Vinnie Jones

Vinnie Jones was born on 5 January 1965 in Watford, Hertfordshire, to Peter (a gamekeeper) and Glenda (née Harris) Jones. He attended Bedmond Junior School near Watford. After leaving school and rising to fame, Jones would regularly visit Dollis Junior School due to his close relationship with the now deceased headteacher Derek Heasman, formerly of Bedmond Junior School (who received an OBE for services to education). His family relocated to Hertfordshire where he then later attended Langleybury School. He captained the Hertfordshire Schools football team as a teenager.

Wealdstone

Jones' career in semi-professional football began in 1984, when he was 19 years old, at Alliance Premier League side Wealdstone, who had spotted him playing for a local amateur side.[2] A young addition to the experienced Wealdstone team which was the first ever side to achieve the non-league "double" in the 1984–85 season, he was a non-playing squad member at Wembley Stadium in the 1985 FA Trophy final. He combined football with working as a hod carrier on construction sites.[3]

IFK Holmsund

He played one season on loan with Swedish club IFK Holmsund in 1986, helping to lead the team to a Division 3 title.[4][5]

Wimbledon

In 1986, he moved to full-time professional status with Wimbledon, who paid Wealdstone £10,000 for him. He scored on only his second appearance for Wimbledon on 29 November 1986, in a 1–0 win over Manchester United in the First Division. He was a member of the Wimbledon team which won the FA Cup in 1988, beating league champions Liverpool 1–0 in the final.

Leeds United

Jones was transferred to Leeds United in 1989 and was part of the team which finished as champions of the old Second Division, winning promotion to Division One. After helping them win promotion to the top-flight, Jones proved he could thrive, and under the stewardship of Howard Wilkinson and the captaincy of Gordon Strachan, receiving only three yellow cards during the entire season.[6]

Sheffield United

Jones left Leeds United early in the 1990–91 season after losing his first-team place to youngsters David Batty and Gary Speed, as well as new signing Gary McAllister. He returned to Leeds for Lucas Radebe's testimonial in 2006. His former Wimbledon manager Dave Bassett signed him for Sheffield United on his exit from Elland Road.

Chelsea

Jones was sold to Chelsea a year later on 30 August 1991. Jones made his Chelsea debut one day after his signing in the 4–1 win against Luton. On 18 September 1991, Jones scored his first goal for the club in the 2–0 win against Aston Villa.

Wimbledon

After just one year at Stamford Bridge, he was back with Wimbledon in the 1992–93 season, when the FA Premier League had just been formed. He helped Wimbledon equal their best ever league finish in 1993–94, when they finished sixth in the Premier League. Three seasons later, he contributed to another strong season for the club, who reached the semi-finals of both cups and finished eighth in the league. That season he scored the winning goal as Wimbledon won 1–0 against Arsenal at Highbury.[7]

Queens Park Rangers

His second exit from Wimbledon came when he became player/coach of QPR in early 1998, scoring on his debut against Huddersfield Town.[8]

International Career

In December 1994, Jones was named in the Wales squad qualifying via his Ruthin-born maternal grandfather.[9] He made his debut under Mike Smith for Wales on 14 December 1994, three weeks before his 30th birthday, in a 3–0 home defeat to Bulgaria in the Euro 96 qualifiers. The last of his nine caps came on 29 March 1997 in a 2–1 defeat to Belgium in a World Cup qualifier, also at Cardiff Arms Park.[10]

Jones's international call-up was however greeted with consternation and even ridiculed by Jimmy Greaves, who said, "Well, stone me! We've had cocaine, bribery and Arsenal scoring two goals at home. But just when you thought there were truly no surprises left in football, Vinnie Jones turns out to be an international player!".[11]

Jones was known for his "hard man" image.[12] He was sent off 12 times in his career, as well as holding the record for the quickest ever booking in a football match, being booked after just three seconds for a foul on the opposition player Dane Whitehouse in a FA Cup tie between Chelsea and Sheffield United in 1992.[13] In his autobiography, he recalls: "I must have been too high, too wild, too strong or too early, because, after three seconds, I could hardly have been too bloody late!"

In an incident in October 1987, Jones was photographed grabbing Paul Gascoigne by his testicles during a league game for Wimbledon against Newcastle United.[14][15]

Jones with Keith David at The Cape Panel

In 1998 Vinnie Jones made his film debut in Guy Ritchie's crime comedy Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, in which he played a mob enforcer, Big Chris.[20] Jones was typecast in similar roles as criminals or villains, including the dapper gun-for-hire "Bullet-Tooth Tony" in Ritchie's 2000 follow up Snatch. Jones became known to American audiences in the 2000 film remake of Gone in 60 Seconds, in which he played "Sphinx". Although this was a major role with significant screen time, he only had one line of dialogue because his character was a silent, tough brawler. He teamed up with director Dominic Sena again the following year for the thriller Swordfish, where Jones played one of John Travolta's ruthless henchmen.

Jones played Danny Meehan in Mean Machine, a 2001 British remake of the Burt Reynolds film The Longest Yard (retitled Mean Machine for its UK release). He played a former captain of the England national football team, who is sent to prison and subsequently takes control of a team of inmates who play the guards.

He played another football role as Mad Maynard, the leader of a Manchester United football hooligan firm, in the 2004 film EuroTrip. His next role was in the 2006 film, X-Men: The Last Stand, as the X-Men villain Cain Marko/Juggernaut. Jones said that he would like to play Juggernaut in a spin-off. His line in the film, "I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!," was based on a pre-existing Internet parody. [21] The same year, he was featured in another football film, She's the Man as the coach of the Illyria team. In 2007, he played the part of McStarley in The Condemned, about death row inmates forced to fight to the death on a remote island.

Jones played a professional killer in the Kazakhstani film, Ликвидатор ("Liquidator"), in 2011. Jones' character is an elite assassin invited to eliminate the main character. Producers of the film dealt with the Kazakh/English language barrier by writing Jones' character as a mute who does not speak throughout the film. In the same year he played in the movie "Blood out" as Zed. He played a role in the Hungarian film The Magic Boys in late 2012. In the 2004 Japanese film Survive Style 5+, he played a hit-man from Britain. In 2012, Jones voiced "Freddie the Dog" in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. He co-starred alongside Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the action/thriller Escape Plan, released in 2013, and was featured with Danny Trejo in the 2014 horror/thriller Reaper. Also started in Redemption of Blood (2013) with Vinnie Jones.

In 1998, Jones penned an autobiography, Vinnie: The Autobiography,[24] which was later revised and reprinted a year later to include information on his first film appearance in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

During his football career Jones resided in Dronfield, near Sheffield. Jones married Tanya Terry (1966–2019) in 1994 in Watford. She has a daughter by her first husband, footballer Steve Terry. Tanya died of cancer on 6 July 2019.[25] In November 2013 Jones also received treatment after finding a malignant melanoma below his eye.[26]

Jones's son joined the British Army, completing his training in August 2008, and serves in the Blues and Royals.[27]

Jones is an outspoken supporter of the Conservative Party, stating "I am very proud of being British, very pro the monarchy and very Conservative."[28]

He is a supporter of the football team Tottenham Hotspur.[29]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vinnie Jones.

• Vinnie Jones at Soccerway
• Vinnie Jones on IMDb
• Vinnie Jones at National-Football-Teams.com
• Vinnie Jones discography at Discogs