He was the most feared midfielder in England, then Guy Ritchie handed him a script. Vinnie Jones made his film debut in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels in 1998, won an Empire Award, and has since done 100-plus films and shows, playing the bloke he used to be.
Most players fade once the boots come off. This one turned the thing that got him sent off twelve times into a career.
- Born 5 January 1965 in Watford, son of a gamekeeper.
- Cost Wimbledon £10,000 in 1986, then won the 1988 FA Cup.
- Nine Wales caps, via a grandfather born in Ruthin.
- Twelve red cards, plus football’s quickest-ever booking.
- Film debut at 33 won the Empire Award for Best Newcomer.
- Now plays gamekeeper Geoff Seacombe in The Gentlemen.
From Building Sites To The First Division
His dad, Peter, was a gamekeeper; his mum was Glenda Harris. Young Vinnie was schooled in Bedmond and Abbots Langley and captained Hertfordshire Schools. Watford signed him on schoolboy forms at 12, then his parents split and he didn’t kick a ball for three years.
He got back into it at 19 with Wealdstone, humping hods on building sites midweek. That squad won the Alliance Premier League and the FA Trophy in 1984-85, though he watched the Wembley final from the bench. A 1986 loan to Sweden’s IFK Holmsund brought another title.
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£10,000 And The Crazy Gang
Ten grand. That is what Wimbledon paid Wealdstone in late 1986, and he repaid it fast, scoring in his second game, a 1-0 win over Manchester United on 29 November. A club that had gone from fourth tier to first in four years.
Then 1988 happened. Wimbledon beat champions Liverpool 1-0 at Wembley in front of 98,000-odd fans, Lawrie Sanchez got the goal, and Jones later had the trophy tattooed on his right leg. Bobby Gould had sent the lads to the pub the night before.
The Record That Follows Him Everywhere
Twelve red cards. And one record that will never go. In a February 1992 FA Cup tie between Chelsea and Sheffield United, he clattered Dane Whitehouse about three seconds after kick-off and got booked.
“I must have been too high, too wild, too strong or too early,” he wrote in his autobiography, “because, after three seconds, I could hardly have been too bloody late!”
In 1988 a snapper caught him grabbing Paul Gascoigne by the testicles against Newcastle. IMDb still lists the nickname he picked up then, and it fitted the 6 ft 2 in frame: The Axe.
Leeds, Sheffield United And Chelsea
Leeds paid £650,000 in June 1989 and got a surprise. He played all but one league game as they won the Second Division, collecting just three yellows all season under Howard Wilkinson.
David Batty and Gary Speed soon nudged him out. Dave Bassett took him to Sheffield United for £700,000 in September 1990, and Chelsea paid £575,000 a year later, with seven goals in 52 games.
Back at Wimbledon from 1992-93, he made 177 league appearances. The Dons finished sixth in 1993-94, reached both cup semi-finals in 1996-97, and scored the winner at Highbury. Wikipedia’s records put him in 184 Premier League games and 13 goals.
He finished at QPR as player-coach in 1998, scoring on his debut against Huddersfield, then retired in early 1999, aged 34.
Nine Caps For Wales
Wales came calling in December 1994 because his maternal grandfather was born in Ruthin. He debuted against Bulgaria that month, captained the side, and won nine caps without scoring, the last against Belgium in March 1997. Jimmy Greaves publicly mocked the call-up.
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Bans, Fines And Court Appearances
In 1992 he fronted a video, Soccer’s Hard Men, full of tips for budding tough guys. The FA fined him £20,000 and gave him a six-month ban, suspended for three years, and Wimbledon chairman Sam Hammam called him a “mosquito brain”. Jones was unrepentant: “The FA has given me a pat on the back. I’ve taken violence off the terracing and onto the pitch.”
He was convicted in June 1998 of actual bodily harm and criminal damage against a neighbour. A December 2003 air-rage case brought a £1,100 fine, 80 hours of community service, and a lost firearms licence.
The Parts People Forget
He was accused of biting a journalist’s nose in a Dublin hotel in 1995, apologised, and was fined. He played a 2001 friendly for Carlisle United, was guest enforcer at WWF’s Capital Carnage in 1998, and has been president at Soham Town Rangers. He also released a 2002 album, Respect, and fronted Vinnie Jones: Russia’s Toughest, seen in 170-plus countries.
How Vinnie Jones Found Hollywood
Ritchie cast him as mob enforcer Big Chris in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. No training, no drama school, and he took Best Newcomer at the Empire Awards.
Snatch arrived in 2000, and Bullet-Tooth Tony earned him Best British Actor. Gone in 60 Seconds got him noticed in America, even though Sphinx had one line. Swordfish, Mean Machine and EuroTrip came next.
In 2006 he played Cain Marko in X-Men: The Last Stand, and that line, “I’m the Juggernaut, bitch!”, came off an internet parody. He later said no to Deadpool & Wolverine. Escape Plan, The Midnight Meat Train and Madagascar 3 followed, while telly gave him Elementary, Arrow, Galavant and Law & Order.
The Fallout And The Reunion
He and Ritchie fell out after he turned down RocknRolla while drunk. “We drifted apart through the booze,” he told The Louis Theroux Podcast. Years of silence followed until Ritchie offered him The Gentlemen. They hugged it out on set, both in tears, and never discussed it again.
Celebrity Net Worth reckons he is worth around $10 million, including a reported $3 million for Swordfish, a film in which he spoke 49 words. Celebrity Big Brother in 2010 was purely to clear a tax bill. He came third.
Loss, Sobriety And The Countryside
He married Tanya Terry in 1994, having met her at 12 as next-door neighbours in Watford. She died on 6 July 2019, and he wrote Lost Without You: Loving and Losing Tanya the year after. He says he will not remarry. He had precautionary skin cancer treatment in 2013 and gave up drinking.
His 1988 FA Cup and 1985 FA Trophy medals now sit at AFC Wimbledon’s Plough Lane, gifted to the fans. He splits his time between Los Angeles and a West Sussex farm, filmed for Vinnie Jones in the country. Netflix told the full story in Untold UK.
A These Football Times piece called his playing career “an exercise in small-scale self-destruction”. But that streak is what Hollywood kept paying for.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Vinnie Jones?
Ans: A British actor and former footballer, born in Watford in 1965. He played for Wimbledon, Leeds, Chelsea and Wales before turning to film.
Why is Vinnie Jones famous in football?
Ans: He led Wimbledon’s Crazy Gang and won the 1988 FA Cup against Liverpool. His ferocious midfield play made him England’s best-known hard man.
What was Vinnie Jones’ first film?
Ans: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, directed by Guy Ritchie, in 1998. He played Big Chris and won an Empire Award for it.
Did Vinnie Jones really play for Wales?
Ans: He did. Nine caps between 1994 and 1997, and he captained the side, qualifying through a Ruthin-born grandfather.
How many red cards did Vinnie Jones get?
Ans: Twelve. He also holds the record for the fastest booking, three seconds into a 1992 FA Cup tie.
What is Vinnie Jones doing now?
Ans: He plays Geoff Seacombe in The Gentlemen, films Vinnie Jones in the Country, and does after-dinner speaking.
Sources & References
- Celebrity Net Worth – He is worth around $10 million, including a reported $3 million for Swordfish, a film in which he spoke 49 words.
- AFC Wimbeldon – His 1988 FA Cup and 1985 FA Trophy medals are now at Plough Lane, gifted to the fans.
