Mark Alan Ruffalo Better known ‘HULK’ born IN November 22, 1967 is an American actor, producer, director, and activist.
Ruffalo gained international recognition for playing Bruce Banner/ Hulk in superhero films set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including The Avengers (2012), Avengers: infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame(2019).
Ruffalo gained nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing a sperm-donor in the comedy-drama The Kids Are All Right (2010), Dave Schultz in the biopic Foxcatcher (2014), and Michael Rezendes in the drama Spotlight (2015). He won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor in a TV Movie for playing a gay writer and activist in the television drama film The Normal Heart (2015), and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his dual role as identical twins in the miniseries I Know This Much Is True (2020). Ruffalo is one of the few performers to receive all four EGOT nominations. His mother, Marie Rose is a hairdresser and stylist and his father, Frank Lawrence Ruffalo Jr., worked as a construction painter. He has two sisters, Tania and Nicole, and a brother, Scott (died 2008). His father is of Italian descent, from Girifalco and his mother is of half French Canadian and half Italian ancestry.
Ruffalo attended both Catholic and progressive schools throughout his education. Ruffalo has described himself as having been a “happy kid”, although he struggled with undiagnosed dyslexia and ADHD as a child and a young adult.
Ruffalo spent his teen years in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where his father worked. He competed in wrestling in junior high and high school in Wisconsin and Virginia. Ruffalo graduated from First Colonial High School in Virginia Beach, where he acted for the Patriot Playhouse. He moved with his family to San Diego, California and later to Los Angeles, where he took classes at the Stella Adler Conservatory and co-founded the Orpheus Theatre Company. With the theater company, he wrote, directed and starred in a number of plays. He also spent close to a decade working as a bartender.
Ruffalo married Sunrise Coigney in 2000. They have three children: son Keen and daughters Bella Noche and Odette
After completing work on the film The Last Castle, Ruffalo was diagnosed with a vestibular schwannoma, a type of brain tumor also known as an acoustic neuroma. The tumor was found to be benign; however, the surgery to remove the mass resulted in partial facial paralysis and affected his hearing. The paralysis subsided after a year, but Ruffalo remains deaf in his left ear.
On December 1, 2008, Ruffalo’s younger brother, Scott, was found outside his home on North Palm Drive in Beverly Hills with an execution-style bullet wound to the head. Scott was taken to a hospital, but died the following week. The case remains unsolved.
Ruffalo and his family live in Sullivan County, New York, describing the Catskill Mountains as his “home”. Ruffalo also owns two apartments in New York City, one for business and another for investment. Ruffalo’s mother and stepfather live in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, where he and his family occasionally spend their summers.
In May 2022, Ruffalo was sued by residents of Ellenville, New York for not cleaning up a fire that broke out on the set of a car dealership that was used as a location for I Know This Much Is True. The lawsuit claims that the residents suffered physical and emotional injuries and added that the fire caused damage to their homes and exposed them to toxic fumes.
In November 2021, Ruffalo criticized the not guilty ruling in the case of Kyle Rittenhouse in his hometown of Kenosha, Wisconsin and said the people shot by Rittenhouse were murdered. In April 2022, Ruffalo urged voters to check voter ID requirements in their states through posts to his social media.
