Vin Diesel

Diesel began writing, financing and directing his own short films as a young actor struggling to find roles in New York, a self-starting persistence that eventually caught the attention of Steven Spielberg.

He voiced the Iron Giant using almost no vocabulary beyond his own name, building one of animation's most affecting performances out of vocal texture alone — reportedly a personal passion project he took on for little pay. He had recently broken through with a small role in Saving Private Ryan.

He went on to become one of the biggest action stars in the world through the Fast & Furious franchise, a career trajectory that makes this early, quiet vocal performance something of an outlier.