Background

Ethnicity: Ruffalo's father is of Italian ancestry. His maternal grandfather was of French/French-Canadian descent, and his maternal grandmother was of Italian descent.

Mark Ruffalo was born on November 22, 1967, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the United States, to Marie Rose (Hebert), a stylist and hairdresser, and Frank Lawrence Ruffalo, a construction painter. He has two sisters, Tania and Nicole, and a brother, Scott (died 2008).

Mark moved with his family to Virginia Beach, Virginia, where he lived out most of his teenage years. Following high school, Mark moved with his family to San Diego and soon migrated north, eventually settling in Los Angeles.

Although he suffered from undiagnosed dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in his growing years, he recalled himself being a “happy kid” growing up in a "very big" family with "lots of love."

Education

Ruffalo attended both Catholic and progressive schools throughout his education. After graduating from First Colonial High School, he took classes at the Stella Adler Conservatory and subsequently co-founded the Orpheus Theatre Company, an Equity-Waiver establishment, where he worked in nearly every capacity. From acting, writing, directing and producing to running the lights and building sets while building his resume.

Career

The theater was a platform for Ruffalo’s own acting and he landed small parts on TV and in films as well, but it was a meeting with playwright Kenneth Lonergan that changed his fate. Ruffalo began appearing in Lonergan's plays, notably This Is Our Youth, which led to his landing the male lead in Lonergan's soon-to-follow film You Can Count on Me (2000). Ruffalo’s performance drew critical and popular attention, and he took his first steps onto the Hollywood map. Notable roles came one after the next, and Ruffalo had prominent parts in such films as XX/XY (2002), Windtalkers (2002) and In the Cut (2003).

In 2004 Ruffalo appeared in four movies: We Don't Live Here Anymore, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 13 Going on 30 and Collateral, films widely varied in genre and therefore collectively showcasing Ruffalo’s range.

After 2004, Ruffalo slowed down a bit, but he was nevertheless consistently appearing on screens across the world. Films such as Just Like Heaven (2005), All the King's Men (2006), Zodiac (2007) and Reservation Road (2007) all helped to build Ruffalo’s already blossoming reputation in Hollywood. (He also managed to appear on Broadway in 2006, where he earned a Tony Award nomination for his starring role in Awake and Sing!)

Ruffalo changed gears a little in 2009 when he directed the indie film Sympathy for Delicious, which was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. That year he also starred in The Kids Are All Right, which led to his first Academy Award nomination. The film also helped him garner Independent Spirit, SAG and BAFTA nominations, among a host of others.

A high-profile role in Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island (2010) preceded Ruffalo's biggest role to date: that of Bruce Banner, a.k.a. the Hulk, in the 2012 blockbuster The Avengers. He reprised this role in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and its sequel in 2019.

In addition to the Hulk, Ruffalo has tackled other interesting roles. He appeared in the crime thriller Now You See Me (2013) with Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg, the sex-addiction indie comedy Thank You for Sharing (2013), with Gwyneth Paltrow and Tim Robbins, and the musical drama Begin Again (2014), with Keira Knightley.

Returning to his theater roots, in a sense, Ruffalo took on the lead in The Normal Heart, a TV adaptation of an acclaimed Broadway play about the beginning of the AIDS crisis. The 2014 cable movie proved to be a hit with television viewers. More than one million people tuned in to watch the premiere of the star-studded drama, also featuring Julia Roberts, Matt Bomer, and Jim Parsons. The Normal Heart wowed critics as well and earned Ruffalo an Emmy Award nomination.

Later that year, Ruffalo appeared as one of the lead roles in the drama Foxcatcher, playing a wrestler affiliated with millionaire and self-appointed trainer John du Pont. The film, co-starring Steve Carell and Channing Tatum, garnered major awards buzz and critical interest, and Ruffalo earned both Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for his role.

Continuing his string of successes, Ruffalo delivered a strong performance as a manic-depressive father trying to prove his parenting abilities in the 2015 comedy-drama Infinitely Polar Bear, snagging a Golden Globe nomination for his work. He later earned another Oscar nod, this time for his portrayal of newspaper reporter Mike Rezendes in the 2015 drama Spotlight, which follows the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal in Boston. The film itself won an Academy Award for Best Picture in 2016.

Achievements

• 

  Ruffalo gained nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing a sperm donor in the comedy-drama The Kids Are All Right (2010), Dave Schultz in the biopic Foxcatcher (2014), and Michael Rezendes in the drama Spotlight (2015). He also won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor in a TV Movie for playing a gay writer in the television drama film The Normal Heart (2015).
  
  For his environmental advocacy, Mark Ruffalo received a Global Green Millennium Award and a Meera Gandhi Giving Back Foundation Award. Also chosen as one of the "People Who Mattered" in 2011 by Time magazine.

Works

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  • Now You See Me

    (Four talented magicians mesmerize an international audien...)

    2013
  • Margaret

    (A 17-year-old New York City high school student feels cer...)

    2011
  • What Doesn't Kill You

    (Ethan Hawke and Mark Ruffalo lead an all-star cast in thi...)

    2008
  • Ride With the Devil

    (Director Ang Lee presents the Civil War as it happened in...)

    1994
  • In The Cut

    (This sensual thriller features Meg Ryan and Mark Ruffalo ...)

    2003
  • Reservation Road

    (Academy Award nominee Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, and ...)

    2007
  • All The King's Men

    (Sean Penn and Jude Law head an all-star cast in this rive...)

    2006
  • Thor: Ragnarok

    (In Marvel Studios' Thor: Ragnarok, Thor must race against...)

    2017
  • Now You See Me 2

    (The Four Horsemen return for a second mind-bending advent...)

    2016
  • Rumor Has It

    (Sarah Huttinger, whose return home with her fiance convin...)

    2005
  • Avengers: Infinity War

    (With the powerful Thanos on the verge of raining destruct...)

    2018
  • Spotlight

    (This critically acclaimed film chronicles the true story ...)

    2015
  • The Kids Are All Right

    (Annette Bening and Julianne Moore star in this funny, sma...)

    2010
  • A View From The Top

    (Academy Award-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow stars in th...)

    2003
  • Zodiac

    (Based on the true story of the notorious serial killer an...)

    2007
  • Blindness

    (Victims of a mysterious epidemic of blindness sweeping th...)

    2008
  • Date Night

    (A typical suburban couple's date night becomes much more ...)

    2010
  • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

    (Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet lead an all-star cast in this...)

    2004
  • Begin Again

    (A disgraced record exec (Mark Ruffalo) forms a bond with ...)

    2013
  • Infinitely Polar Bear

    (Based on a true story, a funny and touching portrait of t...)

    2014
  • The Brothers Bloom

    (The con is on when two swindlers (Adrien Brody, Mark Ruff...)

    2009
  • Avengers: Endgame

    (The fourth installment in the Avengers saga is the culmin...)

    2019
  • There Goes My Baby

    (It's 1965, the school year is drawing to a close and a gr...)

    1994
  • 13 Going On 30

    (After a humiliating experience with the coolest boy in sc...)

    2004
  • Foxcatcher

    (Based on true events, the fascinating and dark story of a...)

    2014
  • You Can Count on Me

    (A single mother's life is thrown into turmoil after her s...)

    2000
  • My Life Without Me

    (An impoverished woman with only two months to live create...)

    2003
  • Thanks For Sharing

    (An all-star cast in an unconventional romantic comedy abo...)

    2013
  • Mirror Mirror 3: The Voyeur

    (A young man discovers a mysterious mirror and begins to h...)

    1995
  • Mirror Mirror 2: Raven Dance

    (A mysterious mirror is found hidden in a church orphanage...)

    1994
  • Chicago 10

    (Chicago 10 channels yesterday's voices for peace in a man...)

    2007
  • XX/XY

    (Austin Chick's drama follows a man who must decide twice ...)

    2002
  • Committed

    (A young woman goes in search of her midlife crisis suffer...)

    2000
  • Windtalkers

    (A powerful, true story about members of the Navajo tribe ...)

    2002
  • 54

    (Famous 70's NYC nightclub seen and told through the eyes ...)

    1998
  • The Avengers

    (Marvel makes cinematic history as it unites the superhero...)

    2012
  • Collateral

    (Vincent is a cool, calculating contract killer at the top...)

    2004
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron

    (Marvel Studios unleashes the epic follow-up to Marvel's T...)

    2015
  • Safe Men

    (Two untalented singers are mistaken for major league safe...)

    1998
  • Where the Wild Things Are

    (One of the most beloved books of all time is now a featur...)

    2009
  • We Don't Live Here Anymore

    (Jack and Hank are professors at Cedar CountyCollege. Terr...)

    2004
  • The Last Castle

    (His service to his country made him a hero. One mistake m...)

    2001
  • Last Big Thing

    (The Culture Is Going Down On Itself... From a bland tract...)

    1996
  • Just Like Heaven

    (He's convinced she's a spirit. She's convinced she's stil...)

    2005
  • Shutter Island

    (When U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels arrives at the asylum for...)

    2010
  • Apartment 12

    (An L.A. artist (Mark Ruffalo) suddenly finds his life ups...)

    2001
  • The Dentist 1996

Religion

Ruffalo was brought up a Catholic.

Politics

In June 2017, Ruffalo endorsed Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in the 2017 United Kingdom general election. He urged Elizabeth Warren to run for president in 2016, then supported Bernie Sanders before throwing his celebrity weight behind Hillary Clinton. "Art and artists have always had a hand in political movements, in shifts in cultural thinking. It’s part of our cultural function," he told in 2013 when asked if actors should put their heads above the parapet.

Ruffalo and the rapper Common spoke out about the policy of separating families at the United States border. Ruffalo described it as a "humanitarian crisis."

Ruffalo was one of a number of leftwing celebrities who held a rally, organized by the newly formed campaign group We Stand United, in New York ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration. "For every actor and celebrity that went on stage, there was an environmentalist out there, or a civil-rights specialist, a labor person or someone in healthcare," Ruffalo said. The high-profile activists, who also included Cher and Robert de Niro, provided the star wattage "to help people who are actually fighting the fight have their voices heard." Last year, Ruffalo helped create the People’s State of the Union, a night of speeches and music, to "hear it from the people who are really out there working so hard for this nation every single day."

Views

Ruffalo is widely known as an environmental activist, particularly focusing his efforts on combating fracking in New York state. Receiving an environmental award at Dickinson College in early 2015, Ruffalo notably told graduates, "I'm here to tell you that 'activist' is not a dirty word." Living that message, Ruffalo founded the Solutions Project, which pushes for 100 percent renewable energy, and is active with Water Defense, a group dedicated to clean water initiatives.

He is also a staunch supporter of LGBTQ+ rights and supports the pro-choice movements. Ruffalo has been vocal in his support for reproductive rights. In 2013, he published a powerful open letter to be read out during a pro-choice campaign, in which he wrote about the “traumatizing” and “demeaning” illegal abortion his mother had undergone. “Do we actually stand for anything, if what we do stand for is under attack and we say nothing?” he wrote. He has explained his opinion by saying: "I don't want to turn back the hands of time to when women shuttled across state lines in the thick of night to resolve an unwanted pregnancy, in a cheap hotel room."

Quotations: "When you're a young actor and you're really fighting to have your place in the world - for me anyway - it took a mental focus and energy and striving. It took a long time. And it was my whole life."

"People say funny things all the time during really serious moments in life."

"Take these tragic things and turn them into something meaningful and worthy of the loss. Make it count."

"Love conquers all - love is the grace that transcends any kind of injustice in the end."

"I like to think the movies that I've picked have something worthwhile to say. Something relevant."

Personality

Ruffalo has been known to improvise on the sets of his films. In 13 Going on 30, he allegedly improvised several scenes with Jennifer Garner, and he joined in with the rest of the cast when they improvised much of their dialogue in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Must be all the method training he got at the Adler Academy.

He practices meditation and has done so for many years. Mark Ruffalo mentioned in a RollingStone magazine interview that meditation calms his overactive, racing mind. Mark Ruffalo discovered meditation after noticing a remarkable change in a friend.

Physical Characteristics: During his ramp-up to wider success, Ruffalo suffered a setback in 2002 when he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The surgery to remove the tumor, which was determined to be benign, led to a period of partial facial paralysis, but Ruffalo recovered fully and his career picked up right where it had left off.

Interests

• Growing strawberries on his farm

• Politicians

  Bernie Sanders

• Writers

  I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb

• Sport & Clubs

  wrestling

Connections

Ruffalo has been married to actress Sunrise Coigney since 2000, and together they have three children; a son named Keen and two daughters named Bella Noche and Odette. The family lives in a quiet rural area on a former dairy farm two hours from the center of Manhattan.

Father:

Frank Lawrence Ruffalo Jr.

Mother:

Marie Rose Ruffalo

Spouse:

Sunrise Coigney

Brother:

Scott Ruffalo

Mark Ruffalo's brother, Scott, died December 8, 2008, after being found outside his Beverly Hills home after a gunshot wound to the head. He was a 39-year-old hairdresser and was married to Luzelena. His body was cremated.

Son:

Keen Ruffalo

Daughter:

Bella Noche Ruffalo

Daughter:

Odette Ruffalo

colleague:

Casey Affleck

colleague:

Nicolas Cage

colleague:

Gwyneth Paltrow

colleague:

Naomi Watts

colleague:

Kirsten Dunst

colleague:

Kevin Costner

colleague:

Joaquin Phoenix

colleague:

Elle Fanning

colleague:

Donnie Wahlberg

colleague:

Leonardo DiCaprio

colleague:

Michelle Williams

colleague:

Chris Hemsworth

colleague:

Jeremy Renner

colleague:

Jesse Eisenberg

colleague:

Woody Harrelson

colleague:

Anne Hathaway

colleague:

Karen Gillan

colleague:

Sebastian Stan

colleague:

Tom Holland

colleague:

Angela Bassett

References

• Mark Ruffalo on Twitter
• Mark Ruffalo on Instagram
• Mark Ruffalo on Facebook