My character in Varsity Blues is pretty much just like I was in high school."

"I have a tummy fetish, so I like girls who have nice, flat tummies and wear cropped tops with faded 501's -- the thrift store kind -- and maybe some Birkenstocks and a belly chain."

"I do like dressing up every now & then."

"My food bill is insane. I eat out four or five times a day...that's at mortage on a half-million-dollar home"

"I want 5 cats and 20 dogs!"

"For as long as I can remember, my parents took us camping by the beach, so I started body boarding when I was four years old."

"I kept it up and then I got a surf board and started surfing in junior high school. I loved playing baseball and a lot of other sports, but surfing is my favorite and I know it's something I'll be doing all my life."

"We would take shampoo bottles out of the showers and dump them out. Then, we'd refill them with mustard or ketchup and wait until they squeezed it into their hair." Highschool activities!!

"I'm into being a dad, that's where my focus is most of the time. I'm an actor that's my job, but it's not my life. I have a lot of other interests too. I'm into ceramics. I love to take pictures."

I won't deal with them. They scare me. I've met a few I admire, like LeeLee Sobieski. I like Selma Blair alot, too. Marley Shelton is really sweet. On the surface, most of the girls seem super-confident and they carry themselves like that. But, underneath, you find someone who's really vulnerable and insecure because this business puts people throught the ringer. The things they hear about themselves really affect them. I feel for them, but I don't know if I can deal with them." (Paul Walker about actresses)

"I'd worked with Marley Shelton in Pleasantville and she's just really cool. I ended up liking Chris Klein a hell of a lot- a really funny guy. Penelope Cruz I have a bit of a crush on- She's hot. I have this thing for accents. She looks even better in person. Wes Bentley is a cool kid, too."

"Someone who's adventurous about whatever, whenever, a free-spirit who wants to live life to the fullest. I come up with some pretty zany ideas, and I'm usually over a girl when she objects. I'm not gonna hold anyone back, and I don't want to feel like anyone's holding me back." (about the perfect girl-friend)

"You'd think that you'd become more secure, more confident, but it makes me far more insecure, especially with girls. Now, I head trip myself and I'm like, "Wait, is she checking me out because she thinks I'm cute or because she reconizes me?" I'd rather just be anonymous."

"I don't feel like I need to watch what Isay or do, but it's weird just having people stare at you. Like, I wish they'd just come up and say something sometimes, but then again I'm glad they don't. The most bizzarre thing, though is when people don't go, 'Oh are you that guy in Varsity Blues?', but they ask you straight up, 'Are you Paul Walker?'. That's when you're like, 'Whoa wait a second.'"

"I used to think that girls always found me attractive if I just turned up my charm. I can schmooze with the best of 'em. Now I'll be thinking that everything's going well and 90 percent of the time, the girl will snap her fingers and go, "You're that guy from the movies, aren't you?" and I'll be like, "Oh, man." So I think maybe I wasn't doing that well. Maybe she recognized me from the very beginning and just liked me for the fame. That really bums me out. It's like if they think I'm like the guy in the movies, they may not even care to notice the rest of me. I'd rather have someone not want to have anything to do with me because I'm an actor, then I win her over."

"I was going through initiation for Varsity foorball in high school, and the other players made us strip down to our jockstraps and run through a restaurant. I thought I'd outsmart them, so I wore baggy boxer shorts. But that just made them make me run through stark naked. Every girl from my school was there; I was mortified."

"I'm all about pretzels. You know why? Because you don't have to cook 'em. You know what I mean? Just rip open the bag and eat 'em. They're right there. I'm all about snack foods."

"I told them I always wanted to play a cop. Well, a few months later, they came back to me with this script. They told me the backdrop was modern-day drag-racing. They said, You get to play a cop. You get to race around in cool cars. And you get to make out with a hot chick. It's like every guy's dream come true."

"I've toned down a lot. I used to be a real jerk, juggling three or four girls at a time. One night, I was on a date with a girl, and I ran into two chicks I was also seeing at the time. They'd all figured me out and busted me. I freaked. But I'd never do that now."

"No, we don't have a refrigerator. We had one once, but then someone moved out and we said "You know what, we never used it.. why get another one?" So it's IHOP for breakfast, El Pollo Loco for lunch, and Chili's for dinner. [Do you even have dishes?] No, we have 2 cups...I'm being serious! Basically, our place looks like a board shop. WE have snowboards and surfboards stacked up, and beanbags and hammocks downstairs, but no real furniture."

"I'm a mess though. I am the most confused, twisted person I know. It's gotten to the point now where I can basically have everything I want and it's not enough. It's like, this is life? Is this everything? It's too simple. It's boring. There's got to be more. For the last several years, all I've been doing is searching. I'm just beginning to see through the haze."

"I like to surf and hike. I like to be outdoors. And I love photography. I'm considering going to art school. I have an F100 35mm Nikon and I'm getting a Mamiya 645. I shoot people, animals, buildings, sailboats and sunsets. I don't think I'm very good, I just like doing it. My father was a photojournalist and still has a darkroom."

"[On what he's auditioned for] Pearl Harbor. My grandfather was a Pearl Harbor survivor so It would have been cool to do that movie, but I think I was too cocky for them. I threw alot of attitude. I was feeling really confident that day when I met (producer) Jerry Bruckheimer and (director) Michael Bay. They asked "So what kind of movies do you want to make" and I said, "Movies that I like." They both had a smirk on their faces the whole time I was in there. I got out of the meeting and called Scott Caan because he'd just finished doing Gone in Sixty Seconds with Bruckheimer. I said, "I think I may have pissed him off," and he was like, "Aw, dont worry dude, they loved you." (Laughs)"

"I've put together a production company and we've found a couple of really good scrips, one of which I might be doing next year. I want to be proavtive, not sit around waiting for the kind of movies I want to do."

"Well, the last one [practical joke] I did is... I was walking across the field and I found a healthy pile of dog droppings, and I put them in James' [Vanderbeek] trailer. I had them laying on the floor for him. That was the last one. He really appreciated it."

"He goes to the premieres and stuff and he sits there and looks at me on the screen and says to himself, 'I know you! You're my scruffy little boy! You're not like that at all!' My dad is totally fun."

"I wanted to be the bad guy. I don't want to fall into the teen-idol trap. That's my biggest fear, man. I want to do other stuff, to build up credits, maybe even eventually produce a picture."

"I don't know. It's just fun making your own [ceramic] stuff. I love to make my own matching sets of china, vases, doodad holders. I lover Bauer plates and bowls. I love collecting those pre-World War II Japanese figurines carved out of ivory. I can't remember what they're called, but they're really pretty."

"I love kids so much more than big people, so I'd probably be an elementary school teacher. My favorite time would be recess because I'm Michael Jordan at the playground. I might not be that good, but to them- since I'm 6'3"- I'm awesome! Another dream I have is conquering Central America. I'd go with just my guitar and my surfboard. I'd open up a free school in Costa Rica and teach the local kids math, reading, writing, and English. That way I could teach, and I could surf- it would be the bomb."

"They taught me that I really didn't know a damn thing about driving even though I thought I knew everything. They taught you how to take corners, how to come in, like the approach. You don't want to come in too steep. You want to come at a lower angle and then exit high. They talked to you about the apex where you want to exit. This is all racing jargon, stuff that people really don't need to be familiar with unless you go to race car driving school."

"I'm a dreamer. I've got this whole thing where I think I'm supposed to be a musician. I live by the seat of my pants, but I'd like to think that I'm also pretty sensible."