Mark Wahlberg was a pop singer and an underwear model before becoming a Hollywood star. He was briefly part of the original New Kids On The Block, the band of Boston city kids whose factory-made pop dance tunes overwhelmed the charts in the 1980s. He then formed Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch and became a pop idol in his own right, famous for his agreeable dance tunes and oft-exposed briefs. (His penchant for dropping his trousers got him a job as a Calvin Klein underwear model). He turned to acting in TV's The Substitute (1993), and earned nods from critics for his portrayal of Dirk Diggler in 1997's Boogie Nights (co-starring Don Cheadle). Late in the decade he starred with chum George Clooney in two more hits, Three Kings (1999) and The Perfect Storm (2000, also with Diane Lane). He has since carved out a career as a leading player of the Everyman variety. His other films include the re-make of The Italian Job (with Mos Def); Rock Star (2001, with Jennifer Aniston); as 30-year-old NFL rookie Vince Papale in the 2006 film Invincible; Martin Scorsese's The Departed (2006); M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening (2008, with Zooey Deschanel); Max Payne (2008, with Ludacris); and The Other Guys (2010, with Will Ferrell).
Wahlberg married his longtime girlfriend Rhea Durham on ! August 2009. Their children together: Ella Rae (b. 2003), Michael (b. 2006), and Brendan Joseph (b. 2007)... Wahlberg's brother Donnie was a longtime member of The New Kids On The Block, a forerunner to boy bands like The Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync... Wahlberg contemporaries with Boston roots include Matt Damon and Eliza Dushku... Wahlberg is the executive producer of the HBO comedy series Entourage.
Before he started acting, Mark Wahlberg was best known as Marky Mark, the pants-dropping rapper who attained fame and notoriety with his group the Funky Bunch. In the tradition of Will Smith and Ice Cube, Wahlberg has made a successful transition from music to film, garnering particular early praise for his role in Boogie Nights.
Born June 5, 1971, in Dorchester, MA, Wahlberg had a troubled early life. One of nine children, he dropped out of school at 16 (he would later earn his GED) and committed a number of minor felonies. After working various odd jobs, Wahlberg briefly joined brother Donnie and his group New Kids on the Block before forming his own, Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch. The group had widespread popularity for a time, most notably with its 1992 hit single "Good Vibrations." However, it was Wahlberg himself who received the lion's share of attention, whether it was for the homophobia controversy that surrounded him for a time, or for the 1992 Calvin Klein ad campaign featuring him wearing nothing more than his underwear, Kate Moss, and an attitude. In 1993, Wahlberg turned his attentions to acting with a role in The Substitute. The film, co-starring a then-unknown Natasha Gregson Wagner, was a critical and commercial failure, but Wahlberg's next project, 1994's Renaissance Man, with Danny De Vito, gave him the positive notices that would increase with the release of his next film, The Basketball Diaries (1995). Although the film received mixed reviews, many critics praised Wahlberg's performance as Mickey, Leonardo Di Caprio's friend and fellow junkie. Following Diaries, Wahlberg appeared in Fear (1996) in the role of Reese Witherspoon's psychotic boyfriend.
It was with the release of Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights in 1997 that Wahlberg finally received across-the-board respect for his commanding yet unassuming performance as busboy-turned-porn-star Eddie Adams/Dirk Diggler. The film was nominated for three Oscars and a slew of other awards by associations ranging from the British Academy to the New York Film Critics Circle to MTV. The positive attention landed Wahlberg on a wide range of magazine covers and gave him greater Hollywood pulling power. He had, as they say, arrived. Wahlberg's follow-up to Boogie Nights was 1998's The Big Hit, an action comedy that, particularly in the wake of Boogie Night's acclaim, proved to be a disappointment. This disappointment was hardly lessened by the relative critical and commercial shortcomings of Wahlberg's next film, The Corruptor (1999). An action flick that co-starred Chow Yun-Fat, The Corruptor showcased Wahlberg's familiar macho side and indicated that success in Hollywood is a strange and unpredictable thing. Though he gained positive notice for his role in David O. Russell' s unconventional war film Three Kings the same year, the film was only a moderate success, paving the way for an even more dramatic turn in the downbeat true story of the ill-fated Andrea Gail, The Perfect Storm, in 2000.
The following year found Wahlberg filling some big shoes -- and receiving some hefty criticism as a result -- with his lead role in Tim Burton's much-anticipated remake of Planet of the Apes. Taking over the role that Charlton Heston made famous, Wahlberg found himself pursued onscreen by sinister simians, as well as offscreen by critics who decried the lack of depth that the actor brought to the role. Late that summer, Wahlberg came back down to Earth -- specifically to the everyday-Joe-rises-to-fame territory of Boogie Nights -- with Rock Star, the story of a tribute-band singer who gets a chance to sing for the band he idolizes. Though his noble attempt to fill the considerable shoes of Hollywood legend Cary Grant in the 2002 Charade remake The Truth About Charlie would be only slightly exceeded by his assumption of the role originally played by Michael Caine in the following year's remake of The Italian Job, Wahlberg would subsequently prove that there's nothing like the fresh breeze of an original script in director David O. Russell's existential 2004 comedy I Heart Huckabees. Of course, Wahlberg was never one to let a crowd down, and after riling audiences alongside Tyrese Gibson and André Benjamin in the Detroit-based revenge flick Four Brothers, the athletic actor would take to the gridiron to tell the inspirational story of one football fan whose dreams of playing in the NFL actually came true in the 2006 sports drama Invincible. Also released in the fall of 2006, The Departed allowed Wahlberg to act opposite such heavy hitters as Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Alec Baldwin, and his old Basketball Diaries co-star Leonardo Di Caprio under the direction of Martin Scorsese. Not only did Wahlberg hold his own against the cast of critics' darlings, he landed the film's only acting Academy Award nod. In 2007, Wahlberg starred in the suspense actioner The Shooter. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
It's almost hard to believe given the commercial and critical success later enjoyed by Mark Wahlberg as a screen actor that he was once the laughingstock of the hip-hop nation -- under the guise of Funky Bunch leader Marky Mark, Wahlberg was a pretty-boy pariah within the rap community, although he did score a chart-topping pop smash with the single Good Vibrations. Wahlberg was born in Dorchester, MA, on June 5, 1971; at 13, he and older brother Donnie were recruited by teen pop svengali Maurice Starr to join the producer's latest project, New Kids on the Block. After just three months Mark left the group, although Donnie stayed on; the New Kids went on to emerge as one of the most commercially successful pop acts of the decade, earning untold millions on recordings and merchandise that appealed almost exclusively to teenage girls. In the meantime, Mark ran afoul of the law -- 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 a Vietnamese man. (Both incidents were detailed on the fan site www.markrobertwahlberg.com as part of a time line with the subhead "Mark Wahlberg -- the loser.") Donnie agreed to help his troubled sibling restart his music career if he cleaned up his act, and after adopting the stage name Marky Mark, in 1990 Wahlberg formed the Funky Bunch with dancers/rappers Scott Ross (aka Scottie Gee), Hector Barros (Hector the Booty Inspector), Anthony Thomas (Ashley Ace), and Terry Yancey (DJ-T).
Donnie Wahlberg not only agreed to produce his brother's music, but also landed the Funky Bunch a slot opening for New Kids on the Block; the group's debut LP, Music for the People, followed in 1991, topping the pop charts on the strength of its lead single, Good Vibrations, which also hit number one. Rap purists were appalled by Wahlberg's mediocre lyrical skills, lame samples, and tired beats, but the same teenage constituency that embraced the New Kids bought the record in droves -- he also earned the approval of some older fans based on a series of revealing Calvin Klein underwear ads, even enjoying a rumored affair with Madonna. You Gotta Believe followed in 1992, but in the wake of Nirvana's landmark Nevermind, audiences had forsaken fluffy teen pop for grunge, and the record failed badly in its attempts to recapture the success of its predecessor. The Funky Bunch never formally disbanded, but in 1993 Wahlberg made his film debut in the direct-to-video effort The Substitute, and then earned surprisingly strong critical notices for his work in 1994's Renaissance Man and the following year's The Basketball Diaries. He earned his first starring role with 1996's Fear, and in 1997 rocketed onto Hollywood's A list with his starmaking turn as well-endowed porn star Dirk Diggler in Paul Thomas Anderson's much-acclaimed Boogie Nights. Solid work in films including Three Kings and The Perfect Storm further rehabilitated Wahlberg's image, and as the new millennium dawned he was firmly ensconced as a leading man, headlining projects including 2001's remake of Planet of the Apes and the following year's The Truth About Charlie. Theologians still maintain there is a special place in Hell reserved for Wahlberg in return for the pain he inflicted during his mercifully brief career as a rapper. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
Wahlberg was born in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, the youngest of nine children,[1] with siblings Arthur, Jim, Paul, Robert, Tracey, Michelle, Debbie (died in 2003 at age 44), and Donnie. His father was of half Swedish and half Irish ancestry, and his mother is of Irish, English, and French Canadian descent; on his mother's side, Wahlberg is distantly related to author Nathaniel Hawthorne.[2][3] Wahlberg's mother, Alma Elaine (née Donnelly), was a bank clerk and nurse's aide, and Wahlberg's father, Donald Edward Wahlberg, was a Teamster who worked as a delivery driver. His parents divorced in 1982.[4] Wahlberg had a Roman Catholic[5][6] upbringing and attended Copley Square High School (but never graduated) on Newbury Street in Boston.
Assaults and conviction
Wahlberg claims to have been in trouble 20–25 times with the Boston Police Department as a youth. By the age of 13, Wahlberg had developed an addiction to cocaine and other substances.[7][8] At 15, he harassed a group of black school children on a field trip by throwing rocks and shouting racial epithets.[9]
When he was 16, Wahlberg approached a middle-aged Vietnamese man on the street and, using a large wooden stick, knocked him unconscious (while calling him "Vietnam fucking shit"). He also attacked another Vietnamese man, leaving him permanently blind in one eye, and attacked a security guard (again using racist language).[10][11]
For these crimes, Wahlberg was charged with attempted murder, pleaded 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.[10][12] In another incident, the 21-year-old Wahlberg fractured the jaw of a neighbor in an unprovoked attack.[13] Commenting in 2006 on his past crimes, Wahlberg has stated: "I did a lot of things that I regretted and I have certainly paid for my mistakes." He said the right thing to do would be to try to find the blinded man and make amends, and admitted he has not done so, but added that he was no longer burdened by guilt: "You have to go and ask for forgiveness and it wasn't until I really started doing good and doing right, by other people as well as myself, that I really started to feel that guilt go away. So I don't have a problem going to sleep at night. I feel good when I wake up in the morning."[14]
After landing in prison following this assault he decided to change his ways. According to Wahlberg, "As soon as I began that life of crime, there was always a voice in my head telling me I was going to end up in jail. Three of my brothers had done time. My sister went to prison so many times I lost count. Finally I was there, locked up with the kind of guys I'd always wanted to be like. Now I'd earned my stripes and I was just like them and I realized it wasn't what I wanted at all. I'd ended up in the worst place I could possibly imagine and I never wanted to go back. First of all I had to learn to stay on the straight and narrow." Wahlberg first relied on the guidance of his parish priest to turn his back on crime. He told his street gang that he was leaving them and had "some serious fights" with them over it. The actor commented in 2009: "I've made a lot of mistakes in my life and I've done bad things. But I never blamed my upbringing for that. I never behaved like a victim so that I would have a convenient reason for victimizing others. Everything I did wrong was my own fault. I was taught the difference between right and wrong at an early age. I take full responsibility."[15]
Career
Music
Wahlberg first came to fame as the younger brother of Donnie Wahlberg of the successful 1980s and 1990s boy bandNew 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. 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 No.1 on The Billboard Hot 100, later becoming certified as a Platinum single. The second single, "Wildside," peaked at No.5 on BillboardsHot Singles Sales chart and at No.10 on The Billboard Hot 100.[16] It was certified as a Gold Single. Marky Mark opened for the New Kids on the Block during their last tour. The second Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch LP, You Gotta Believe, was not as successful as the prior, yielding only a minor hit single in the title track. Wahlberg later collaborated with the late reggae / ragga singer Prince Ital Joe on the album Life in the Streets. The project combined rap and ragga vocals with strong eurodance music (as in the singles Happy People, German No.1 hit United, Life in the Streets, and Babylon) courtesy of Frank Peterson and Alex Christensen as producers.
Wahlberg first displayed his physique 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 advertisements.[18] 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.[19] He also made a workout video titled The Marky Mark Workout: Form... Focus... Fitness (ISBN 1-55510-910-1).
Wahlberg dropped the "Marky Mark" moniker and 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 critics after appearing in The Basketball Diaries in 1995, playing the role of Mickey alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, in a film adaptation of the Jim Carroll book of the same name. He also starred in the 1996 James Foley thriller Fear.
Wahlberg starred in the American football drama, Invincible, based on the true story of bartender 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 foul-mouthed 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.[22]
Wahlberg at the Shooter premiere in London, March 2007
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 1100 yards on his second day, a feat which usually takes weeks to achieve.[23] He has said in a number of interviews that he will retire at the age of 40 to concentrate on parenthood[24] and professional golf. However, in early 2007 he indicated that the latter was no longer the plan as "his golf game is horrible".[25] He played Jack Salmon, a leading role in Peter Jackson's film of The Lovely Bones.[26] In 2007, he starred opposite Joaquin Phoenix in We Own the Night, a movie about a family of police officers in New York City.
He starred in M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening as Eliot Moore, which premiered in movie theatres on June 13, 2008. The same year, he played the title role in Max Payne, based on a video game of the same name. While promoting Max Payne, Mark became involved in a feud with Saturday Night Live's Andy Samberg and threatened to "crack that big fucking nose of his." Samberg had done an impression of Wahlberg in a Saturday Night Live skit titled "Mark Wahlberg Talks To Animals."[27][28] However, Wahlberg later appeared in a follow-up skit parodying both the original skit, Samberg's impression of Wahlberg, and his own threats to Samberg.[29][30]
Personal life
Family and relationships
In the early '90s, Wahlberg dated former child actress Soleil Moon Frye.[31] Wahlberg and model Rhea Durham have been together since 2001 and were married on August 1, 2009 at the Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Beverly Hills. The couple have four children, Ella Rae (born September 2, 2003), Michael Robert (born March 21, 2006), Brendan Joseph (born September 16, 2008) and Grace Margaret (born January 11, 2010). In a 2011 interview with USA Weekend, Wahlberg stated that he had taken his children to visit his old south Boston neighborhood, saying "I want them to know that not everyone is as fortunate and how important it is to work hard and give back."[32]
His father, a US Army veteran of the Korean War, died on February 14, 2008.[33]
Religion
Wahlberg is a committed Roman Catholic,[34] who attends daily Mass, credits his faith and a priest from his childhood for helping him turn his life around, and recognizes the seriousness of his faith.[6]
Charity work
Actively involved in charity, Wahlberg established the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation in May 2001 for the purpose of raising and distributing funds to youth service and enrichment programs.[35]
Tattoos
Wahlberg has four tattoos done by various artists including Paul Timman.[36] The tattoos include Sylvester the cat with Tweety Bird in his mouth on his ankle, a design of his initials "MW" with his surname "Wahlberg" on his upper right arm, and a Bob Marley tattoo with "One Love" on his upper left arm.[37] The final tattoo, which Wahlberg holds as his most meaningful, is the rosary tattooed around his neck, with a crucifix and the words "In God I Trust" resting over his heart.[37] On January 9, 2012 Wahlberg was a guest on The Late Show With David Letterman. He spoke about his tattoos and stated he is in the process of having them removed. Initially he was told it would take 8-10 laser treatments however he required over 30 treatments and is still in the process of getting them removed. He cited his career and children as the reason for the removal of the tattoos. His first tattoo was as a young teenager and it was of a shamrock. Because it was not professionally done, he said the shamrock was not straight and had the Tweety Bird tattoo placed over it after arriving in Los Angeles.
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