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Before They Were Famous: Vince Vaughn on '21 Jump Street'

This weekend, Vince Vaughn will be battling extraterrestrials alongside Ben Stiller, Jonah Hill and Richard Ayoade in "The Watch," a sci-fi comedy about a group of suburban buddies who suddenly find themselves trying to save Earth from alien takeover.

Before he was warding off space invaders, Vaughn headed to Hollywood via way of Illinois during the early '90s after being cast in a Chevy commercial. He initially struggled with a lot of rejections until he finally landed a few small roles in after-school specials and television shows.

After taking an uncredited part as a "cheering soldier in the crowd" in the feature "For the Boys," he booked his first big screen speaking gig as a college football player in "Rudy." Jon Favreau also happened to be in the film, and the two formed a friendship. It wasn't until they worked together on "Swingers" that Vaughn got his big break. He starred as Trent, a sly-talking, Vegas-loving cool cat who coined a new meaning for the term "money." The character initially wasn't in the script, but Favreau wrote in the part just for him.

After "Swingers" was released, Steven Spielberg took notice of Vaughn and cast him in the blockbuster hit, "The Lost World: Jurassic Park." The exposure earned him leading-man status. Fast forward eight years later: Vaughn struck gold with "Wedding Crashers," which won him an MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Team with co-star Owen Wilson. And the rest is history.

While he's never looked back, we sure did, and found his one-episode appearance on "21 Jump Street." The show was a stepping stone for many young actors, including Johnny Depp and other famous faces you may notice in the clip. Check out 19-year-old Vince Vaughn as a high-school student discussing a shake-up at his school with some fellow classmates (hint: He comes in close to the five-minute mark).

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