Mark Ruffalo is the best actor you have probably seen but never heard of. Chances are he is “that guy from those really good movies” that you would recognize on the street in an instant but you would have no clue what his name is. Mark Ruffalo doesn’t mind that at all and after what he went through to get his acting career, and then what he had to go through just to stay alive, he counts his blessings every day and takes absolutely nothing for granted. It is this sense of himself that allows Mark Ruffalo to be on the doorstep of a Mel Gibson like career but yet opting to do the things he wants to do. The reviews for his very first major motion picture hailed him as the next Marlon Brando and the Academy Awards are just dying to get one of those little gold statues in his hand. But Mark Ruffalo uses his new found fame to pursue the parts of his craft that he loves and to also help remember the people and organizations that helped him get to where he is today.

Mark Ruffalo was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin on November 22, 1967. When he was very young his family moved to Virginia Beach and that is where Mark Ruffalo spent his teenage years. When he had graduated from high school he followed his family to San Diego. After a while Mark started to move north into Los Angeles where he began to take acting classes. While in Los Angeles he helped to start the Orpheus Theater Company where he did everything from acting to set building. He would direct, write, and produce plays all in an attempt to have experience to show when he went out on auditions for movie parts and larger stage productions. Mark Ruffalo claims he went on over 800 auditions in nearly a decade and was on the verge of giving up on his dream of becoming an actor. To make ends meet he had taken a job as a bartender and it was his job as a bartender that eventually helped him meet writer Kenneth Lonergan. In 2000 Lonergan cast Mark Ruffalo in the male lead for his movie You Can Count On Me. The reviews for the movie praised Mark Ruffalo’s performance and hailed him as the next Brando. After You Can Count On Me the scripts started rolling in for Mark Ruffalo and he would find himself in movies with some very big name talent. He appeared with James Gandolfini and Robert Redford in 2001’s The Last Castle and then he appeared with Jim Carrey in the 2004 critical and financial success Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. In between those movies Mark Ruffalo experienced the scare of his life.

In 2002 Mark Ruffalo was preparing to appear in the M. Night Shyamalan movie Signs when he was diagnosed with a tumor in his brain. It was later found that the tumor was not cancer and it was removed but the surgery resulted in a partial paralysis of his face. Mark Ruffalo made a full recovery in time to appear in the Oscar winning movie Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. Mark Ruffalo continues to work at the Orpheus Theater Company and he continues to give back to the people that he says propped him up when he needed it the most. His dedication to his little Los Angeles theater company may have cost Mark Ruffalo one or two big budget starring roles but he is not regretting any decision he has made.