Life Story

Vincent Peter Jones (born 5 January 1965 in Watford, Hertfordshire, England) is a British footballer turned actor.

Jones started his football career at non-league Wealdstone F.C., before moving to Wimbledon F.C. in 1986. He was part of the 'crazy gang' team that won the FA Cup in 1988, arguably the club's greatest achievement. He subsequently played for Leeds United F.C., Sheffield United F.C. and Chelsea F.C., before moving back to Wimbledon in 1992. He played over 250 games for the Dons, before briefly becoming player/coach of Queens Park Rangers F.C. in 1998.

While a footballer, he was famous for his "hard man" image. He was sent off 12 times in his career, and once was booked after only 3 seconds of play. In one notorious incident he distracted Paul Gascoigne by grabbing his testicles In another match, he ended the career of Tottenham defender Gary Stevens with a vicious tackle.

He also was the presenter of the infamous Soccer's Hard Men video released in 1992, which featured archived footage of himself and many other "hard men" of the game, and included advice for budding "hard men". After the release of the video, Jones received a £20,000 fine from The FA for "bringing the game into disrepute." Despite this, the player gradually got accepted into a league of his own for being notorious and controversial, dominating the crazy gang atmosphere that he had allegedly sparked within his club side during its FA Premiership years.

A high point in his career as a footballer was when he was chosen to play international football for Wales, after the discovery that his ancestry qualified him; he even captained the side. Despite his Welsh name, it was considered ironic that someone so blatantly English could be selected for one of the other home countries; his reputation alone would have made him an unlikely choice for the England side.

Jones retired from football in 1999, and has since found success as an actor, appearing in films such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Gone in Sixty Seconds, Mean Machine, Swordfish, Eurotrip, A Night at the Golden Eagle and the Japanese movie SURVIVE STYLE 5＋.

He also appeared in a series of UK TV advertisements for Bacardi. In Mean Machine, Jones played a famous footballer. He also had a part in episode 2, season 1 of the BBC show, Extras. In 2006, Jones will be playing Juggernaut in X-Men 3. And he also said later in an interview that he is signed for more movies: "I've signed for X-Men 3, 4 and 5...that's my contract...yes."

In November 2002 Vinnie Jones released an album of blues and soul songs called Respect in the UK, as his musical debut under the tuition of Phil Edwards.

In December 2003 Jones was convicted of air rage offences committed on a flight the previous May. Following his conviction Bacardi withdrew the ads in which Jones appeared.

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