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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". Acquiring fame for his accolades as a professional wrestler with World Wrestling Entertainment (aka "WWE"), he has since retired from the sport and has made a complete transition to a full-time acting career. He is the first WWE superstar to make a guest appearance on Star Trek, two others being 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 the 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 ringname 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) and his signature line "If you smell what the Rock is cooking?" (with the word "smell" generally drawn out). He retired in 2004 but still holds the record for the most reigns as WWE Champion.
Johnson 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 in 2002. Since then, he has starred in such films as The Rundown (with Jeff Chase, William Lucking, and Todd Stashwick), 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), The Game Plan (with Gordon Clapp), and Race to Witch Mountain (with Bob Clendenin, Ike Eisenmann, and John Kassir). He also made a cameo appearance as an inept (and ill-fated) S.W.A.T. officer in Reno 911!: Miami.
More recently, he co-starred with Ashley Judd in the upcoming fantasy comedy Tooth Fairy and voiced the lead role in the CGI-animated science fiction comedy Planet 51.
With the release of Race to Witch Mountain, Johnson has dropped the use of the nickname "The Rock" from his acting credits, presumably to futher disassociate his acting career from his former wrestling persona.
External links
- WWE Alumni Profile
- Dwayne Johnson at Wikipedia
- Template:IMDb-link