Vinnie Jones: Celebrity Big Brother star's 25 maddest moments
1) Vinnie says he talks to his grandfather "almost every day". Alas, Arthur Jones died in 1977.
2) Former hod carrier Vinnie rose to prominence in 1988 when, while playing for Wimbledon against Newcastle, he grabbed Paul Gascoigne's testicles in an incident immortalised by a classic Daily Mirror photograph . Last year, Vinnie proposed a reality TV show in which he would "kidnap" Gazza and take him hunting and shooting on a deserted island. "I thought it would be cleansing for his body and his mind," he said.
3) Vinnie is obsessed with Olivia Newton John. He once bunked off school eight days in a row to watch Grease at the cinema and, after meeting the Aussie songbird/actress in 2001, said: "That sort of thing makes you feel like a little minnow. It makes you realise how far you are away from being a superstar."
4) After beginning his acting career with the surprisingly good Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels in 1998, Vinnie has starred in over 40 feature films. He has lofty ambitions, once saying: "My goal is an Oscar. It has to be."
5) Vinnie's subsequent films include The Heavy, The Bleeding, Midnight Meat Train, Return Of The Ripper, Hell Ride and Garfield 2: A Tail Of Two Kitties. He still awaits recognition from the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences.
6) Sent off 12 times in his professional career for Wimbledon, Leeds, Sheffield United, Chelsea and QPR, Vinnie was once booked after three seconds of a match and claims to have been sent off inside four seconds after appearing as a sub for rich men's plaything Hollywood FC.
7) In 1995, Vinnie viciously bit the nose of Daily Mirror reporter Ted Oliver during a booze bender in Dublin's Jury's Inn hotel. When one bystander shouted, "Get him a doctor", Fleet Street legend Oliver replied: "No - get me a photographer." Vinnie later admitted to biting the noses of "three or four people" during his youth, explaining: "I bit them for the craic."
8) Shortly before the nose-biting incident, Vinnie had thrown slices of toast at Gary Lineker, who was in town for an England v Ireland international. Vinnie had previously branded 'Jug Ears' Gary " a wimp and a jellyfish" for quipping that the best way to watch Wimbledon was on Teletext.
9) Vinnie claims to have been surprised by a fan who asked him to sign a distressed copy of the Lock, Stock DVD. According to Vinnie: "I said, ‘dude, it’s all muddy’ and he said, ‘well I lost my house in Hurricane Katrina. I grabbed four things and this was the first thing I grabbed in my house.’ He’s got no house, no nothing and one of the first things he saved was the Lock, Stock DVD."
10) Recruited by Howard Wilkinson to add team spirit to Leeds, Vinnie responded by punching Bobby Davison in the mouth on his first day after being told to play the ball to his feet. Vinnie later threatened Wilkinson with a shotgun after he was dropped.
11) Acording to Elland Road folklore, Vinnie used to neck a bottle of Gold Label barley wine before taking the field during Leeds United's 1989/90 promotion campaign. Here he is leading a chorus of Leeds anthem "Marching On Together ".
12) Vinnie is said to have introduced himself to Kenny Dalglish at Liverpool in 1986 by spitting on the 'This Is Anfield' sign and growling "I'm gonna rip your head off and shit down the hole". He revised the welcome slightly for Alan Hansen before the 1988 FA Cup final, promising "I'm gonna rip your leg off then hit you over the head with the soggy end".
13) Despite having a criminal conviction for ABH after attacking his neighbour in a row over a stile - as you do - Vinnie was allowed into the United States because, he says, "it weren't anything to do with kids or drugs or kidnapping."
14) Vinnie lives by a saying from the Kabbalah: "Everyone has a devil on their shoulder, and it's like a dog, and you've got to keep the dog in the kennel. So as long as you can do that, you're okay." In 2003 he was sentenced to 809 hours of community service for an air rage attack. "I let the dog out of the kennel," he reflected.
15) In The Condemned, Vinnie's character is said to have "executed 17 men, raped nine women" in a single day. He said of filming: "The laughs were fantastic. But the scene where I rape the girl, you can’t just walk into work and be laughing and joking and do a scene like that."
16) Vinnie one admitted to "having a brain the size of a gnat", while former Wimbledon chairman Sam Hamman dubbed him "mosquito brain".
17) Mockney film director and granny fancier Guy Ritchie says: "If there was a nuclear explosion or something, wiping everything out, you'd somehow bet that Vinnie would be left standing." More like a cockroach than a gnat or mosquito, then.
18) Vinnie might have put his glittering Hollywood career on hold had he been named QPR manager in 1998. He claims he would have been offered the job but went out to Newbury horse races and found a message on his answerphone which said: "We can't get hold of you, so we're making Ian Dowie manager.'''
19) In 2007 Vinnie contributed a stunning spoken-word track to pop Wurzel Joss Stone's CD Introducing Joss Stone. The lyrics included these wise words: "I know change/I see change/I embody change... We are born to change/ We sometimes regard it as a metaphor/That reflects the way/Fings ought to be."
20) In 2002 Vinnie recorded his own album, Respect, featuring him murdering soul classics like Dock Of The Bay, In The Midnight Hour and Bad, Bad Leroy Brown . One customer review on Amazon.com reads: "This is the greatest album I have ever heard. Vinnie Jones makes Gandhi look like a pornographer."
21) Vinnie's 2003 reality show , imaginatively called Vinnie, was a ratings disaster for BBC3, attracting just 10,000 viewers - even smaller than a Wimbledon FC crowd.
22) When Vinnie won Best Newcomer of 1999 at the Empire Film Awards, Bond girl Maria Grazia Cucinotta opened the envelope and announced: "The award goes to... Winnie Jones"!
23) In December 2008, Vinnie needed 48 stitches in his face after being involved in a bar brawl in South Dakota , where he had gone to shoot pheasants. He said: "My nose was hanging off." Though, ironically, as a result of a broken bottle rather than a bite.
24) Vinnie enjoys the country sport of hare coursing - in which hares are chased by greyhounds - and has attended its Grand National of cruelty, The Waterloo Cup.
25) Vinnie is distressed that there is too much skill in football these days. He said: "It's so sad. F***ing basketball on grass now, innit?"
See classic pictures of Vinnie Jones in our amazing football archive
Column
Crass of the Day: Why Gary Lineker should be ashamed of his xenophobic mocking of Arsene Wenger
Columnists 11:07 03/05/12Shame on Gary Lineker. His mockery, stupid French accent and derision of Arsene Wenger at the end of... Read More+
Column
Stop rewriting history: Hodgson may have got it, but Redknapp is still the better man for the job
Darren Lewis 10:45 03/05/12The revisionism surrounding Harry Redknapp this week has been an education to behold. Suddenly his f... Read More+
Column
Big Match Verdict on Chelsea 0-2 Newcastle: Torres has been transformed in a week
John Cross 22:27 02/05/12Fernando Torres has been transformed in little over a week. In fact, the Spaniard was the odd man ou... Read More+
