The cast of SPECTRE : Dave Bautista

When the ad for Mr Hinx went out it was short and to the point. And Dave Bautista, who was eventually cast, could have been born for the role. Here we look at his life and career so far.

Mr Hinx

Dave Bautista was born in Washington on 18th January 1969 to a Filipino father and Greek mother. Brought up by his grandfather following his parents separation, Bautista dreamed of escaping the extreme poverty in which he lived by becoming a professional wrestler.

Taking up bodybuilding, he sometimes worked as a nightclub bouncer and lifeguard, but his dream of becoming a wrestler took some time to realize until, finally, he was accepted into the training school run by Afu Anoa’i.

Bautista first came to limelight in 2000 wrestling under the name Leviathan where he won the Ohio Valley Wrestling heavyweight belt. In 2002 he started wrestling at WWE events, assuming the name Deacon Bautista, and a year later joined the Evolution team.

During his time in WWE he won the WWE Championship twice, was crowned World Heavyweight Champions four times, won the World Tag Team Championship three times, the WWE Tag Team Championship and the Royal Rumble on two occasions.

In 2010, having left WWE permanently due to creative differences, Bautista went into mixed martial arts, but his hopes of a contract with Strikeforce fell through when the mixed martial arts and kickboxing organizer was taken over. In the end he only competed professionally in mixed martial arts once.

Bautista has appeared in a number of television programs including the American series Smallville and long running Australian soap Neighbours. After a number of direct to DVD movies, he appeared in martial arts film The Man With The Iron Fists (2012) and sci-fi movies Riddick (2013) with Vin Diesel and Guardians of The Galaxy (2014).

In August 2014 a casting call was put out for the next James Bond movie, at the time known simply as Bond 24:

Hinx (Male, 30 – 45)

Ideally over 6′ 2″. Hinx is the main henchman/assassin. We are looking for an imposing extremely physically fit actor. He has several fights with Bond and will have to have stunt training. He has to drive. We are looking for someone very unusual, possibly from a sports background.

The description seems to match Bautista perfectly and news of his signing was leaked in October, with confirmation from Sam Mendes at the SPECTRE launch event in December.

Photo: publicity still

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