- published: 07 Mar 2016
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Mark Alan Ruffalo (born November 22, 1967) is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He starred in films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Zodiac, Shutter Island, Just Like Heaven, Collateral, You Can Count on Me, The Avengers, and The Kids Are All Right, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Ruffalo was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin. His mother, Marie Rose (née Hebert), is a hairdresser and stylist, and his father, Frank Lawrence Ruffalo, Jr., worked as a construction painter. His father and maternal grandmother were of Italian descent, and his maternal grandfather was of French Canadian ancestry. He has two sisters, Tania and Nicole, and a brother, Scott, who died in December 2008. Ruffalo has described himself as having been a "happy kid" and his upbringing as taking place in a "very big" family with "lots of love". 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.” Ruffalo was raised Roman Catholic; he attended both a Catholic and a progressive school. 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, and later to Los Angeles, California. There, 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, and spent the next nine years earning his money as a bartender.