Mark Alan Ruffalo (born November 22, 1967) is an
American actor,
director,
producer and
screenwriter. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Fanning opposite
Tom Cruise in the 2004 film
Collateral, Stan in
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Inspector David Toschi in the 2007 film
Zodiac.
Ruffalo has also appeared as a romantic leading-man in successful "
chick flicks" such as
View From the Top (
2002),
13 Going on 30 (
2004),
Just Like Heaven (
2005) and
Rumor Has It (
2005).
Early life
Ruffalo, of
Italian and French-Canadian descent,
["Ruffalo ascends to the next level in 'Heaven'." USA Today. September 15, 2005.] was born in the
industrial town of
Kenosha, Wisconsin, the son of Marie Rose, a hairdresser and stylist, and Frank Lawrence Ruffalo, Jr., a construction painter.
He has two sisters, Tania and Nicole, and a brother, Scott,
who died in December 2008 from a gunshot wound to the head. Ruffalo has described himself as a "happy kid"
and his upbringing as taking place in a "very big Italian family with lots of love".
He attended a
progressive school and was raised around the local
Bahá'í community, of which his father was a member.
Ruffalo spent his teen years in
Virginia Beach,
Virginia, where his father worked. Ruffalo graduated from
First Colonial High School,
alma mater of pop and country icon
Juice Newton. Ruffalo 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 and spent the next nine years earning his money as a
bartender.
