Mark Ruffalo

Mark Ruffalo (born 22.11.1967)

Mark Ruffalo is an American actor, director, screenwriter and producer.

Mark Ruffalo: Childhood

Mark Ruffalo was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to Marie Rose and Frank Lawrence Ruffalo Jr. His mother was a hairdresser and his father was a construction worker. Mark was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended Catholic school, as did his two sisters Tania and Nicole and brother Scott.

As a teenager, Mark Ruffalo was raised in Virginia Beach, Virginia and he graduated from First Colonial High School, before moving with his family to San Diego, then Los Angeles.

Whilst in Los Angeles, Ruffalo took classes at the Stella Adler Conservatory, which counts Marlon Brando, Warren Beatty and Robert de Niro amongst its alumni. He went on to form the Orpheus Theatre Company.

Mark Ruffalo: Acting Career

In the late 1990s, Mark Ruffalo had a number of small film roles, in productions such as The Dentist, an American horror film, 1998's Safe Men, starring Sam Rockwell. In 1999, he landed a role in Ang Lee's Civil War Western, Ride with the Devil.

After collaborating with the writer Kenneth Lonergan, Ruffalo eventually ended up playing the role of Terry, alongside Laura Linney in Lonergan's Oscar-nominated film You Can Count on Me in 2000.

The success of this role led to a number of others, including the lead in XX/XY along with Kathleen Robertson and a role opposite Sarah Polley in My Life Without Me. In 2003, Ruffalo starred in In The Cut, alongside Meg Ryan and then took a role the following year in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which starred Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet and Kirsten Dunst.

2004 saw Ruffalo starring alongside Tom Cruise in the Michael Mann thriller Collateral. The film also featured Jamie Foxx. After his work in Collateral, Ruffalo went on to star in a number of more light-hearted 'chick-flicks', such as 2005's Just Like Heaven, with Reese Witherspoon and Jon Heder.

Returning to theatre, Mark Ruffalo starred in the 2006 production of Awake and Sing at New York's Belasco Theatre. His performance earned him a Tony Award nomination.

In 2007, Mark Ruffalo appeared as the SFPD homicide inspector Dave Toschi in Zodiac, along with Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr. That same year, Ruffalo starred in Reservation Road with Joaquin Phoenix. Ruffalo's next major role was to play a con man in The Brothers Bloom, along with Rachel Weisz and Adrien Brody. This was followed by a brief role in Spike Jonze's Where The Wild Things Are, which featured a soundtrack by Karen O of the band Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

In 2010, Mark Ruffalo co-starred in Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, along with Leonardo Dicaprio and Michelle Williams. Later that year, he starred in The Kids are Alright, with Julianne Moore and Annette Bening.

Mark Ruffalo: Personal Life

Mark Ruffalo was diagnosed with a benign brain tumour in 2002. As a result of the tumour, he briefly suffered a period of partial facial paralysis.

Mark Ruffalo's brother, Scott, was shot dead in Beverley Hills in 2008.

In 2000, Mark Ruffalo married the French-American actress Sunrise Coigney. They have three children together: son Keene and daughters Bella Noche and Odette.