One might think that with the roles Vince Vaughn receives today, he has always been as "money" as his Swingers character Trent. Actually, Vaughn is living proof of an actor finally making it despite the "make it or break it" gritty Hollywood life. Although he will soon be co-starring in one of the summer's biggest movies, The Cell alongside Jennifer Lopez Vaughn has come a long way since his days of doing the television circuit to pay his bills.

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on March 28, 1970, Vincent Anthony Vaughn's name is the result of his mother's fondness of double "V" names, like his father's name, Vernon Vaughn. Born and raised in the heartland, Vaughn is the youngest of three siblings, with two older sisters Valerie and Victoria. The Vaughns also had an extended family: their three dogs, Viking, Vero and Vladimir.

Many wonder whether Vaughn's hip, trendy and ultra-suave character in the cult hit Swingers is autobiographical. The only thing that Vaughn and swinger Trent have in common is their hyperactivity. Vince was sent to a psychiatrist on his elementary school's request, and was even prescribed Ritalin to calm him down, but his parents refused to give it to him.

While studying at Forest Lake High School, Vaughn was a bad student, to say the least, and even ran for class president to decrease his chances of being expelled from school before graduation. Not only was he elected president, but he also graduated as part of The Class of 1988.

After graduation, Vaughn moved to Los Angeles, joining the hoards of aspiring actors trying to make it in Hollywood. Vaughn did have acting experience when he was young: at the age of 8, he played Daddy Warbucks in a theatre production, while his Annie co-star was 4 years his senior! Playing orphan Annie's adoptive father was not such a hard feat, with Vaughn now standing at 6' 5".

Convinced that he could make it as an actor after receiving a part in a national Chevy commercial, Vaughn learned that getting that big break as an actor was not an easy task. In order to pay the bills, he appeared in several TV shows, such as China Beach, 21 Jump Street and Doogie Howser, M.D.

Vaughn's hopes of becoming a big-time actor were looking pretty dim, and he seemed fated to doing no better than made-for-TV movies for the rest of his life. He came pretty close to winning supporting roles in Alive, School Ties and Dazed and Confused, but hearing the constant rejections of casting agents became his daily routine.

The struggling actor finally did land a role in the football movie Rudy, but most of his scenes ended up on the cutting room floor by the time the film was released in theatres. He did, however, appear in the 1994 film At Risk, but since this role was Vaughn's only one in three years, it seemed his chances of making it big were at risk.

Then came Vaughn's opportunity of a lifetime. He was cast as Trent in the film Swingers, which was written, directed, and co-starred Vaughn's real-life friend, Jon Favreau. Favreau had created Trent with Vaughn in mind, inspired by Vaughn's impersonations of the pretentiousness of his actor friends.

The film about a group of friends doing the tour of the L.A. club scene and picking up women in the process received rave reviews, but was hailed by critics, and spawned a whole new Swinger vocabulary, complete with how to pickup "beautiful babies" in clubs and act "money".

A few interesting notes about the film: Jon Favreau's character in the film was a struggling actor, close in reality to Vince Vaughn's real situation, while Vaughn's real-life father used to be a gambler, and had a cameo in the Las Vegas scene of Swingers.

Vaughn's career began to take off, especially after his convincing portrayal of Trent. His big break came along when Steven Spielberg was shown Swingers during the production process, since Favreau wanted to use Spielberg's Jaws music for a pickup scene. Impressed by Vaughn's performance and even more impressed after meeting the actor, Spielberg knew that he would be perfect for the role of Nick Van Owen in the sequel to the monstrous hit, Jurassic Park.

After The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Vaughn had a starring role in Return to Paradise, co-starring Anne Heche; portrayed a serial killer in Clay Pigeons that same year; and starred as motelier Norman Bates in the controversial remake of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. In 1999, Vaughn starred in A Cool Dry Place, which went straight to video, and co-starred Joey Lauren Adams, who Vaughn has been romantically linked to.

Now that Vaughn's star is on the rise, you can catch him in this summer's suspenseful sci-fi film, The Cell, sharing the screen with the sexy Jennifer Lopez Another film with fellow swinger himself, Jon Favreau, and former Bond girl Famke Janssenis also coming up, but the release date is still tentative.

With at least four more movies to be released in 2000 and 2001 to add to Vaughn's acting resume, it's clear that this Vaughn is invince-able.