Vince Vaughn has been a staple of screens big and small since his breakout role in 1996’s Swingers. The low-budget sleeper became a smash and made stars of Vaughn, Jon Favreau and Heather Graham. What do we know about the man who made Trent such an endlessly quotable character? Let’s take a look.
Vital statistics
Vincent Anthony Vaughan was born in Minneapolis on March 28th, 1970, which by our reckoning, makes him 52 and an Aries. He doesn’t come from a starry family – mom Sharon was a stockbroker while dad Vernon was a toy salesman. He grew up solidly upper-middle class in the wealthier northern suburbs of Chicago. Vaughn stands 6’5, and while actor’s weight will fluctuate according to movie roles, he’s regularly right around 220lbs. While his strapping build may have helped him get the gig for Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, the younger Vaughn wasn’t particularly sporty, telling ESPN in 2004, “…I’m not athletic. I played some sports and stuff in high school, and I was very average”.
Screen successes
As Steve Jobs once said; “If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time”. Prior to Swingers, Vaughn had been mostly a TV actor, with credits in the early 90s series’ 21 Jump Street and Doogie Howser M.D. The tale of the friends’ trip to Vegas that gave him his big break was made on a budget of $200k and went on to gross $4.6m, making instant stars of its lead actors. You could perhaps draw parallels to Clerks a couple of years prior, with that movie launching Kevin Smith and (perhaps to a lesser extent) Jason Mewes. You could certainly say it was a Vegas gamble that paid off. Vaughn’s next big job came off Slackers, but almost by accident. A copy of the movie was sent to Steven Spielberg by writer Favreau in order to gain permission to use a musical sample from Jaws. Spielberg watched, was impressed, and cast Vaughn as photographer Nick Van Owen in 1997’s The Lost World, the first sequel in the legendary Jurassic Park franchise. If not a classic leading man, Vaughn excelled in duos and went on to star alongside Ben Stiller in Starsky & Hutch, Owen Wilson in Wedding Crashers and Jennifer Aniston in The Break-Up.
The 2010s have seen Vaughn move behind the camera, writing 2013’s The Internship, starring himself and Owen Wilson. He’s also taken up production, including the ESPN 30 For 30: The 85 Bears and Bill Burr’s animated series F Is For Family. Vaughn believes in keeping it in the family – sister Victoria was a producer on The Break-Up and 2009’s Couples Retreat. His dad and grandmother both feature in Swingers, with Vernon as a high roller at the $100 blackjack table and grandma Joan slumming it on the $5 table.
Personal passions
After dating Jennifer Aniston around the time of their starring in The Break-Up, Vaughn married real estate agent Kyla Weber in 2010 in the Lake Forest suburb of Chicago where he grew up. In a quirky twist, Weber is Canadian, as is Vaughn’s mother, who also spent some time working as a realtor. The Vaughn family reside in Los Angeles; however, Vince remains a keen supporter of the Chicago Blackhawks NHL team.
With his step away from acting to raise his family, Vaughn has had more time to indulge his personal passions. He took up Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, mentored by Rener Gracie of the world-famous Gracie Academy and in 2018, was successfully graded for his blue belt. This year took him back to the Sin City of Swingers‘ setting and saw him act as the Inaugural Master of Ceremonies for the 2022 World Series Of Poker Finals. 2022 has also seen him team up with retired NFL players Ryan Kalil and Greg Olsen to launch the podcast venture Audiorama. Guests so far have included Russell Wilson and Jerry Rice.
What’s next?
Vaughn continues to be a man with his finger in many pies, including an expected appearance at the 2023 WSOP. While Hollywood at the moment isn’t making the sort of buddy movies rom-coms Vaughn made his name with, he’s turned his hand to more dramatic parts in Hacksaw Ridge, Dragged Across Concrete and 2015’s HBO neo-noir series True Detective. It’s not all heavyweight projects, though; he’s signed up to make a sequel to A Christmas Story with his production company Wild West. Able to command in the region of $8m a movie, Vince has a net worth of around $70m. This means he’s bought the luxury of only being able to do projects that interest him. Watch this space.
