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Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg (born June 5, 1971) is an Academy Award-nominated, BAFTA Award-winning American actor and television producer. He was known as Marky Mark in his earlier days and became famous in his 1991 debut as a rap musician with the band Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. By his own admission, actor Mark Wahlberg went from a jailed Boston street thug to a respected, legitimate actor in less than a decade, with attention-grabbing stops as a rapper and underwear model along the way. He received his first acting kudos for his starring role as ambitious porn star Dirk Diggler in “Boogie Nights” (1997), but proving he was no one-hit-wonder, went on to deliver memorable performances in “Three Kings” (1999), “Four Brothers” (2004) and “The Departed” (2006), for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Wahlberg also made his mark as co-creator and executive producer of HBO’s comedy series “Entourage” (2004- ), which was honored with multiple Golden Globe and Emmy nominations, with its loosely-based portrayal of his life as a young rapper suddenly flush with cash, power and women. Born in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, he is one of nine children, with siblings Arthur, Jim, Paul, Robert, Tracey, Michelle, Debbie, and Donnie Wahlberg. His mother, Alma Elaine (née Donnelly), was a bank clerk and nurse's aid, and his father, Donald Edward Wahlberg, was a Teamster who worked as a delivery driver; the two divorced in 1982. Wahlberg is of Swedish, Irish and French Canadian descent. Wahlberg had a Catholic upbringing and attended Copley Square High School (but never graduated) on Newbury Street in Copley Square in Boston. The campus now houses Muriel Snowden International School. The youngest of nine children, Mark Wahlberg was born on June 5, 1971, in the working class Boston neighborhood of Dorchester. His father was a Teamster truck driver and his mother a nurse who corralled most of her kids into a three-bedroom apartment following her divorce from their father in 1982. At the time, Wahlberg and older brother Donnie had already begun efforts to become music stars; first by rapping on the streets and then as the earliest members of the one-time hot boy band, New Kids on the Block. Wahlberg joined the group when he was 12 years old, and though he liked the attention, he was not into the voice and choreography lessons the band’s management demanded; nor their wholesome pop image. He had something else in mind. Wahlberg dropped out of Copley Square High School in ninth grade and ended up a full time troublemaker. He sold drugs and was in and out of jail for theft and petty crimes. In 1986, he was arrested and charged with harassing black students. In 1988, after robbing a liquor store, he was convicted of assault and attempted murder of a middle-aged Vietnamese man who lost an eye during the attack. Wahlberg had served time at the Plymouth County House of Corrections, but being jailed as an adult at the Deer Island Correctional Facility was really a reality check for the young thug, who was surrounded by former neighborhood tough guys twice his age. He suddenly understood where he was headed and it was far away from a jail cell. As a young teenager, Wahlberg described himself as a troubled child who often participated in acts of violence and vandalism. He later claimed to have been in trouble 20-25 times with the Boston Police Department as a youth. By the age of thirteen Wahlberg had developed a serious addiction to cocaine and other substances. At fifteen he harassed a group of African American school children on a field trip by throwing rocks (causing injuries) and shouting epithets. When he was sixteen (again using racist language) after robbing a pharmacy under the influence of PCP, Wahlberg knocked a middle aged Vietnamese man unconscious with a wooden stick, left another Vietnamese man permanently blinded in one eye, and attacked a security guard. Wahlberg has said that he has no recollection of the incident because he passed out just before the police caught him. For these crimes, Wahlberg was charged for attempted murder, pled guilty to assault, and was sentenced to two years in jail at Boston's Deer Island House of Correction, of which he served 45 days. In yet another incident, a 21-year-old Wahlberg fractured the jaw of a neighbor in an unprovoked attack. Wahlberg first came to fame as the younger brother of Donnie Wahlberg of the successful 1980s boy band New Kids on the Block. Mark, at age thirteen, had been one of the group's original members, along with Donnie, Danny Wood, Jordan Knight, and Jonathan Knight. Uninterested in the group's bubblegum pop and squeaky-clean image, however, he soon quit. It was his departure that eventually allowed Joe McIntyre to take his place as the fifth member of the group. Wahlberg began recording as Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, earning a hit with "Good Vibrations" from the album Music for the People. The record was produced by brother Donnie and later hit #1 on The Billboard Hot 100. In the video, widely broadcast on music video channels, Mark was shown boxing, lifting weights and showing off his bare, well-muscled torso. Marky Mark opened for the New Kids on the Block during their last tour. The second Marky Mark LP, You Gotta Believe, was a relative failure. Wahlberg also collaborated musically with reggae / ragga singer Prince Ital Joe in a project featuring Marky Mark. The project combined rap and ragga vocals with strong eurodance music (as in the singles Happy People, United, Life in the Streets, and Babylon) courtesy of Frank Peterson and Alex Christensen as producers. He briefly became embroiled in controversy when he appeared to endorse the homophobic comments made by Shabba Ranks when they appeared as guests on the British chat show The Word. When Ranks made the statement that "gays ought to be crucified", Wahlberg remained in silence at his comments, which made the public believe he agreed with them. He later publicly dissociated himself from Ranks' comments, but only after widespread media coverage. Mark's cocky, street-wise persona contributed to his fame. During concert performances, he was known for stripping to a pair of white briefs, gyrating his hips and rubbing his crotch. In the dedication of his 1992 book Marky Mark, co-authored with photographer Lynn Goldsmith, Wahlberg says in the preface that "I wanna dedicate this book to my dick". Wahlberg was known for his impressive physique. He first displayed it in the Good Vibrations music video and most prominently in a series of underwear ads for Calvin Klein shot by Herb Ritts following it with Calvin Klein television ads. In 1992 the Calvin Klein billboard in New York's Times Square featured Wahlberg exclusively. Magazine and television promotions would sometimes feature Mark exclusively or accompanied by model Kate Moss. Annie Leibovitz also shot a famous session of Mark Wahlberg in underwear for Vanity Fair's annual Hall of Fame issue. He also made a workout video entitled The Marky Mark Workout: Form... Focus... Fitness. Wahlberg then began an acting career, making his debut in the 1993 TV movie The Substitute. His big screen debut came the next year, with the Danny DeVito feature Renaissance Man. A basketball fanatic, he caught the attention of the film critics after appearing in The Basketball Diaries in 1995, playing the role of Mickey alongside leading actor Leonardo DiCaprio, in a film adaptation of the Jim Carroll book of the same name. The following year he even managed to steal scenes from Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Basketball Diaries” (1995), playing volatile Mickey, boyhood friend of DiCaprio's Jim Carroll. In 1996, he gave a remarkably chilling performance in "Fear" as a charming but mysterious young man who dates a sheltered 16-year-old (Reese Witherspoon) and shows his true colors as a maniacal and violent stalker. If Wahlberg had been reluctant to accept himself as an actor, the viewing public was 10 times more reluctant. "Boogie Nights" (1997), however made it hard to argue with the fact that Wahlberg could carry a movie. Helmed by relative newcomer Paul Thomas Anderson, "Boogie Nights" told the story of an unusually endowed busboy- turned-porn star and his rise and fall in the adult industry during the late 1970s to early 1980s. Roundly acclaimed if a little disjointed and long-winded, "Boogie Nights" was an enjoyable and oddly old-fashioned fable. But there was no denying even to hardcore critics, that the relative newbie actor's mix of boyish innocence and brute sexuality made him a perfect Eddie Adams/Dirk Diggler. In 1998, Wahlberg cashed in on his renewed popularity in the action comedy "The Big Hit,” co-starring with Antonio Sabato Jr., Lou Diamond Phillips and Bokeem Woodbine as one of a group of suave and sexy, but somewhat bumbling hit men. The following year saw him take on a role opposite Chow Yun Fat in the Asian gang urban crime drama "The Corruptor.” While both efforts were solid, the roles did not ring true, as both were two-dimensional characterizations and Wahlberg's capable work failed to add much. He would generally fare better with work that utilized his winning combination of youthful charm and worldly hardness; as well as roles where his looks belied his actions. In 1999, Wahlberg co-starred with George Clooney and Ice Cube in David O Russell's "Three Kings,” a hard-hitting but comedic chronicle of the Gulf War. Here, he shone as a man both terrified and tough; a young father and soldier desperate to get back home. He reunited with his new best off-screen buddy Clooney in 2000 with "The Perfect Storm," a gripping fact-based account of a downed fishing boat off the coast of Massachusetts. A harrowing film with a grueling shoot, it was a summer hit and further established Wahlberg as a performer to be reckoned with. A low point, however was “Rock Star” (2001), with Wahlberg portraying the rags-to-riches tale of its musician protagonist, but the hair extensions and heavy metal antics were hard to take seriously for a generation not quite ready to revisit the hair bands of the late 1980s. He has earned many positive reviews after appearing in a number of successful movies like Boogie Nights as Dirk Diggler, Three Kings, The Perfect Storm, The Italian Job, and Four Brothers. His performance in I love Huckabees was voted best supporting performance of the year in the 2004 Village Voice Critics Poll. Wahlberg was originally cast as Linus Caldwell in Ocean's Eleven; Matt Damon played the role instead. The two later worked together in The Departed. Wahlberg was also originally considered for a role in the film Brokeback Mountain. The movie was originally intended to star him and Joaquin Phoenix, but Wahlberg was uncomfortable with the film's sex scenes and his role ultimately went to Jake Gyllenhaal. Wahlberg in an ape suit, however did not score with critics either. Tim Burton’s ambitious and highly anticipated adaptation of 1968’s "Planet of the Apes" was a fun summer blockbuster and made an enormous amount of money, even if Wahlberg found it hard to fill Charlton Heston's sandals. It was even more difficult for him to step into the designer loafers of suave Hollywood legend Cary Grant for the 2002 remake of Stanley Donen's 1963 classic, "Charade" – so hard, in fact, that the studio wisely attempted to avoid comparison by calling the new version "The Truth About Charlie." Even Jonathan Demme could not mold Wahlberg into the strong, confident mysterious espionage agent that made the original story work so well. Wahlberg made yet another misstep into the remake ring with an update of "The Italian Job" (2003) this time unwisely taking on a role made famous by Michael Caine. Though the film itself was a modest success. Wahlberg began to shake off his unfortunate run of duds in 2004, when he became executive producer and creator of the HBO series “Entourage” (HBO, 2004- ). The instantly popular show drew upon the exploits of Wahlberg and his real-life Hollywood hangers-on, to tell the story of fictional rising star Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) and his club-hopping crew. “Entourage” went on to earn Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for Best Comedy numerous times. Wahlberg somehow found time to shoot a film the same year he launched his TV show, playing a fireman drawn into the search for answers to deep philosophical conundrums in a retail superstore in the "existential comedy" "I [Heart] Huckabees" (2004). Most critics and fans were of the same mind that the rapper-turned-actor stole the picture from his more seasoned co-stars, including Dustin Hoffman, Lily Tomlin and Jude Law. Wahlberg then took on a role that was close to the tough, troubled man he used to be when he played one of four troubled foster sons seeking to avenge the murder of their mother, in John Singleton's hard-edged revenge drama "Four Brothers" (2005). For the football film “Invincible” (2006) Wahlberg received strong reviews from critics, many of whom were pleased with the authenticity and heart of the real-life story, despite rampant sports film clichés. Still part street-tough, Wahlberg rejected the use of stunt doubles and took all his own hits on the field in order to portray improbable NFL player Vince Papale, a former part-time bartender-turned-special teams star on the Philadelphia Eagles. What came next for the actor was truly special and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Wahlberg headed back to Boston and the scene of his own improbable rise to fame to shoot Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed” (2006). Joining an all-star cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, fellow Bostonian Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson, he played a rough-and-tumble cop who was one of two people inside the South Boston police department that knows one of their own (DiCaprio) is deep undercover inside a crime syndicate, while the mob has its own mole (Damon) on the force. For his strong and often humorous performance — particularly his give-and-take with Alec Baldwin — Wahlberg earned both Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actor. In 2007, Wahlberg released a pair of moderately successful action films that failed to live up to the quality of his big success the previous year. “The Shooter” (2007) was an action thriller about an ex-marksman brought back to the job by his old associates to prevent an assassination, only to be double-crossed and framed for killing the President. In “We Own the Night,” Wahlberg again played a cop in the implausible tale of family loyalties amongst the Russian mob, police, and a nightclub owner in 1980s Brooklyn. Wahlberg seemed poised to try a new direction in 2008 with the anticipated release of “The Happening,” an M. Night Shyamalan thriller. In 2001, Wahlberg established the Mark Wahlberg Foundation, a Boston-area organization that raised funds for youth programs such as the Boys & Girls Clubs. Wahlberg sat on the board of directors of his old neighborhood clubs – even though he had been kicked out at the age of 13 – and was an outspoken supporter of youth arts programs as a powerful force in urban communities. Surprising many who thought he might be a bachelor forever, Wahlberg became a parent in 2003 when his longtime girlfriend Rhea Dunham gave birth to a girl, Ella Rae. They also had a son Michael in 2006. Wahlberg recently starred in the American football drama, Invincible, based on the true story of Vince Papale. He is also the executive producer of the HBO series Entourage which is loosely based on his experiences in Hollywood. He also appeared as a Massachusetts State Police detective in Martin Scorsese's critically acclaimed thriller, The Departed in 2006, which netted him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture, and an NSFC Best Supporting Actor award. Wahlberg has confirmed that he was approached to star in a sequel to The Departed, but it is still early in development. The sequel would reportedly revolve around the Staff Sergeant played by Wahlberg, To prepare for his role in Shooter, Wahlberg attended long-range shooting training at Front Sight Firearms Training Institute near Pahrump, Nevada, and was able to hit a target at 2000 yards. He has said in a number of interviews that he will retire at the age of 40 to concentrate on parenthood and professional golf. However, in early 2007 he indicated that this was no longer the plan as "his golf game is horrible". He is now to star as Jack Salmon in Peter Jackson's film of The Lovely Bones. In 2007 he starred opposite Joaquin Phoenix in We Own the Night, a movie about a family of police officers in New York City. The movie also stars Robert Duvall and Eva Mendes. Wahlberg will play the drug kingpin Jon Roberts in the remake of the 2006 documentary Cocaine Cowboys, which chronicles the story of the largest cocaine trafficker in Miami in the 1970s and 1980s, and he’s persuaded Leonardo DiCaprio to play the supporting role. Wahlberg is a practicing Roman Catholic. He dated actress Jordana Brewster and his co-star in the film The Big Hit, China Chow. Mark and model Rhea Durham have been together since 2001. They broke up for 3 months after their daughter was born in 2003 but soon got back together. Mark has two children—Ella Rae born September 2, 2003 and Michael born March 22, 2006 with Rhea. It was revealed on his E! True Hollywood Story that he dated actress Reese Witherspoon during and after the making of their 1996 film Fear. Wahlberg is actively involved in charity. He established the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation in May 2001 for the purpose of raising and distributing funds to youth service and enrichment programs. His father, Donald E. Wahlberg, a US Army veteran of the Korean War, died on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2008. |
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