Mark Ruffalo

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Mark Ruffalo
Mark Ruffalo in 2017 by Gage Skidmore.jpg
Ruffalo in 2017
Born
Mark Alan Ruffalo

(1967-11-22) November 22, 1967 (age 51)
Kenosha, Wisconsin, U.S.
ResidenceNew York City, New York, U.S.
OccupationActor, producer, political activist
Years active1989–present
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse(s)
Sunrise Coigney (m. 2000)
Children3

Mark Alan Ruffalo (/ˈrʌfəloʊ/; born November 22, 1967) is an American actor, producer, and political activist who made his screen debut in an episode of CBS Summer Playhouse (1989), followed by minor film roles. He was part of the original cast of This Is Our Youth (1996). Following were his roles in 13 Going on 30 (2004), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Zodiac (2007) and What Doesn't Kill You (2008). In 2010, he starred in the psychological thriller Shutter Island and the comedy-drama The Kids Are All Right. For the latter, he received nominations for the SAG Award, BAFTA Award, and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also co-starred in the mystery films Now You See Me and Now You See Me 2 as FBI Special Agent Dylan Rhodes.[1]

Ruffalo gained international prominence by portraying the Marvel Comics character Hulk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe beginning with The Avengers (2012), and also appearing in Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), and Avengers: Infinity War (2018). He will reprise his role in Avengers: Endgame scheduled to be released in 2019.

He starred in and was the co-executive producer of the 2014 television dramafilm The Normal Heart, for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie (as a producer) and he won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor in a TV Movie. The same year, he portrayed Dave Schultz in Foxcatcher, for which he was nominated for awards, including a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 2015, he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Infinitely Polar Bear and also received BAFTA and Academy Award nominations for his role in the drama Spotlight.

Early life[edit]

Ruffalo was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin. His mother, Marie Rose (née Hébert), is a hairdresser and stylist and his father, Frank Lawrence Ruffalo, Jr., worked as a construction painter.[2][3] He has two sisters, Tania and Nicole, and a brother, Scott (died 2008).[2] His father is of Italian descent, from Girifalco[4] and his mother is of half French Canadian and half Italian ancestry.[5][6]

Ruffalo attended both Catholic and progressive schools throughout his education. Ruffalo has described himself as having been a "happy kid",[7] although he struggled with undiagnosed dyslexia and ADD as a child and a young adult.[8]

Ruffalo spent his teen years in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where his father worked. He competed in wrestling in junior high and high school in Wisconsin and Virginia. At school, he sometimes went by the moniker Gavin Gruffallo. Ruffalo graduated from First Colonial High School in Virginia Beach, where he acted for the Patriot Playhouse taught by Nancy P. Curtis. He moved with his family to San Diego, California and later to Los Angeles, where he took classes at the Stella Adler Conservatory and co-founded the Orpheus Theatre Company.[2] With the theatre company, he wrote, directed and starred in a number of plays and spent close to a decade working as a bartender.[9]

Career[edit]

Acting[edit]

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, he began collaborating with Lonergan and appeared in several of his plays, including the original cast of This is Our Youth (1996), which led to Ruffalo's role as Laura Linney's character's brother in Lonergan's 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 (2003), Jane Campion's In the Cut (2003), Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), and We Don't Live Here Anymore (2004), which is based on two short stories written by Andre Dubus.[2] He appeared opposite Tom Cruise as a narcotics detective in Michael Mann's crime thriller Collateral (2004).[2]

In the mid-2000s, Ruffalo appeared as a romantic lead in 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' 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.[citation needed]

In 2008, Ruffalo starred as a con man in The Brothers Bloom with Adrien Brody and Rachel Weisz and co-starred 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 International 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 co-starred in the Martin Scorsese thriller Shutter Island as U.S. Marshal Chuck Aule, the partner of Leonardo DiCaprio's character Teddy Daniels.[10]

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. His performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.[11]

Ruffalo at the Toronto premiere of The Avengers, 2012

Ruffalo starred in The Avengers (2012), the sixth installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, replacing Edward Norton as Dr. Bruce Banner / Hulk.[12] Ruffalo received critical acclaim for his performance and is under contract to reprise the role in any future film appearances of the character produced by Marvel Studios.[12] Ruffalo also made a cameo appearance as Banner in Iron Man 3.He reprised the role again in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Thor: Ragnarok (2017),[13] Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019).

In 2014, Ruffalo starred as Ned Weeks in a television adaptation of Larry Kramer's AIDS-era play, The Normal Heart; his performance earned him an Emmy nomination. He says he has had an outpouring of support for his performance:

I've never had so sincere and vulnerable a response from people for anything that I've ever done.... And of everything that I've done since I've been on social media, which hasn't been that long, by the way, I haven't had such an overwhelmingly positive response as I have from The Normal Heart directly to me. And it's a blessing, man. If this is it, if I have a piano dropped on me tomorrow, then I would go down thinking, "You know what, I did okay as far as my career goes, because that's a gift. That's rare."[14]

Also in 2014, Ruffalo received his second Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of wrestler Dave Schultz in the biographical drama Foxcatcher. The next year in 2015, he starred as a bipolar father-of-two in the independent comedy film Infinitely Polar Bear, for which he earned a Golden Globe Award nomination, and he also appeared as journalist Michael Rezendes in the drama film Spotlight, for which he earned his third Academy Award nomination and a BAFTA Award nomination.

Theatre[edit]

Year Title Role Notes
1998 This is Our Youth Warren Straub Off-Broadway
2006 Awake and Sing! Moe Axelrod Broadway
2017 The Price Victor Franz Broadway

Directing[edit]

He directed a number of plays during his time at the Orpheus Theatre Company, and made his feature film 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."[15]

Political activism[edit]

Ruffalo is pro-choice. 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."[16]

He has stated support for LGBTQ+ rights,[17] however he has received some criticism from the transgender community for supporting the casting of a man, Matt Bomer, to play a transgender woman in the film Anything, of which Ruffalo was an executive producer.[18]

In 2008, Ruffalo expressed concern that gas companies were 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."[19] On October 4, 2010, Ruffalo appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show to discuss hydraulic fracturing and the FRAC Act of 2009.[20] He claimed 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.[21] The Department of Homeland Security denied the claim.[22]

Ruffalo has given interviews to We Are Change, a 9/11 'truth' group, in both 2007 and 2011.[23] Ruffalo stated: "I'm baffled by the way all three buildings came down. My first reaction was that buildings don't fall down like that.[24]

The Solutions Project is an organization founded by engineering professor Mark Z. Jacobson (Stanford University), Marco Krapels, documentary filmmaker/activist Josh Fox and Mark Ruffalo, with the aim of moving the United States towards 100% renewable energy, including the use of wind power and solar power.[25] The organization says this energy transition is mainly social and political in nature, not technical.[26]

In 2014, Ruffalo spoke out against Israel's Operation Protective Edge, Israel's 7-week war against Hamas, tweeting:[27] "Israel destroys el-Wafa hospital as staff evacuates all patients". After receiving criticism, Ruffalo responded: "Sorry, I thought blowing up Hospitals was something that all human beings could agree was off limits." Finally, in response to accusations of anti-Semitism, Ruffalo responded,[28] citing a Tikkun Daily article: "Empathizing w/ Gaza does NOT make me anti-Semitic, nor pro-Hamas or anti-Israel. It makes me human."

In 2016, Ruffalo narrated and produced Dear President Obama: The Clean Energy Revolution Is Now, a documentary by director Jon Bowermaster which looks at President Obama's environmental tenure and legacy concerning the massive expansion of oil and natural gas drilling.[29] In the 2016 election, Ruffalo supported democratic socialist Bernie Sanders.[30] Ruffalo actively supported the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in their opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline project.[31]

Ruffalo has suggested that the Zika virus is the inadvertent creation of a British biotech company that has been releasing genetically modified mosquitoes to combat dengue fever in Brazil.[32]

Ruffalo caused controversy in June 2017 after posting a petition on Twitter urging NBC to stop hiring white conservative commentators.[33][34]

In June 2017, Ruffalo endorsed Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in the 2017 UK general election. He tweeted: "Because @jeremycorbyn offers people an alternative to the Corporate status quo, which never ends well for them, I humbly endorse Corbyn."[35][36]

Personal life[edit]

Ruffalo at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival

Since June 2000, Ruffalo has been married to Sunrise Coigney and they have three children: son Keen (b. 2001), and daughters Bella Noche (b. 2005) and Odette (b. 2007).

After completing work on the film The Last Castle, Ruffalo was diagnosed with a vestibular schwannoma, a type of brain tumor also known as an acoustic neuroma, and had surgery; the tumor was benign but resulted in a period of partial facial paralysis.[37] He recovered from the paralysis; however, he became deaf in his left ear as a result of the tumor.[38]

On December 1, 2008, Ruffalo's brother, Scott, was shot in the head[39] at his Beverly Hills condominium,[40] and died a week later.[41] The case remains unsolved.[42]

Ruffalo and his family primarily live in Manhattan.[43] Ruffalo also owns a house in Sullivan County, New York and in 2016 described the Catskill Mountains as his home.[44]

Filmography and awards[edit]

Main articles: Mark Ruffalo filmography and List of awards and nominations received by Mark Ruffalo

Audiobooks[edit]

  • 2016: Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In (together with Bernie Sanders, the author), Macmillan Audio, ISBN 978-1427285331

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Monitor". Entertainment Weekly (1182). November 25, 2011. p. 30.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Mark Ruffalo". Inside the Actors Studio. Season 13. Episode 6. March 19, 2007. Bravo!.
  3. ^ Radar, Dotson (May 9, 2004). "I Wouldn't Give Any Of It Back". Parade. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved September 20, 2007.
  4. ^ Grassi, Giovanna (June 18, 2015). "Mark Ruffalo: intervista con l'attore di Avengers". Elle. Retrieved July 24, 2016.
  5. ^ Wloszczyna, Susan (September 15, 2005). "Ruffalo ascends to the next level in 'Heaven'". USA Today. Archived from the original on October 17, 2013. Retrieved December 20, 2013. Ruffalo, an Italian-French-Canadian mix...
  6. ^ "Spotlight – Mark Ruffalo". European Independent Film Festival. May 29, 2015.
  7. ^ Pearlman, Cindy (February 25, 2007). "Working on a killer movie". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on October 16, 2007. Retrieved September 20, 2007.
  8. ^ Hiatt, Brian (May 4, 2015). "The Hulk: The Last Angry Man". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media, Ltd. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
  9. ^ Dumenco, Simon (March 31, 2003). "The Kid Stays In the Pictures". New York. New York Media, LLC. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
  10. ^ "Shutter Island Opens Doors For Home Video". DreadCentral.com. April 19, 2010. Retrieved December 31, 2010.
  11. ^ "The Kids Are All Right interview". Mark Ruffalo Central. July 11, 2010. Archived from the original on July 14, 2011. Retrieved December 31, 2010.
  12. ^ a b Finke, Nikki (July 23, 2010). "TOLDJA! Marvel & Ruffalo Reach Hulk Deal". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved July 23, 2010.
  13. ^ Strom, Marc (May 20, 2016). "Marvel Studios Confirms Stellar New Cast Members of the Highly Anticipated 'Thor: Ragnarok'". Marvel.com.
  14. ^ Gerard, Jeremy (August 10, 2014). "Mark Ruffalo After 'Normal Heart': 'If A Piano Dropped On Me Tomorrow, I Did OK". Deadline.com. Retrieved August 11, 2014.
  15. ^ Hillis, Aaron (July 6, 2010). "Mark Ruffalo is Doing "All Right"". IFC. Archived from the original on August 20, 2010. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
  16. ^ Cochrane, Kira (August 19, 2013). "Mark Ruffalo's pro-choice stance on abortion rights sets a powerful example". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
  17. ^ Kinser, Jeremy (May 25, 2014). "Mark Ruffalo Reveals The Message Of "The Normal Heart" And The Personal Reason LGBT Equality Is Important To Him". Queerty.
  18. ^ "Mark Ruffalo Defends Matt Bomer Amid Transgender Casting Criticism". The Hollywood Reporter. September 1, 2016.
  19. ^ "Fracklash". New York. September 2, 2012.
  20. ^ "Mark Ruffalo Speaks Out Against Fracking Practices on The Rachel Maddow Show". commondreams.org. October 5, 2010.
  21. ^ Buchanan, Kyle (November 24, 2010). "Mark Ruffalo Is on a Homeland Security Watch". New York. Archived from the original on May 2, 2014.
  22. ^ Sanburn, Josh (November 30, 2010). "Does Pennsylvania Consider Actor Mark Ruffalo a Terrorist?". Time. Archived from the original on December 20, 2014.
  23. ^ Roy, Jessica (May 26, 2015). "Kylie Jenner Isn't the Only Celebrity Who Believes in Chemtrails". New York. Retrieved November 1, 2017.
  24. ^ "9 Stars Who Have Been 9/11 Conspiracy Truthers (Photos)". TheWrap. September 11, 2017. Retrieved November 1, 2017.
  25. ^ Appelgren, Jessica (April 11, 2014). "Talking Solutions: Q and A with The Solutions Project Chief Operating Officer, Jon Wank". Saatchi & Saatchi. Retrieved November 20, 2014.
  26. ^ American Shows (October 22, 2013). "Mark Jacobson interview on David Letterman October 9, 2013". YouTube. Retrieved November 20, 2014.
  27. ^ Ruffalo, Mark (2014-07-17). "Israel destroys el-Wafa hospital as staff evacuates all patients". Twitter. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  28. ^ Ruffalo, Mark (2014-07-25). "Empathizing w/ Gaza does NOT make me anti-Semitic, nor pro-Hamas or anti-Israel. It makes me human". Twitter. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  29. ^ Ruffalo, Mark; Bowermaster, Jon (March 17, 2016). "Dear President Obama: The Clean Energy Revolution is Now". Huffington Post.
  30. ^ Whalen, Bill (September 11, 2015). "Is Socialism Here To Stay In 2016, Or Is Bernie Sanders Just Another Howard Dean?". Forbes. Retrieved July 11, 2017.
  31. ^ "Mark Ruffalo in Standing Rock; Leo DiCaprio, Jesse Jackson Head to Standing Rock". Indian Country Media Network. Retrieved June 28, 2017.
  32. ^ Jacobs, Andrew (February 16, 2016). "Conspiracy Theories About Zika Spread Through Brazil With the Virus". The New York Times. Retrieved November 1, 2017.
  33. ^ "Mark Ruffalo seeks help in stopping MSNBC's white conservative hiring spree". Twitchy. June 12, 2017.
  34. ^ Ernst, Douglas (June 13, 2017). "Mark Ruffalo in hulk rage at NBC, pushes petition to end 'white conservative hiring'". The Washington Times.
  35. ^ Oppenheim, Maya (June 8, 2017). "Election 2017: The surprising and not-so surprising ways celebrities will be casting their ballots today". The Independent. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
  36. ^ Milne, Oliver (June 8, 2017). "Who are celebrities voting for in 2017 General Election? The A-Z of famous names supporting Labour, the Tories, the Lib Dems and Greens". Daily Mirror. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
  37. ^ "A Dream That Led Mark Ruffalo To Discover He Had A Brain Tumor". Moviepilot. March 14, 2016.
  38. ^ Williams, Zoe (June 10, 2005). "Out of the Traps". The Guardian.
  39. ^ Li, David (December 3, 2008). "Actor's Brother Clinging to Life". New York Post.
  40. ^ Jones, Oliver (December 3, 2008). "Mark Ruffalo's Brother Shot in the Head". People.
  41. ^ Silverman, Stephen (December 9, 2008). "Scott Ruffalo Dies from Gunshot Wound". People.
  42. ^ Chen, Joyce (May 10, 2013). "Mark Ruffalo Opens Up About the Murder of His Younger Brother Scott". Us Weekly.
  43. ^ Ellis, Josh (June 2013). "Mark Ruffalo's Good Life Formula: 3 Kids, 1 Rabbit, 47 Acres, 2,764 Miles From Hollywood". Men's Journal.
  44. ^ Ruffalo, Mark (February 28, 2016). "My View: The Catskills are my home". Times Herald-Record. Retrieved 30 January 2018.

External links[edit]

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