The Rock

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... as the Pendari Champion

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (born 2 May 1972; age 51) portrayed the Pendari Champion in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Tsunkatse". He acquired fame for his accolades as a professional wrestler with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), but he has since retired from wrestling to focus on a full-time acting career. He is the first WWE superstar to make a guest appearance on Star Trek; he was followed by Tommy "Tiny" Lister, Jr. and The Big Show, both of whom guest-starred on Star Trek: Enterprise.

Born in Hayward, California, USA (although he was billed as being from Miami, Florida due to his having attended college at and played football for the University of Miami), Johnson is a third-generation professional wrestler who made his debut with WWE (then known as the World Wrestling Federation, or WWF) in 1996 as "Rocky Maivia", a combination of his father Rocky Johnson's first name and his grandfather "High Chief" Peter Maivia's last name (both former WWF wrestlers). With a later "attitude adjustment" to his character, he changed his ring name to "The Rock". He subsequently became famous not only for his wrestling but also for such trademark gestures as "The People's Eyebrow" (in which he raises his right eyebrow to the crowd or to his opponent - he can be seen doing this during his Voyager appearance) and his signature line "Do you smell what the Rock is cooking?" (with the word "smell" generally drawn out). He retired in 2004.

Posing with Rick Berman

Johnson's appearance in Voyager predated the true launch of his acting career. He made his breakthrough film appearance in the 2001 sequel The Mummy Returns, portraying Mathayus the Scorpion King. He later reprised the role as the star of The Scorpion King (with Branscombe Richmond and Joseph Ruskin) in 2002. Since then, he has starred in such films as The Rundown (with Jeff Chase, William Lucking, and Todd Stashwick). He went on to star in the remake of Walking Tall (opposite Neal McDonough and Barbara Tarbuck), Doom (opposite Karl Urban), Southland Tales (with John Larroquette, Holmes Osborne, and Wallace Shawn), Gridiron Gang (with Leon Rippy and Brett Cullen), and The Game Plan (with Gordon Clapp). He also made a cameo appearance as an inept (and ill-fated) S.W.A.T. officer in Reno 911!: Miami.

With the release of the 2008 film adaptation of the TV series Get Smart, in which he played Agent 23, Johnson dropped the use of the nickname "The Rock" from his acting credits, presumably to further disassociate his acting career from his former wrestling persona and to avoid any copyright claims the WWE may have on the moniker. He then starred in Disney's 2009 science fiction-adventure film Race to Witch Mountain, which also featured Bob Clendenin, Ike Eisenmann, John Kassir, and Tom Woodruff, Jr. He also voiced the lead role in the 2009 CGI-animated science fiction comedy Planet 51.

More recently, he co-starred with Ashley Judd in the 2010 fantasy comedy Tooth Fairy. He also made an appearance in the 2010 comedy Why Did I Get Married Too?, which was written, produced, and directed by Tyler Perry. Perry also starred in the film, while K Callan had a supporting role. Johnson also appeared in the action comedy The Other Guys, the revenge thriller Faster as well as 2011's Fast Five.

Much hype was made of Johnson's announced voicing of the Autobot Cliffjumper in the Roberto Orci/Alex Kurtzman-produced Transformers: Prime cartoon series, though Cliffjumper was killed in the very first episode. Frank Welker, who voices Megatron, also provided the "voice" of a zombified Cliffjumper in the second episode. Jeffrey Combs, Clancy Brown, and Tony Todd are among the voice actors for that series.

In 2011, The Rock made a surprise return to WWE, acting as the host of WrestleMania XXVII. In 2012, Johnson returned to the ring to compete in his first match in 8 years at WrestleMania XXVIII, held in his adopted hometown of Miami, which he won against John Cena. He then went on to compete at the 2013 Royal Rumble where he won the WWE Championship from defending champion CM Punk. He then lost the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania XXIX, in New York, to John Cena. He later made an appearance at the opening ceremony of Wrestlemania XXX in 2014.

External links

• WWE Roster Profile
• Dwayne Johnson at Wikipedia
• Dwayne Johnson at IMDB (The Internet Movie Database)