Jason Lee was born in
Orange, California on
April 25, 1970. He started to ride the
skateboard when he was still a young teenager, and by the time he was 16, he dropped out of school to become a
professional skateboarder. Jason was one of the best at the time, and he won numerous
tournaments and championships.
Lee started his acting career in 1993, when he got a small role in a movie called Mi Vida Loca by Allison Anders, but he can be seen in some music videos even before that. His breakthrough movie was 1995's Mallrats, by Kevin Smith, in which Jason plays Brodie Bruce, a comicbook collector who's just been dumped by his girlfriend, and goes to the mall with his best friend (who also was dumped that day). Jason's performance in Mallrats impressed the world, and from that moment he stopped skateboarding and started acting for a living.
While working on Mallrats, Lee became friends with Kevin Smith, and has played a part in every one of Kevin's movies ever since. He played Banky Edwards in 1997's Chasing Amy, the demon Azrael in 1999's Dogma, and returned to play both Banky and Brodie in Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back, which should be released summer 2001. If Kevin Smith goes on to direct Fletch, he wants Jason to play the title role, which would be a younger version of the character that was once played by Chevy Chase.
Jason has played in other movies too besides those of Kevin Smith. He had a small role in 1998's Enemy Of The State, where he acted alongside Will Smith, and played Jeff Bebe, the singer of Stillwater (a rock band) in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous (2000). Crowe liked Lee very much, and because of that, Jason can be seen in Crowe's upcoming movie Vanilla Sky, which also stars Tom Cruise.
Does Jason still ride the skateboard? Unfortunately not. He claims he still only rides it a few times a year. I don't think he misses it though. He's got a lovely wife, Carmen, and his acting career isn't going very bad either. He married Carmen a little while before Mallrats was filmed, and she can be seen on posters in the movie. She also got a small role in Chasing Amy. However, Jason is not related to either Bruce Lee or Stan Lee, but he did act together with Stan in Mallrats.
Jason Lee's complete filmography:
(according to the IMDB)