Born November 22, 1967, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to Frank and Maria Ruffalo, Mark spent his growing up years in both Wisconsin and later, in his teens, in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He later moved with his family to San Diego, and finally Los Angeles, California. It was in Los Angeles that Ruffalo began to explore his interests and abilities in the world of acting.

Ruffalo took acting classes at L.A.’s Stella Adler Conservatory and later co-founded the Orpheus Theatre Company (OTC), in which he wrote, directed, produced, and starred in multiple plays. However, Mark’s hard work in OTC didn’t give him the start he needed, and he ended up working as a bartender for nine years to pay the bills before his film debut with a minor role in The Dentist in 1996, starring Corbin Bernsen and Linda Hoffman. He played other minor roles in other films such as Safe Men in 1998 and Ride with the Devil in 1999, but remained a relatively unknown actor until he connected with writer Kenneth Lonergan.

Mark and Kenneth began working together on various projects and Mark acted in a few of his plays. Then he moved on to play actress Laura Linney’s character’s troubled wanderer brother in Kenneth Lonergan’s successful and Academy Award-nominated movie You Can Count on Me in 2000. The film also featured Matthew Broderick and Rory Culkin. Mark’s performance garnered him critical acclaim, opening the eyes of Hollywood and film reviewers everywhere to this new talent. Ruffulo was often compared to a "young Marlon Brando" and won various awards from the Montreal World Film Festival and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

After You Can Count on Me, Mark Ruffalo played many significant roles in several notable films including XX/XY, with Maya Stange and Kathleen Robertson in 2002; My Life Without Me, featuring Sarah Polley in 2003; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet in 2004; and We Don’t Live Here Anymore in 2004, also starring Laura Dern, Peter Krause, and Naomi Watts. Ruffalo also went on to play in more prominent films such as the crime thriller Collateral in 2004, with established actor Tom Cruise.

More recently, however, Mark Ruffalo has disappointed his loyal fan base by changing directions from playing deeper, more emotional and dramatic characters in mostly independent films, to playing the romantic male lead in high-profile chick flicks including View From the Top in 2003, opposite Gwyneth Paltrow; 13 Going on 30 in 2004, opposite Jennifer Garner; Just Like Heaven in 2005, opposite Reese Witherspoon; and Rumor Has It in 2005, opposite Jennifer Aniston.

Mark Ruffalo also worried his fans when he was diagnosed with brain tumor in 2002. He ended up having surgery and suffering temporary partial face paralysis, but the tumor was benign, and he has recovered completely. Since June of 2000, Mark Ruffalo has been married to actress Sunrise Coigney, and the couple has two children, son Keen, born in 2001, and daughter Bella, born in 2005.

YUDDY