Dwayne Johnson, popularly known as The Rock, is the highest-paid actor in the world. According to Forbes, the former World Wrestling Entertainment star makes a whopping $64.5m (N20.3bn) per year in acting, beating the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Brad Pitt. But that didn’t happen by a mere luck.
Regarded as one of the most hardworking people in show business, The Rock stars in movies and television shows, runs his own production company and also makes some money from endorsements.
The 44-year-old is a box-office juggernaut, with many of his movies earning at least nine figures in income.
For instance, the movie, “Furious 7” (2015) grossed $1.5bn (N472.5bn); “San Andreas” (2015) earned $474m (N149.3bn); “Fast & Furious 6” (2013) made $788.7m (N248bn); while his most recent film, “Central Intelligence,” grossed $210.3m (N66bn) worldwide.
In 2015, the movie star got more fame for himself on TV with HBO’s “Ballers,” which is currently in its second season.
From wrestling to acting
Born on May 2, 1972, The Rock is a Canadian-American actor, producer, and semi-retired professional wrestler currently signed to WWE.
He was a college football player for the University of Miami in the United States, winning a national championship on the 1991 Miami Hurricanes football team. He later played for the Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football League, and was cut two months into the 1995 season. This led him to become a professional wrestler like his grandfather, Peter Maivia, and his father, Rocky Johnson (from whom he also inherited his Canadian citizenship).
The Rock gained mainstream fame in the World Wrestling Federation from 1996 to 2004 as a major figure in the company’s Attitude Era, and was the first third-generation wrestler in the company’s history. He returned to wrestling part-time for WWE from 2011 to 2013 and continues to make sporadic non-wrestling appearances for the company.
As of September 2016, Johnson has had 17 championship reigns in WWE, including 10 as a world champion, winning the WWF/E Championship eight times and the WCW/World Championship twice. He won the Intercontinental Championship twice and the WWF Tag Team Championship five times.
He is the sixth Triple Crown Champion in WWE history, and won the 2000 Royal Rumble. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest pro wrestlers of all time.
His autobiography, “The Rock Says…,” co-written with Joe Layden, published in 2000, sold over 720,000 copies in hardcover alone and was No. 1 on The New York Times Bestseller list for about 20 weeks.
His first leading film role was in “The Scorpion King” (2002). For this role, he was paid $5.5m (N1.7bn), a world record for an actor in his first starring role.
He has since appeared in various films and become known for his ability to reinvigorate film franchises. Perhaps his greatest success in his acting career can be sourced to his role as Luke Hobbs in “The Fast and Furious” franchise.
He hosted and produced “The Hero,” a reality competition series. He has since continued to produce and star in TV series and films through his production company, Seven Bucks Productions.
Forbes listed him Number 25 in the Top 100 Most Powerful Celebrities in 2013. TIME named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2016. In 2015, Muscle & Fitness named him as their “Man of the Century.”
The Rock and his money
The star actor is also into real estate and farming. He has had a few million-dollar mansions, and has sold about 10 homes in the past decade in Florida, US, alone.
Among those homes is a five-bedroomed, seven-bath mansion in Southwest Ranches, Florida, which he bought in 2012 for $3.4m (N1.1bn).
In the same year, he sold a six-bedroomed home in Hidden Hills, California, for $4.9m (N1.5bn).
With a net worth of $185m (N58.3bn), the actor surely knows how to enjoy himself and spend his cash.
To stay in tip-top shape, he works with several personal trainers, spending up to $250 (N78,000) per month on each of them.
When he’s not in the gym, he loves to wear a suit and he’s got a wide collection that comes in an array of colours.
To climb the rocks and the mountains takes more than driving an SUV, which is why The Rock travels from place to place in a luxurious Gulfstream G650, a $65m (N20.5bn) private jet widely appraised as “the fastest private jet in the world.”
Car collection
His car collection is a class apart, especially when you learn that it features gems such as the 1971 Chevrolet Chevelle SS. The car is a legitimate tarmac shredder, thanks to the 454 cubic inches under the hood that hides 365 thoroughbred ponies underneath. A sixty second dash is dismissed in under six seconds, and the quarter mile, in a scant 14 seconds.
From American Muscle to British sophistication, The Rock’s cars represent the entire spectrum.
His Aston Martin Vanquish Volante may have been more luxury than muscle, but when the star actor flexes his right foot, everything turns into a blur from the rear-view mirror. Twelve cylinders, 6,000 cubic centimetres complete the powerhouse package.
Around the time when he was picking up his Aston Martin, he is said to have also bought the German luxury sport car, the iconic Audi R8. Easily among the most recognisable silhouettes, the R8 is an everyday sport car that can be driven effortlessly down the boulevard and will quickly turn into a road-going rocket, should the “Fast & the Furious” mode get activated.
The Ford F150 is the big-daddy of all-American, full-size pickup trucks. A veritable icon in the segment, it has a larger than life presence and anyone that catches the headlamps in their mirrors would better move away quickly, lest they get chewed up and spat out of the exhaust. Affectionately called the Black Horse, the action superstar took to Instagram to showcase his prized set of wheels.
At the premiere of the “Ballers” recently, the star actor turned the eyes of everyone on him when he showed up in a flashy blue Pagani Huayra, a sport car which costs him about $1.3m (N409.5m).
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