Star warrior

The 56-year-old megastar is one of the biggest names in Hollywood. He earned his stripes starring as the ultrasmooth gangster Jules in Quentin Tarantino's seminal flick Pulp Fiction, and has been popping up on our screens three or four times a year ever since.

But the imposing actor admits he still gets mistaken for Matrix star Laurence Fishburne.

"When we're standing together people have called him by my name and me by his. People shout at me, 'Hey, love that Matrix man!' I say, 'Yeah, me too!'."

But Sam isn't fazed. And why should he be? His films have grossed more than three billion dollars worldwide, more than any other actor.

Of course, he may have been a supporting star in many of those flicks, like Die Hard, but don't go telling Sam that, he likes being talked about as box-office gold.

And as Jedi knight Mace Windu in Star Wars, he has written himself into Hollywood folklore as part of one of the biggest phenomenons in cinema history. It's clear he loves it.

"It's a fantastical world full of people who have special abilities. You have to be a lot more omnipotent and less vulnerable than a human being because they are," he says.

"They're characters from different planets, everybody's experience is different except for the Jedi, which is a whole closed society."

Being a Jedi knight is something most Star Wars fans dream about, let alone aspiring actors. For Sam, it was something he had always wanted to do.

"When I sat there watching the first one, all I wanted to know was how I could get into a movie like that. Granted it took me 30 years to figure out, but it's something you wish you could be in and a lot of times that never happens."

It's said Sam came to the attention of writer and director George Lucas for The Phantom Menace in 1999 after admitting on British television that he wanted to work on the science fiction hits.

"I was passionate enough about it that when the opportunity presented itself and I was able to do it, I did it," he says. "I feel good that I was able to make that happen for myself."

So far, the two prequels, The Phantom Menace and Attack Of The Clones, have been criticised for letting down the original trilogy. Perhaps expectations were too high, but Sam thinks Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith will bring everything together.

"Hopefully this one will wrap up all those loose ends so that everyone will feel some sense of satisfaction when they sit down to watch all six by the time George puts them all out."

As for Windu, he's set to die in the final instalment, and Sam was happy to go out in a blaze of glory.

"I don't mind dying, I just didn't want to go out like some punk," he says. "It's a great light sabre battle with 102 moves in three big rooms, it's very rousing."

The Star Wars films are such a phenomenon and the fans so dedicated that being in them feels like being a part of cinema history for Sam.

"Star Wars fans are a kind of different breed of people," he admits. "There are some who even write down Jedi on their job applications as religion.

"Years down the line, out of all the movies I've done, that particular series will be studied as a watershed moment that kind of changed the way films got made and marketed," he adds. "They're the grand-daddy of independent films."

Although he is happy to do small projects like Freedomland, which he's currently shooting with Julianne Moore, or John Boorman's recent inter-racial drama In My Country in South Africa, Sam relishes his action man image.

Being in two current action blockbusters, xXx2: The Next Level and Star Wars: Episode III Revenge Of The Sith, is testament to this fact.

"It's fun for me to do action movies and get off on shooting guns and chasing people," he says. "It's part of the stuff I did with my friends in the street."

Life wasn't always so good for Sam. It was Spike Lee who gave him his biggest break casting him as a drug addict in Jungle Fever in 1991.

Having come out of drug rehab for real a few weeks before shooting the film, Sam's performance was so eye-catchingly realistic it kick-started his career.

Playing the Bible-quoting hitman alongside John Travolta in Pulp Fiction three years later made him a star and earned him an Oscar nomination.

"I have a place that's pretty much cemented in Hollywood in terms of box-office viability and everything else. The only thing an Oscar would do is jack up my cheque by maybe a million dollars," he says.

Married to wife LaTanya for 25 years and with a 23-year-old daughter Zoe, Sam finds it strange that someone who thinks of himself as pretty normal is also treated as a celebrity.

"I'm actually very ordinary, except people get to pay their money to come watch me work. It's a very double-edged sword," he says. "I was a square for so long it totally amazes me that people think I am cool."

But Sam's not one of those stars who maintain they don't like seeing themselves up on the screen. "I think everyone who says they don't like watching themselves in movies should stop lying."

Real name: Samuel Leroy Jackson

Birthdate: December 21, 1948

Significant other: Wife LaTanya Richardson

Career high: Playing Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction - who can forget the Ezekiel speech?

Career low: Being camera stand-in for Bill Cosby back in 1984

Famous for: That chilling onscreen gaze

Words of wisdom: "A movie is just a movie to me. They open, they close."