But it's his work in the "Fast and Furious" franchise that Walker will most be associated with on the screen. Over the weekend, scores of fans bid their own farewell to the actor in "Furious 7," watching him for the last time as Brian O'Conner, the family man who also fights international villains as part of a street racing crew.
But Walker's history with the franchise is a complicated one. The actor nearly quit the series -- and Hollywood altogether -- numerous times during the 12 years he worked on the "Furious" films.
His journey with "Furious" began in 2000, shortly after he'd finished filming "The Skulls," a thriller about a corrupt college fraternity that maybe 10 of you saw, with Universal Pictures. The movie's director, Rob Cohen, and producer, Neal Moritz, asked Walker what he wanted to do next. He said his dream project would be a mash-up of "Days of Thunder" and "Donnie Brasco" -- something in which he could be both an undercover cop and a race car driver. So the filmmakers brought him a Vibe article they'd found about undercover street racing in L.A.