MARK RUFFALO

'Mark Alan Ruffalo' (born November 22, 1967) is an American actor.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Career

Personal life

Selected filmography

Quotes

Footnotes

External links

Biography

Early life

Ruffalo was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin to second-generation Italian American parents Frank Ruffalo, a construction painter, and Maria, a hairdresser and stylist.^[1][2] He has two sisters, Tania and Nicole, and a brother, Scott. Ruffalo has described himself as a "happy kid"^[3] and his upbringing as taking place in a "very big Italian family with lots of love".^[4] Ruffalo spent his teen years in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where his father worked. He graduated from First Colonial High School and then moved with his family to San Diego, California and later to Los Angeles, California where he took classes at the Stella Adler Conservatory and co-founded the Orpheus Theatre Company. With the OTC, he wrote, directed, and starred in a number of plays, but overall his luck with acting was not great, and he spent the next 9 years earning his living as a bartender.

Career

Ruffalo had minor roles in films like ''The Dentist'' (1996), the low-key crime comedy ''Safe Men'' (1998) and Ang Lee's acclaimed Civil War Western ''Ride With the Devil'' (1999). Through a chance meeting with writer Kenneth Lonergan, Ruffalo began collaborating with Lonergan and appeared in several of his plays, including the original cast of ''This Is Our Youth'' (1998), which led to Ruffalo's role as Laura Linney's troubled, aimless drifter brother Terry in Longeran's acclaimed, Academy Award-nominated 2000 film ''You Can Count on Me''. He received strongly favorable reviews for his performance in this film, often earning comparisons to the young Marlon Brando, and won awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and Montreal World Film Festival.
This led to other significant opportunities, including the films ''XX/XY'' (2002), Isabel Coixet's ''My Life Without Me'' alongside Sarah Polley (2003), Jane Campion's ''In the Cut'' alongside Meg Ryan (2003), Michel Gondry's ''Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'' (2004), and ''We Don't Live Here Anymore'' (2004), which is based upon two short stories written by Andre Dubus. He appeared opposite Tom Cruise as another homicide detective in Michael Mann's acclaimed crime-thriller ''Collateral'' (2004). More recently, Ruffalo has appeared as a romantic lead in "chick flicks" such as ''View From the Top'' (2002), ''13 Going on 30'' (2004), ''Just Like Heaven'' (2005) and ''Rumor Has It'' (2005). In 2006, Ruffalo starred in Clifford Odets's ''Awake and Sing!'' at the Belasco Theater in New York, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. In March, 2007, Ruffalo starred in ''Zodiac'' as SFPD homicide inspector Dave Toschi who ran the investigation to find and apprehend the Zodiac killer from 1969 through most of the 1970s.

Personal life

In 2002, Ruffalo was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had surgery, which resulted in a period of partial facial paralysis, even though the tumor was found to be benign. He fully recovered from the paralysis and returned to good health as well as an active life and movie career. He has been married to French-American actress Sunrise Coigney (born Christina Sunrise Coigney on September 17, 1972 in San Francisco) since June of 2000, and they have two children: a son Keen born in 2001, and a daughter Bella born in 2005, and are expecting a third child in the fall 2007. ^[5][6] In 2003, Sunrise and Katherine Azarmi Rose opened an L.A. boutique, Kaviar and Kind. ^[7]
On October 4, 2006, he appeared on daily news program ''Democracy Now!'' to speak against the war on Iraq, the Military Commissions Act, torture, and the Bush administration in general. He also announced that he would be speaking at the The World Can't Wait protest in New York City on October 5, 2006. Ruffalo ^[8] is currently supporting Mike Gravel in his 2008 Presidential Bid.

Selected filmography

★ 1996: ''The Last Big Thing''

★ 1996: ''The Dentist''

★ 1998: ''Safe Men''

★ 1998: ''54''

★ 1999: ''Ride with the Devil''

★ 2000: ''You Can Count on Me''

★ 2000: ''Committed''

★ 2001: ''The Last Castle''

★ 2001: ''Apartment 12''

★ 2002: ''XX/XY''

★ 2002: ''Windtalkers''

★ 2003: ''My Life Without Me''

★ 2003: ''View from the Top''

★ 2003: ''In the Cut''

★ 2004: ''We Don't Live Here Anymore''

★ 2004: ''Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind''

★ 2004: ''13 Going on 30''

★ 2004: ''Collateral''

★ 2005: ''Just Like Heaven''

★ 2005: ''Rumor Has It''

★ 2006: ''All the King's Men''

★ 2007: ''Zodiac''

★ TBA: ''Blindness''

Quotes

★ Mark Ruffalo was once asked what it was like being married to a French woman. "''It's great''," he replied. "''I love it when she speaks French. It's like I'm cheating on her!''"
Source : Esquire, March 2004, p. 114.

Footnotes

1. http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2004/edition_05-09-2004/featured_0
2. http://www.corrieretandem.com/viewstory.php?storyid=7084
3. http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/pearlman/271775,SHO-Sunday-movies25.article
4. http://www2.jsonline.com/enter/movies/dudek/dec00/count21122000.asp?format=print
5. http://www.nypost.com/seven/03042007/gossip/liz/an_african_idol_liz_liz_smith.htm?page=2
6. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20014646,00.html
7. http://www.la.com/shoppingandbeauty/5671011.html
8. http://www.newsmeat.com/celebrity_political_donations/Mark_Ruffalo.php

External links

★

★ Clips from Ruffalo interview on Inside the Actors Studio