Grand Rapids born Taylor Lautner celebrates his birthday today, February 11, 1992. An American actor, model and martial artist. Lautner is best known for playing Jacob Black in The Twilight Saga film series.
Taylor grew up in Hudsonville, Michigan, a town near Grand Rapids. He studied martial arts in Holland, Michigan and was ranked number one in his category by the American Sports Karate Association.
Lautner later began his acting career, appearing in bit roles in comedy series such as The Bernie Mac Show (2003) and My Wife and Kids (2004), before having voice roles in television series like What’s New, Scooby-Doo? (2005) and Danny Phantom (2005). In 2005, he appeared in the film Cheaper by the Dozen 2 and starred in The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D. He also starred in the 2011 action film Abduction.
In the late 2000s to keep the role of Jacob Black in further Twilight installments, Lautner through exercise and diet extensively changing his physical appearance and become a teen idol and sex symbol, generating media attention for his looks. In 2010, he was ranked second on Glamour’s “The 50 Sexiest Men of 2010” list, and fourth on People’s “Most Amazing Bodies” list.
In the same year, 2010, Lautner was named the highest-paid teenage actor in Hollywood. This would later be his undoing as he was commanding as much as $10M a picture, something Hollywood could not justify. But he is young yet, he may yet stage a comeback.
Today he is 25. Let’s wish him a happy birthday.