Jason Lee

Jason Lee, before pursuing an acting career, was a professional skateboarder. His first real (incidental) acting work was in "Video Days" (1991), a Blind Skateboards team video (directed by Spike Jonze, even).

He sang this (improvisational) song (very close to the camera with the fisheye lens, and with very bad teeth):
"There's a war outside of your window
It's destroying our world
So take the hand of a boy (pause) and a girl
and walk down the street and sing a happy song to make the world better
Peace on Earth, environment, religion, and pray to god."

He also leaned out of a hoopty and yelled, "No war for heavy metal!" to a bunch of pro-war demonstrators (this was right before the U.S. started printing "Try to burn this one" t-shirts and other anti-Iraq propaphenalia).

I met him once at a skate demo in 1992. He seemed like he was too drunk to walk straight, but he could still make 360 flips look more fluid than water. Super-nice guy, too.

Jason Lee was born in Orange, California on April 25, 1970. He started to ride the skateboard when he was still a young teenager, and by the time he was 16, he dropped out of school to become a professional skateboarder. Jason was one of the best at the time, and he won numerous tournaments and championships.

Lee started his acting career in 1993, when he got a small role in a movie called Mi Vida Loca by Allison Anders, but he can be seen in some music videos even before that. His breakthrough movie was 1995's Mallrats, by Kevin Smith, in which Jason plays Brodie Bruce, a comicbook collector who's just been dumped by his girlfriend, and goes to the mall with his best friend (who also was dumped that day). Jason's performance in Mallrats impressed the world, and from that moment he stopped skateboarding and started acting for a living.

While working on Mallrats, Lee became friends with Kevin Smith, and has played a part in every one of Kevin's movies ever since. He played Banky Edwards in 1997's Chasing Amy, the demon Azrael in 1999's Dogma, and returned to play both Banky and Brodie in Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back, which should be released summer 2001. If Kevin Smith goes on to direct Fletch, he wants Jason to play the title role, which would be a younger version of the character that was once played by Chevy Chase.

Jason has played in other movies too besides those of Kevin Smith. He had a small role in 1998's Enemy Of The State, where he acted alongside Will Smith, and played Jeff Bebe, the singer of Stillwater (a rock band) in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous (2000). Crowe liked Lee very much, and because of that, Jason can be seen in Crowe's upcoming movie Vanilla Sky, which also stars Tom Cruise.

Does Jason still ride the skateboard? Unfortunately not. He claims he still only rides it a few times a year. I don't think he misses it though. He's got a lovely wife, Carmen, and his acting career isn't going very bad either. He married Carmen a little while before Mallrats was filmed, and she can be seen on posters in the movie. She also got a small role in Chasing Amy. However, Jason is not related to either Bruce Lee or Stan Lee, but he did act together with Stan in Mallrats.

Jason Lee's complete filmography:
(according to the IMDB)

Say Uncle (2002)
Vanilla Sky (2001)
Big Trouble (2001)
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)
Heartbreakers (2001)
Almost Famous (2000)
Mumford (1999)
Dogma (1999)
Enemy of the State (1998)
Cuisine Américaine (1998)
Kissing a Fool (1998)
A Better Place (1997)
Weapons of Mass Distraction (1997) (TV)
Chasing Amy (1997)
Drawing Flies (1996)
Blue Seed (1995) tv series
Mallrats (1995)
Mi Vida Loca (1993)

Born on 9th May 1971 in Forrest Gate, soccer 'star' Jason Lee signed on as a trainee for Charlton in the summer of 1989. After making one appearance there he travelled onwards to Lincoln (where he had a reasonable record) before bveing transferred to Southend and then quickly onto Nottingham Forest. As Forest were a Premier League club, it was believed at the time that his young career could be about to take off. However, there were two major factors that led to his downfall - his hair cut and his footballing skills.

His hair was a fascinating affair and was quickly picked up on by TV programme Fantasy Football's Frank Skinner and David Baddiel, who did numerous features comparing it to a pineapple.

He also suffered with the sort of finishing skills your Grandmother wouldn't be proud of and the six yard miss quickly became his trademark. Despite this, he has somehow managed to average 1 goal every 5 games throughout his career.

Since then he has played for Grimsby, Watford (alongside 'Rocket' Ronny Rosenthal) and is currently at Peterborough.