American actor Mark Alan Ruffalo was born on November 22, 1967 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He graduated from First Colonial High School, and moved to San Diego, California then to Los Angeles, California. There, he took classes at the Stella Adler Conservatory and co-founded the Orpheus Theatre Company, where he wrote, directed and acted in a number of plays.
Mark Ruffalo first appeared on television series like 1994’s There Goes My Baby and Due South. He had minor roles in films like A Song for You and A Gift from Heaven. In 1996, he appeared in various movies such as The Destiny of Marty Fine and Blood Money, before being cast in The Dentist and Ang Lee’s acclaimed Ride with the Devil. He met screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan and eventually starred in several of his plays. Ruffalo became a success upon appearing in Lonergan’s play This is Our Youth in 1998. This led him to win the role of Laura Linney’s brother Terry Prescott in the acclaimed You Can Count on Me in 2000. His performance earned him wide acclaim, and he won awards from the Los Angeles Critics Association and the Montreal World Film Festival.
Ruffalo then starred in several episodes of The Beat, before getting more roles in films like XX/XY, My Life Without Me, In the Cut alongside Meg Ryan, and View from the Top. He was then given a role in 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and We Don’t Live Here Anymore. That year, he was cast opposite Tom Cruise in Collateral. Ruffalo has also appeared in other “chick flicks” including 13 Going on 30, and Just Like Heaven in 2005. The next year, he was given a part in Clifford Odets’ Awake and Sing! at New York’s Belasco Theatre. He was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance. He later appeared in 2007’s Zodiac, as well as in the Terry George film Reservation Road. The next year, he signed on to portray roles in a number of films. He worked on the film adaptation of Jose Saramago’s Blindness, in the Rian Johnson film The Brothers Bloom, and the crime drama What Doesn’t Kill You.