Mark Ruffalo
Mark Ruffalo | |
|---|---|
 Ruffalo at the 2011 New York Comic Con | |
| Born | Mark Alan Ruffalo November 22, 1967 Kenosha, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Actor, director, producer, screenwriter |
| Years active | 1988–present |
| Spouse |
Sunrise Coigney (m. 2000) |
| Children | 3 |
Mark Alan Ruffalo (born November 22, 1967)[1] is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He is known for portraying the Marvel Comics character, Bruce Banner / The Hulk in The Avengers (2012). Other notable films in which he has starred are You Can Count on Me (2000), Collateral (2004), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Just Like Heaven (2005), Zodiac (2007), even worthless films such as Shutter Island (2010), and Now You See Me (2013). For his role in The Kids Are All Right (2010), he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.[2] Since 2010, he has become a supporter of the creation of 100% clean energy (including a campaign to "Put Solar On It"[3] and various anti-fracking groups including Artists Against Fracking).
Early life
Ruffalo's mother, Marie Rose (née Hebert), is a hairdresser and stylist, and his father, Frank Lawrence Ruffalo, Jr., worked as a construction painter.[2][4][5] He has two sisters, Tania and Nicole, and a brother, Scott,[2] who died in December 2008. His father was of Italian descent, while his mother is of half French Canadian and half Italian ancestry.[6][7] Growing up, Mark's mother and most of the rest of his family were Catholic; his grandmother, who lived with the family, was Evangelical Christian; and his father was a member of the Bahá'í Faith. [8]
Ruffalo has described himself as having been a "happy kid"[9] and his upbringing as taking place in a "very big" family with "lots of love".[10] Of his father, Ruffalo has said, "He was an amazing, charismatic guy who was city high school wrestling champion three times. He was away a lot when I was growing up. I was very lonely for him.”[11] Ruffalo was raised Roman Catholic; he attended both a Catholic and a progressive school.[12]
Ruffalo spent his teen years in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where his father worked. Ruffalo competed in wrestling in junior high and high school in Wisconsin and Virginia. He graduated from First Colonial High School,[2] and then moved with his family to San Diego, and later to Los Angeles, California. There, he took classes at the Stella Adler Conservatory and co-founded the Orpheus Theatre Company.[2] With the OTC, he wrote, directed, and starred in a number of plays, and spent the next nine years earning his money as a bartender.
Career
Acting
Ruffalo had minor roles in films like The Dentist (1996), the low-key crime comedy Safe Men (1998) and Ang Lee's 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 Lonergan's acclaimed, Academy Award-nominated 2000 film You Can Count on Me.[2] He received 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.[2] This led to other significant roles, including the films XX/XY (2002), Isabel Coixet's My Life Without Me with Sarah Polley (2003), Jane Campion's In the Cut with 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.[2] He appeared opposite Tom Cruise as a narcotics detective in Michael Mann's acclaimed crime-thriller Collateral (2004).[2] 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).[2] In 2006, Ruffalo starred in Clifford Odets's Awake and Sing! at the Belasco Theatre in New York, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.[2] In March 2007, he appeared 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.[2] In 2007, Ruffalo played divorced lawyer Dwight Arno, who accidentally kills a child and speeds away, in Terry George's film Reservation Road, based on the novel by John Burnham Schwartz.
In 2008, Ruffalo starred as a con man in The Brothers Bloom with Adrien Brody and Rachel Weisz. Also in 2008, he starred along with Julianne Moore in Blindness. 2008 also saw Ruffalo in Brian Goodman's What Doesn't Kill You with Ethan Hawke and Amanda Peet, which was shown at the Toronto Film Festival. In 2009, he played a brief role in the film Where The Wild Things Are as Max's mother's boyfriend. In 2010, he costarred in the Martin Scorsese thriller Shutter Island as U.S. Marshal Chuck Aule, the partner of Leonardo DiCaprio's character Teddy Daniels.[13]
In 2010, he starred in Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right, with Annette Bening and Julianne Moore. Ruffalo stated in an interview that he approached Cholodenko after watching High Art and said he would love to work with her. Years later, she called Ruffalo and said she wrote a script, and had him in mind for the part. The performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor.[14]
He is set to star in Second Coming, a low-budget indie film. According to Production Weekly, it is being produced by Richard N. Gladstein, Laura Bickford, and Ludovic Dardenay. The movie will also star Marion Cotillard, Ethan Hawke, Anjelica Huston, and Thandie Newton, and it will be the directorial debut of Nenad Cicin-Sain.[15]
On July 23, 2010, it was announced that Ruffalo would star in the 2012 superhero film The Avengers, the sixth installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, replacing Edward Norton in the role of Bruce Banner / the Hulk.[16] Ruffalo received critical acclaim for his performance and will reprise the role in any future film adaptations of the character produced by Marvel Studios.[17] Ruffalo also made an uncredited cameo appearance as Bruce Banner in Iron Man 3, making him the first actor to reprise the role in a live-action movie. He will reprise the role again in Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015.
Directing
He made his directorial debut with Sympathy for Delicious, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Special Jury Prize. On releasing the film, Ruffalo said, "I'm still looking for distribution. I have a couple offers on the table, but I'm holding out for something a little bigger. I've been screening it for a lot of groups, and people are really responding to it. I think they're scared of that movie."[18] Of directing, he says, "I liken it to an actor gets to eat one slice, and a director gets to eat the whole pie. [laughs] You get to collaborate with gifted people who are good at their craft, so you're orchestrating all these different mediums. You're helping people through the script to realize their own talents. I find that really satisfying, and I felt like being in front of the camera is so intense and self-involved and personal, and directing isn't like that for me. It's a much more communal experience. Last year at this time, I was like, 'I'm not going back to acting, man. No way, it's done.' I haven't worked in a year. It's really taken me that long to get back to my love for what I do for acting. I would like to do 50-50, if I could. Really, I'd just be directing right now, but I can't support my family doing that at this moment, and I love acting. It's not a bad position to be in."[18]
Personal life
Since June 2000, Ruffalo has been married to former French-American actress Sunrise Coigney (born Christina Sunrise Coigney on September 17, 1972 in San Francisco), and they have three children: a son Keen, born in 2001, and daughters Bella Noche, born in 2005, and Odette, born in 2007, in Los Angeles, California. The family now lives in New York City.[19]
In 2002, Ruffalo was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma, a type of brain tumor, and had surgery; the tumor was benign, but resulted in a period of partial facial paralysis.[4] He fully recovered from the paralysis and returned to good health as well as an active life and movie career.
On December 1, 2008, Ruffalo's brother, Scott, was shot at his Beverly Hills condominium,[20] with one report describing the shooting as "execution-style" in the back of the head.[21] Scott died on December 8, 2008. Police took two people into custody: a woman who is considered a suspect and a man considered a "person of interest".[22] One of the suspects reportedly told police that Scott Ruffalo shot himself while playing Russian roulette;[23] the witnesses were later released as the police investigation continued.[24]
Political views
On October 4, 2006, he appeared on Democracy Now!, a daily news program. He spoke against the War in Iraq, the Military Commissions Act of 2006, torture, and the Bush Administration. He also announced he would speak at The World Can't Wait Protest in New York City on October 5, 2006. Ruffalo contributed to the campaign of former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel for the 2008 Democratic Party nomination for President.[25]
He appeared on Penn & Teller: Bullshit! on August 14, 2008's episode entitled "World Peace". He said that "Peace looks like me and my kids and my wife laying in our bed on a Saturday morning... it's a love-in, y'know? John Lennon had it right, y'know?" [26] In 2012, he endorsed Kathleen Kane, the Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania Attorney General, due to her insistence on investigating the Jerry Sandusky scandal, hydrofracking and the Hershey Trust for alleged improprieties.[27] Kane went on to become Pennsylvania's first woman Attorney General and Democrat elected to the post.
Ruffalo is pro-choice. He explained his stance 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."[28]
Opposition to fracking
In 2008, Ruffalo worried that gas companies are eyeing his family's land in Callicoon, New York. After doing his own investigation, New York magazine wrote, he becomes "anti-fracking's first famous face."[29] On October 4, 2010, Ruffalo appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show to discuss hydraulic fracturing and the The FRAC Act of 2009.[30] He stated in the December 2010 issue of GQ magazine that after he organized screenings in Pennsylvania of a documentary about natural-gas-drilling called Gasland, he was placed on a terror advisory list.[31] The Department of Homeland Security denied that they had him on a list.[32]
On July 13, 2011, Ruffalo appeared on Countdown With Keith Olbermann to discuss fracking, particularly in New York. "This is an industry that is the dirtiest, slimiest, most arrogant, and negligent that you can imagine," he said. Ruffalo taped an "online segment extra" for Countdown, during which time Keith Olbermann offered him the opportunity to become an official Countdown Contributor. Ruffalo gratefully accepted.[33]
He has appeared on The Colbert Report and Real Time with Bill Maher to discuss his continued opposition to fracking and to promote waterdefense.org.[clarification needed][34] His neighbors with a family house near his in Callicoon, Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon, decided to mobilize their friends around the anti-fracking cause, and in August 2012 Artists Against Fracking was launched with Ruffalo and the two heading it. Alec Baldwin is a member.[29]
On April 25, 2013, Ruffalo laid out his full case against fracking in a piece co-authored with Phil Radford on CNN.com, where he argued solar and wind are here now, and using fracked natural gas instead of cleaner sources of energy will result in more faucets on fire, methane leaks that cause global warming, groundwater contamination, and cancer-causing chemicals in communities.[35]
That same year, Ruffalo began promoting The Solutions Project along with Stanford professor Mark Jacobson and private equity investor Marco Krapels. The Solutions Project is presented as a way for the U.S. to generate 100% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2050.,[36][37]
Filmography
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Film
| Year | Title | Roles | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Rough Trade | Hank | Short |
| 1994 | Mirror, Mirror 2: Raven Dance | Christian | |
| 1994 | There Goes My Baby | J.D. | |
| 1995 | Mirror, Mirror III: The Voyeur | Joey | |
| 1996 | The Destiny of Marty Fine | Brett | |
| 1996 | The Dentist | Steve Landers | |
| 1996 | Blood Money | Attorney | |
| 1996 | The Last Big Thing | Brent Benedict | |
| 1998 | Safe Men | Frank | |
| 1998 | 54 | Ricko | |
| 1999 | How Does Anyone Get Old? | Johnnie | Short |
| 1999 | A Fish in the Bathtub | Joel | |
| 1999 | Ride with the Devil | Alf Bowden | |
| 2000 | You Can Count on Me | Terry Prescott | |
| 2000 | Committed | T-Bo | |
| 2001 | The Last Castle | Yates | |
| 2001 | Apartment 12 | Alex | |
| 2002 | XX/XY | Coles | |
| 2002 | Windtalkers | Private Pappas | |
| 2003 | My Life Without Me | Lee | |
| 2003 | View from the Top | Ted Stewart | |
| 2003 | In the Cut | Detective Giovanni A. Malloy | |
| 2004 | We Don't Live Here Anymore | Jack Linden | Also executive producer |
| 2004 | Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind | Stan | |
| 2004 | 13 Going on 30 | Matt Flamhaff | |
| 2004 | Collateral | Fanning | |
| 2005 | Just Like Heaven | David Abbott | |
| 2005 | Rumor Has It... | Jeff Daly | |
| 2006 | All the King's Men | Adam Stanton | |
| 2007 | Chicago 10 | Jerry Rubin (voice) | |
| 2007 | Zodiac | Inspector Dave Toschi | |
| 2007 | Reservation Road | Dwight Arno | |
| 2008 | Blindness | Doctor | |
| 2008 | What Doesn't Kill You | Brian Reilly | |
| 2009 | The Brothers Bloom | Stephen | |
| 2009 | Where the Wild Things Are | Adrian | |
| 2009 | Sympathy for Delicious | Joe | Also director and producer |
| 2010 | The Kids Are All Right | Paul | |
| 2010 | Shutter Island | Chuck Aule / Dr. Sheehan | |
| 2010 | Date Night | Brad Sullivan | |
| 2011 | Margaret | Gerald Maretti | |
| 2012 | The Avengers | Bruce Banner / The Hulk | |
| 2013 | Thanks for Sharing | Adam | |
| 2013 | Iron Man 3 | Bruce Banner | Uncredited cameo |
| 2013 | Now You See Me | Dylan Rhodes | |
| 2013 | Begin Again | Dan Mulligan | |
| 2014 | Infinitely Polar Bear | Cam Stuart | Also executive producer |
| 2014 | Foxcatcher | Dave Schultz | |
| 2015 | Avengers: Age of Ultron | Bruce Banner / The Hulk | Filming |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | CBS Summer Playhouse | Michael Dunne | Episode: "American Nuclear" |
| 1994 | Due South | Vinnie Webber | Episode: "A Cop, a Mountie, and a Baby" |
| 1997 | On the 2nd Day of Christmas | Bert | TV movie |
| 1998 | Houdini | Theo | TV movie |
| 2000 | The Beat | Zane Marinelli | 8 episodes |
| 2014 | The Normal Heart | Ned Weeks | TV movie |
Awards and nominations
References
- ^ "Monitor". Entertainment Weekly. No. 1182. November 25, 2011. p. 30.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Mark Ruffalo". Inside the Actors Studio. Season 13. Episode 6. March 19, 2007.
{{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter|rk=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|serieslink=ignored (|series-link=suggested) (help) - ^ "Mark Ruffalo Pledges To Put Solar On It".
{{cite episode}}: Missing or empty|series=(help) - ^ a b Radar, Dotson (May 9, 2004). "I Wouldn't Give Any Of It Back". Parade. Retrieved September 20, 2007.
- ^ Baldassarre, Angela (March 4, 2007). "On the trail of a real-life serial killer". Tandem. Retrieved September 20, 2007.
- ^ Susan Wloszczyna (September 15, 2005). "Ruffalo ascends to the next level in 'Heaven'". USA Today. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- ^ About The Artist
- ^ "Mark Ruffalo Whose Father Was Bahai Talks About a Hilarious/Tragic Religious Event from his Childhood". Retrieved June 2, 2014.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ Pearlman, Cindy (February 25, 2007). "Working on a killer movie". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved September 20, 2007.
- ^ Dudek, Duane (December 20, 2000). "United by loss: Ruffalo nails his role in drama about 2 siblings who share painful past". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved September 20, 2007.
- ^ "Mark Ruffalo: 'I Wouldn't Give Any Of It Back'". Parade Magazine. March 9, 2004.
- ^ Mark Ruffalo Speaks Out For Women's Reproductive Rights (VIDEO)
- ^ "Shutter Island Opens Doors For Home Video". DreadCentral.com. April 19, 2010. Retrieved December 31, 2010.
- ^ "The Kids Are All Right interview". Mark Ruffalo Central. July 11, 2010. Retrieved December 31, 2010.
- ^ "Cotillard, Ruffalo and Hawke Prep For A Second Coming". Mark Ruffalo Central. May 22, 2010. Retrieved December 31, 2010.
- ^ "TOLDJA! Marvel & Ruffalo Reach Hulk Deal". Deadline Hollywood. July 23, 2010. Retrieved July 23, 2010.
- ^ Finke, Nikki (July 23, 2010). "TOLDJA! Marvel & Ruffalo Reach Hulk Deal". Deadline.com. Retrieved July 23, 2010.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ a b "Page 2 – Mark Ruffalo is Doing "All Right," continued – Movies – News –". Ifc.com. July 6, 2010. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
- ^ Ellis, Josh. "Mark Ruffalo's Good Life Formula: 3 Kids, 1 Rabbit, 47 acres, 2,764 Miles From Hollywood." Men's Journal. June 2013.
- ^ Jones, Oliver. "Mark Ruffalo's Brother Shot in the Head." People. December 3, 2008.
- ^ "Scott Ruffalo still in critical condition." Boston Herald. December 5, 2008.
- ^ "Scott Ruffalo Dies from Gunshot Wound." People.com. December 9, 2008.
- ^ "Actor Mark Ruffalo's brother, Scott, died after playing Russian Roulette, says murder suspect." New YorkDaily News, December 9, 2008.
- ^ "Autopsy scheduled for Scott Ruffalo," Associated Press, December 11, 2008.
- ^ "Election Center 2008: Mike Gravel". CNN. Retrieved September 20, 2007.
- ^ "YouTube - Penn and Teller - World Peace". YouTube.com. Retrieved November 12, 2012.
- ^ The endorsement video can be found here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_oYIEsUCefdZGt0Z3NRd0Uxd1U/edit
- ^ Kira Cochrane (August 19, 2013). "Mark Ruffalo's pro-choice stance on abortion rights sets a powerful example". The Guardian. Retrieved August 20, 2013.
- ^ a b "Fracklash". New York magazine. September 10, 2012.
- ^ Mark Ruffalo Speaks Out Against Fracking Practices on The Rachel Maddow Show, at Common Dreams website, October 5, 2010.
- ^ Kyle Buchanan, Mark Ruffalo Is on a Homeland Security Watch, New York Magazine, November 24, 2010.
- ^ Josh Sanburn, Does Pennsylvania Consider Actor Mark Ruffalo a Terrorist?, Time, November 30, 2010.
- ^ July 13, 2011 (July 13, 2011). "Web Extra: Countdown Contributor Mark Ruffalo on Fracking - Countdown with Keith Olbermann // Current TV". Current.com. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Mark Ruffalo". Retrieved January 8, 2013.
- ^ "Don't Let America Get Fracked". CNN.com. Retrieved August 15, 2013.
- ^ The Solutions Project - 100% Renewable Energy
- ^ https://www.facebook.com/TheSolutionsProject
External links
- Mark Ruffalo at IMDb
- Mark Ruffalo at the Internet Broadway Database
- Ruffalo at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
- People in Film: Mark Ruffalo at Focus Features
- Clips from Ruffalo interview on Inside the Actors Studio
- Mark Ruffalo Producer Profile for The 1 Second Film
- Mark Ruffalo Central
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
- 1967 births
- Male actors from Virginia
- Male actors from Wisconsin
- American male film actors
- American people of French-Canadian descent
- American people of Italian descent
- American Roman Catholics
- American male stage actors
- American male television actors
- Living people
- Cancer survivors
- People from Kenosha, Wisconsin
- People from Virginia Beach, Virginia
- 20th-century American male actors
- 21st-century American male actors