- What makes someone an icon? Is it image, is it ability? Is it humanitarianism? Or is it something harder to pin down like being the right person
to make the right moves at the right time? Maybe it's everything? Well, for car nerds all over the world, myself and everyone else here included, Paul Walker is an icon. His role in the "Fast
and Furious" franchise made him the face for car
culture in Hollywood and beyond. And for a lot of us, he was
like the first car guy we saw that was wearing fricking jean shorts. But who was Paul Walker really? Let's find out. It's time to get you "Up
to Speed" on Paul Walker. (bright upbeat music) A huge thanks to carparts.com
for sponsoring today's video. Well Carl, your truck is 100% fixed. What are you doing, dude? - Sorry, cousin. I was just saying goodbye
to the California moon. Can't believe it's my
last day as Donut intern. - Listen man, even though
you destroyed my Jetta, I sure had a good time
fixing up your truck with the help of carparts.com. They made it quick and
easy to find all the parts that I needed. - All right, well, I guess
it's time for me to go. - Wait, that's yours? - Yeah, this all goofer is all mine. And this is yours. - The keys to your truck? - The keys to your truck, cousin. You know, we had so much
fun fixing that old girl, changed the headlights, fixing the brakes. Heck, I launched myself into
that air, remember that? Mimo. I think it's only right
that you take it over. Be the custodian of our beautiful pickup. - I can't take your truck. - You know, I stayed
out in California here to make sure that you got
the truck that you deserve. - Well, honestly buddy,
thank you for this. And remember, if you ever break down, head on over to carparts.com
to get any parts for any job. - Sayonara cousin, take care. (engine roaring) - These are house keys. Carl. - [Carl] Mimo, I'm coming home. - Now, when we started writing this video, we made sure that we did
not want it to be about the "Fast and Furious"
or somehow turn into a character study of Brian O'Connor. But Paul Walker was
uniquely qualified to play a laid back California car guy, why? Because he was one. - Wooo! - Paul William Walker IV, P. DUB W 4, was born on September 12th,
1973 in Glendale, California. He and his four younger
siblings grew up in a small town of Sunland situated right
next to Soquel Driving Mecca, Tujunga Canyon. Paul's mom Cheryl worked
in the fashion industry buy Paul's dad, Paul-3 was a contractor, a writer and a photographer. When it came to writing and taking pics, Papa Walker focused on his
life's passion, choppers. And he regularly contributed
to motorcycle publications like Easyriders and
Street Chopper magazine. And we'll get back to that
in a minute, all right? Paul's parents jump started
his acting career at the age of two years old, getting
small parts in commercials. - This is my son, Jonathan. His bottom is very close to my heart. - Paul took to it. Acting throughout his entire
childhood with small television roles until he was cast
in his first movie, (beep) the same guys that made "Toxics Avenger". This thing was called
"Monster in the Closet". He was 10 years old and
check out this clip. I'm pretty sure that they don't
have a trademark department. (man groaning) - I got family. - Paul was then cast in his
first radio TV role at 13 in the short lived sitcom "Throb". I know this was like a while ago, It was probably like late
80s but I think throb still meant the same thing
as it does now, right? Here's a clip of "Throb". (chuckles) - As you get older, your
aim will get better. (audience laughing) - Now when he wasn't acting,
young Paul discovered his first true love. Typical of any Southern
California upbringing, he loved ice hockey. JK, it's surfing, dude. He figured out that this acting thing could pay for surfboards
and travel expenses. So this is what he's gonna do forever. His teen years were blurb,
acting, hitting the waves and getting into mischief around Sunland. That is cool of an upbringing
as you can imagine, plus he's so handsome, so handsome. Life's already cool, we haven't
even talked about cars yet. - What? - Dude is like the most handsome guy. Those eyes- - [Nolan] You get lost in 'em. - Paul's dad being so into motorcycles, you might imagine that this
passion was passed down to Paul. Sparking a love for anything
with a motor and two wheels. Well, you'd be wrong. Papa Walker got rid of all his motorcycles when Paul was born and didn't
want his kids to have anything to do with bikes 'cause they're dangerous. He'd lost a few friends
in motorcycle accidents and understandably shielded the children from that lifestyle. And according to Paul's
younger brother, Cody, who is a friend of ours and
we talked to when putting this video together,
their dad raised his kids to be terrified of motorcycles so that they stay away from them. Now while Paul would
eventually own some dirt bikes and ATVs, it was actually
his old grandpa George who turned him into a car guy. Grandpa George was Paul's
maternal grandfather, an old school racer from a
bygone era who always had a racing story to tell
and Paul always listened. Grandpa George has stories about the trips to the Barbell Salt Flats, drag
races and other hot rodder, hooliganism, lit the cornered
fire inside of a young Paul. And while he would later become
known for JDM and Euro cars like GTRs and lightweight M3s, Paul started out as a muscle
car guy and he wanted to do some hot rodding of his own. Maybe he wanted it a little
too much as Paul would later total his dad's Chevy, a
few blocks from their house. Let me know in the comments, how many of you have
wrecked your parents' car, an embarrassingly short
distance from your house? I have. I ran into a curb in my
stepdad's maroon Honda Accord and broke an axle when I was 14. All of the Walker clan
acted when they were young. Paul was the one who stuck
with it until adulthood. His confidence was his
greatest asset in audition. And as someone who's been
on a bunch of auditions, yeah, you gotta be confident. He radiated an extremely relaxed
energy as if he didn't even care whether he got the role
and that might've been true, he'd probably rather be surfing but casting directors
loved it and in the 90s, Paul's acting career
gained a lot of momentum. The late 90s saw Paul's
career really take off. Paul's first leading role
in a feature film was 1998, "Meet the Deedles",
portraying Field Deedle, a slacker surfer turned park ranger bumbling around Yellowstone
with his twin brother. "Meet the Deedles" had Steve Zahn on it, one of my favorite actors ever, love him. But Paul, twin brother was not
played by his real brother, Cody Walker, who looks just like him. It was played by a guy
named Steve Van Wormer who I imagined was the most
stoked when they showed him Paul's headshot and were like, hey, everyone thinks you look like this guy. Here's Paul, here's Cody, here's
Steve Van Wormer, the same. Shasta Steve Zahn, I'd love
to have you on "D List", hit me up, dude. Please check the blue check. Next, he started along
A-listers Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon in "Pleasantville" which is an awesome movie. Then there was the box
office hits "Varsity Blues". I don't want your life. She's all at with Richard Lee
cook and Freddie Prinze Jr. Look at the cast of
these movies, you guys. Paul was in an amazingly
talented group of peers. Then in 2000, the call came. Paul was cast in the most important movie of his career so far. A summer smash hit, sequel,
spawning, phenomenon known as "The Skulls". Starring Pacey Austin's Creek. Paul starred along fellow late
90s, early 2000s heartthrob Joshua Jackson in this
college campers secret society thrill fest, it actually
holds up surprisingly well. Leslie Bibb is great. "The Skulls" made 50 million
bones, no pun intended at the Box Office but that's not why it's important to Paul's story. It was directed by a guy named Rob Cohen and he and Paul hit it
off really well on set. Rob loved Paul's attitude and
work ethic and filled Paul in on his next project. Rob said, "Hey, Paul, I
think I got a movie for you "that you might really dig." And Paul's like, "Oh
yeah, what's it about?" Rob goes, "Fast cars, hot
chicks and you get a gun "and you're an undercover cop." And Paul is like, "Dude, I'm in." That movie, of course was, "Redline". "Redline" was a heist thriller set in the street racing
scene of Southern California. The story was based on
a Vibe magazine article called Racer X by a
journalist named Ken Lee. Racer X depicted the
exploits of street racers in New York Sweeney but
"Redline" will take place in Southern California with
an undercover detective story twist. To prepare for his role,
Paul immersed himself in the world of illicit street racing, heading out to meets in
the middle of the night. Seeing firsthand how real
street racers operated. Paul appreciated how
different the cars were from the ones that he had
grown up lusting after. These out while racers weren't
driving big whole muscle cars like his grandpa George,
they were driving Integras, Eclipses, Civics. This was Paul's first step
in the world of tuning cars and he loved it. In retrospect, "Redline" was a big risk for Universal Pictures. It was a $38 million car
movie held by a director whose previous work
included a Bruce Lee biopic and "DragonHeart" where Sean
Connery played a dragon. - How will you make a living, knight? - Shut up. - And this cast didn't have any big names. Paul was probably the most
well known actor in the cast followed by a Vincent
Diesel who at that point had voiced "Iron Giant", did a big part in "Saving Private Ryan" and
starting the SYFY action flick "Pitch Black" where now that
I'm saying those things, those are all very, very good movies. Those are really good, That's
a really good first three. Now I don't even think that
this movie would get made today. From the outside, the
only thing that this movie had going for it was the
presumption that street racing was on the edge of the cultural
zeitgeist and that's it. A few months before the
release of "Redline", the studio changed the title
to the one that we know today, "The Fast and the Furious". Studio execs may have had some doubts at the back of their minds
but those were quashed as soon as the debut screening was over. Apparently, everyone in the audience knew there was gonna be a sequel
as the credits rolled. I mean, how could you not? Have you watched that movie recently? It (beep). Work on the sequel began
almost immediately. - Let's do this. - But this is where the franchise's
troubled history begins. "The Fast and Furious" was
a huge hit at the Box Office raking in $207 million
on a $38 million budget. Naturally, and I'm on their side here, the cast wanted more money in the sequel, well, they earned it. - No crust. - And I have it on good
authority that Universal did not wanna give Vin Diesel more money. So they did not invite him
back to play Dom Toledo but Paul loved the role
of Brian O'Connor so much that he agreed to the
same pay rate that he got in the first movie. Finally, the studio hired
Tyrese Gibson to co-star and "Two Fast Two Furious"
with another Box Office smash but this success was ironically
not great for Paul's role in the franchise. Universal figured that
since audiences still saw "Two Fast" with only one
original cast member, the next movie could just have no returning cast members at all. An entirely new cast
of lesser known actors would be paid less so, that's
what Universal decided to do. - Why don't you nice boys let
yours cars do the talking? - "Tokyo Drift" featured entirely new cast and an entirely new setting. And right now you're
probably thinking, hey, I thought you said you
didn't want this video to end up being all about
"The Fast and Furious" and you're right to think
that but this franchise was such a big part of Paul's life. So much that according to
Cody Walker, his brother, Paul was crushed that the studio
decided not to include him. Now here's an actor, he's a real car guy, who's immersed himself in
the scene that his movies are helping to define. He's researched and
decided a lot of the cars and now the people making
the movies tell him that he's not in the
movies anymore, that sucks. And Paul wasn't the only
one that thought it sucked. Test screen audiences wondered
where the heck all the actors that they loved from the
first two movies were. Why is this called "The
Fast and Furious" at all if there aren't any people from
"The Fast and the Furious"? Some people even blame
the actors themselves for not being in the movie. Word got out to the general public that none of the original cast were
returning for the threequel. An angry fan sent letters
to Paul accusing him of being too good for the fan base that has supported the series. But they had no idea
that Paul had zero word in the decision. He was understandably pissed
at Universal and the studio was starting to wonder if
they had maybe messed up. Yeah, I think they did. So to salvage the situation,
they devised a plan to shoot a new scene for the end of the film. Brian would show up
connecting the previous movies to "Tokyo Drift" and in the
process, tell the audience that a sequel with the familiar
characters is on the way, the Box Office would be saved. Paul was at a funeral in
Oregon when he got the call and was in no hurry to go back. So Universal made up with Vin Diesel in the form of a fat check
and that's why "Tokyo Drift" ends the way that it does. Unfortunately, no amount
of re-shoots could save "Tokyo Drift" from being kind of a flop, bringing $159 million
which was 77 million less than "Two Fast". I'm no Hollywood big shot,
I tried to be for years but usually you want your sequels to make more money, not less. Could it have been more
successful if the original members were included? Yeah, probably. With a low revenue and even
lower critical reception, put the franchise on the hold. And in the meantime, Paul
had roles in other films like "Eight Below", "Running Scared" and "Flags of our Fathers". Now something that made
Paul stick out in Hollywood was the fact that he
didn't wanna stick out. Despite being a 90s
heartthrob and the star of two huge blockbusters,
Paul wasn't the kinda guy who wanted to go out
on a town and be seen. Most of the time he drove a pickup and when he did wanna have
fun, it wasn't behind the wheel of a flashy exotic, it was
something only a car nerd at the time would know is awesome. Like his prized R34
Skyline GTR, kinda like the one Brian drove at the
beginning of "Two Fast". At the time, this generation
of Skyline was not technically legal in the U.S. but Paul
bought the Sonic silver at 1999, V Spec from a company
called Motorex whose entire business model was built
around importing R34s and making them street legal. The Motorex story is an
entirely different can of drum flavored worms. We made a whole podcast about
it, I'll put a link down below so you guys can listen to it. It's fascinating and thank God, Paul was finally able to make his return to "The Fast and the
Furious" series in 2009 with "Fast and Furious". No those this time. A soft reboot in a time before
soft reboots were the norm. The original cast was back this
time and to no one surprise, the fourth installment
absolutely demolished at the Box Office. Made $360 million. It's almost a million dollars for a day. "Fast and Furious" took the
series from domestic hit to worldwide sensation,
allowing Universal to compete with other monster franchisees
like "Harry Potter", "The Hunger Games" and Marvel
but Paul was still Paul. Well, each fast movie grew his star, Paul continued to stay
out of the tabloids. Only talking with the press
when contractual obligations mandated that he do so
to promote the movies. He was way more famous than
he had ever planned on being with more money than he
knew what to do with. But when disaster struck a small nation, Paul figured out what to do with it. On January 12th, 2010, a
7.0 magnitude earthquake decimated Haiti causing 200,000 deaths. Images of this awful natural
disaster shocked the world and sent Paul in action. He knew that he was in a
position of vast financial privilege and that meant that
he had a moral obligation to help. Within days, he maxed out a
credit card buying supplies. It was on a plane to the
neighboring Dominican Republic to assist in the relief effort. Just five days after the quake, Paul and a few of his
buddies were on the ground passing out the supplies
they had brought with them. This was the birth of Reach Out Worldwide, Paul's disaster response
organization exclusively funded by Paul's acting paychecks. This dude doesn't fundraise,
let me say that again. Paul Walker's disaster
response organization was exclusively self-funded. As in, all of the money came
out of his bank account. Paul decided that running
his own organization was the right course of action. Figuring that if he worked
with an existing charity, they would probably use him for
press instead of letting him help out in the field. He also wanted to avoid
using government grants as those can sometimes have
stipulations on which countries you can and can't use the money on. There's a lot of celebrities
that want people to think that they're involved in big
causes but Paul actually was and he uses own two
hands and his own money to get things done. And to date Reach Out has
completed 61 deployments in 61 different countries
powered by 1,778 volunteers. That's pretty cool, right? Back to the car movies. Under new director Justin Lin,
"The Fast and Furious" series took a turn into a more
action oriented direction. And as a result, the movies
made even more money. "Fast Five" doubled the
previous installment at the Box Office raking
in 626 million bones. "Furious Six" added
150 mil on top of that. Paul and his co-stars were
certified mega celebrities recognized around the world. The kid from Sunland
who just wanted to surf and drive a muscle car like his grandpa was the face of one of the
biggest movie franchises in the history of movies. By every measure, Paul
had made it huge but that didn't stop him from driving
a Toyota Tundra pickup truck to work every day. On November 30th, 2013, tragedy struck. We knew it was coming. Paul was on a drive with Roger
Rodas who was Paul's partner in a tuning shop venture
called Always Evolving. Paul was riding shotgun
in a Porsche Career GT, a notoriously difficult to
drive mid-engine super car. And we know the rest. (somber music) The news sent shockwaves
through the car movie worlds but instead of focusing on Paul's passing, I'd like to keep his
legacy in mind, right? Paul's charity Reach Out Worldwide is still very active today. Run by his brother, Cody
Walker and his wife Felicia. You can actually support
Reach Out by attending any of the totally
bad-ass FuelFest car shows that they host in different
spots around the world a few times a year. And of course, you can always donate money to Reach Out as well. I'm gonna put a link in
the description down below, no pressure but if you're
gonna donate to something, this is a good one. For car nerds all over the
world, Paul Walker is an icon but he's also a man of contradiction. He starred in some of
history's biggest movies but he hated being famous. He could afford to buy
any exotic car he wanted but instead filled his
garage with old Nissans and drove his truck to set. And at the end of the
day, Paul Walker was a man with a big heart who loved his family and just wanted to surf. Thank you guys for watching this video. It's really like a close to our heart. Paul was a huge influence on
what we have going on here and we're close with his brother and it was really
meaningful to tell his story and I hope you guys liked it. Big announcement, the Donut
Underground has a shirt now. We gotta a shirt. Now, if you don't already
know, the Donut Underground is our membership club for super fans. Members get access to
behind the scenes videos, a Discord server, exclusive
stickers, merch discounts and now, there's a shirt. A freaking shirt, has the same color way as our new stickers which members voted on a couple of months ago. You get input into what we make. The shirt is $25 and only
available to Underground members. To find out how to join, click
the join button down below on this video or on our
channel page or for iOS users, check out the link in the description. We got a shirt. Hit the subscribe button
and the like button. We have merch available in donutmedia.com. Really, you should check
out a FuelFest event, maybe we'll do something
with them in the future. Let us know down below if
you want that to happen. I love you. (bright upbeat music)
Shouldnt this clip be zero seconds long?
Hosted by the motoring world's James Corden.