Actors - Mark Wahlberg

Home > Listing Index > Actors > Mark Wahlberg

	Actors - Mark Wahlberg

Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg (born June 5, 1971 in Dorchester, Massachusetts) is an American actor, model and singer.

Biography

Wahlberg is from a family of nine children and is of Swedish and Irish heritage. He first came to fame as the younger brother of Donnie Wahlberg of New Kids on the Block. Wahlberg had run afoul of the law as a teenager - in 1986 he was charged with racial harassment of a group of African-American students, and two years later he spent 45 days in prison after attacking and severely injuring a Vietnamese man.

After Wahlberg was released from prison, Donnie agreed to help his troubled sibling restart his music career if he cleaned up his act. In 1990, after adopting the stage name Marky Mark, Wahlberg formed the Funky Bunch with dancers/rappers Scott Ross (aka Scottie Gee), Hector Barros (aka Hector the Booty Inspector), Anthony Thomas (aka Ashley Ace), and Terry Yancey (aka DJ-T). They earned hits with "Good Vibrations" and "Wild Side" from Music for the People (where he poses with a Saab 9000).

His second LP, You Gotta Believe, was a relative failure, in large part due to the controversy surrounding him, regarding racism and homophobia. When the story of his arrest for assault - and the allegations of racism - broke in the press, things took on a decidedly darker note. Soon after, while on a British talk show along with rapper Shabba Ranks, he got into even more controversy. After Ranks made the statement that gays should be crucified, Wahlberg was accused of condoning the comments by his silence. During this time, You Gotta Believe had not been faring well and, after the charges surfaced, it plummeted off the charts. Adding to the hoopla, Wahlberg was brought to court for allegedly assaulting a security guard. He was ordered to make amends by appearing in a series of anti-bias advertisements.

Following his fall from grace in the music world, Wahlberg decided to pursue acting. He had had modeling experience, seen most prominently in a series of underwear ads from Calvin Klein. After becoming an actor, he dropped the Marky Mark moniker and became known simply as Mark Wahlberg.

His first big screen role came in Renaissance Man
(1994). Some notable filmography includes his breakout role as Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights
(1997), the lead in Tim Burton's 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes
, and a firefighter who is facing an existential crisis in I ♥ Huckabees (2004).

Wahlberg will next appear in Martin Scorsese's The Departed
, due for release in 2006, as one of Leonardo DiCaprio's police superiors. He is currently producing the series Entourage on HBO, which is loosely based on incidents from his own life.

Wahlberg is dating model Rhea Durham. Their daughter, Ella Rae, was born on September 2, 2003, and their son, Michael, was born on March 21, 2006.

Trivia

He has claimed to have had a reservation to fly from his hometown of Boston back to Los Angeles on September 11, 2001, on either United Airlines Flight 175 or American Airlines Flight 11. He decided on the previous day to go instead to Toronto to meet with friends.

Mark Wahlberg has a third nipple underneath his left breast. He has recently decided not to have it removed .

Mark's sister, Debbie Wahlberg, died the same day his daughter Ella Rae was born.

Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch discography

Albums

1991 Music for the People #21 US
1992 You Gotta Believe #67 US

Hit singles

from Music for the People
* 1991 "Good Vibrations" #1 US, #14 UK
* 1991 "Wildside" #10 US

Filmography

Ray Gun (film)
(2007)
The Departed
(2006) as Dignam
Four Brothers
(2005) as Bobby Mercer
I ♥ Huckabees (2004) as Tommy Corn
The Italian Job
(2003) as Charlie Croker
The Truth About Charlie (2002) as Lewis Bartholomew
Rock Star
(2001) as Chris "Izzy" Cole
Planet of the Apes
(2001) as Captain Leo Davidson
The Perfect Storm (2000) as Bobby Shatford
The Yards
(2000) as Leo Handler
Three Kings
(1999) as Sfc. Troy Barlow
The Corruptor
(1999) as Danny Wallace
The Big Hit
(1998) as Melvin Smiley
Boogie Nights
(1997) as Eddie Adams/Dirk Diggler
Traveller (1997) as Pat O'Hara
Fear
(1996) as David McCall
The Basketball Diaries
(1995) as Mickey
Renaissance Man
(1994) as Pvt. Tommy Lee Haywood

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Mark Wahlberg ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Mark Wahlberg; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.