Biography
It was perhaps inevitable that this grandson and son of professional wrestlers would eventually join in the family business. At 6'5" and weighing some 250 pounds, The Rock had some rough going at first, having adopted a clean-cut image (first as Flex Kavana and later Rocky Maivia) that didn't appeal to fans. In 1997, he adopted a brash bad boy persona to which audiences quickly responded. Gradually, The Rock became more of a nice guy and a popular figure in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), winning the championship belt six times between 1998 and 2001. When he hosted "Saturday Night Live" in March 2000, he showed viewers and the powers that be in Hollywood that he was more than just a muscle man, though, gamely donning drag, displaying a rather pleasant singing voice and a flair for sketch comedy. Although other wrestlers (like Hulk Hogan and Rowdy Roddy Piper) had tried to segued to movies, none really achieved true film stardom. The Rock, though, seemed poised to be the one to do it.

      Born Dwayne Douglas Johnson in Miami in 1972, The Rock was the grandson of Samoan wrestler High Chief Peter Maivia and the son of wrestler Rocky Johnson. He spent a peripatetic childhood, moving from Florida to Tennessee to Georgia and to Hawaii. The Johnson family eventually settled in Pennsylvania but things turned difficult when his father lost his savings around 1975. Although he had his share of problems, The Rock channeled some of his anger into sports, eventually ranking as one of the state's top ten high school football players. He earned a scholarship to the University of Miami, where he majored in criminology but spent a lot of time partying, brawling and chasing women. Much of that behavior stopped in 1991, though, after he met Dany Garcia, whom he married in 1997.

      Following his 1994 graduation, The Rock had hoped to parlay his prowess on the gridiron into a career with the NFL, but he found no takers. Instead, he was drafted by the Canadian Football League and moved to Calgary. Disenchanted after a short time, The Rock left professional sports and headed back to Miami, arriving with seven dollars in his pocket. After giving some thought, he decided to enter the family business and in 1996 debuted as Flex Kavana on the minor-league wrestling circuit. Moving to the WWF, he tried to trade on his heritage by calling himself Rocky Maivia, but the nice guy image failed. Once he reinvented himself as the trash-talking, egotistical The Rock -- with signature moves like "the People's Elbow" and "the People's Eyebrow" (raising his right eyebrow) -- his career was set.

      In February 1999, The Rock moved into acting, appropriately cast as his own father in an episode of the hit Fox sitcom "That '70s Show". The following year, he could be seen in "Star Trek: Voyager" but it was his March 2000 appearance on "Saturday Night Live" that made Hollywood take notice. Having fielded a variety of offers, The Rock made his feature acting debut as The Scorpion King in the 2001 sequel "The Mummy Returns". Although his screen time was limited, he displayed a strong, charismatic presence, enough for the studio to develop his own starring vehicle, "The Scorpion King" (2002), for which he earned a reported $5.5 million dollar salary. With the possibility of a franchise, The Rock was poised to step into the void of action hero left by aging stars like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger.  The Rock wasted no time in filling this void making "The Rundown" (2003) co-starring with Seann William Scott and Christopher Walken, building his acting resume.  The movie was a hit and The Rock was now considered a legitimate actor in Hollywood.  His next project "Walking Tall"(2004) released to big numbers at the box office and solidified The Rock as the new big action star.  The Rock continues to return to the ring on occasion and his latest participation was at WWE's showcase Wrestlemania XX.