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Mark Ruffalo

Mark Ruffalo is one of Hollywood's most sought after actors, easily moving between stage and screen and working with directors including Ang Lee, Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann, David Fincher, Fernando Meirelles and Michel Gondry.

Ruffalo recently starred in Where the Wild Things Are directed by Spike Jonze and The Brothers Bloom, an international con man adventure directed by Rian Johnson (Brick). The cast included Adrien Brody, Rachel Weisz and Rinko Kikuchi. In 2008, Ruffalo was seen in Miramax Films' Blindness, directed by Fernando Meirelles (City of God, The Constant Gardener). The film, based on the book by Nobel Prize winner José Saramago, follows a plague of blindness that affects everyone in an anonymous city. His co-stars were Julianne Moore and Danny Glover. Blindness screened at the Cannes International Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival.

In 2007, Ruffalo was seen in the Focus Features film Reservation Road opposite Joaquin Phoenix and Jennifer Connelly. The film screened at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival. The same year, Ruffalo appeared in Paramount Pictures' Zodiac opposite Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr. Ruffalo portrayed Detective Dave Toschi, who devoted his career to tracking down the Zodiac killer. Phoenix Pictures has purchased the rights to The Brass Wall as a starring vehicle for Ruffalo. He will play an undercover cop who infiltrates the Lucchesi crime family in New York to solve the murder of a city firefighter.

In 2006, Ruffalo received a Tony Award nomination for his Broadway debut in the Lincoln Center Theater's revival of Clifford Odets' Awake and Sing! In the Depression-era drama, Ruffalo played a World War I veteran who lost a leg during the war. The cast included Ben Gazzara, Zoë Wanamaker and Lauren Ambrose. The same year, Ruffalo was seen in All the King's Men with Sean Penn, Kate Winslet and Jude Law. The film premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival.

In 2005, Ruffalo starred opposite Reese Witherspoon in DreamWorks' Just Like Heaven. The previous year he appeared in the Michael Mann-directed Collateral opposite Tom Cruise. He was also seen in Warner Independents' We Don't Live Here Anymore opposite Naomi Watts, Peter Krause and Laura Dern. Ruffalo served as an executive producer on the film, which screened at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. Also in 2004, Ruffalo starred in the romantic comedy 13 Going on 30 opposite Jennifer Garner and Charlie Kaufman's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind opposite Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet.

In 2003, Ruffalo was seen opposite Meg Ryan in Jane Campion's film In the Cut. That same year, he appeared in the independent film My Life Without Me, written and directed by Isabel Coixet and also starring Sarah Polley and Scott Speedman.

Ruffalo earned critical recognition in 2000 for his role in Kenneth Lonergan's You Can Count on Me, opposite Laura Linney and Matthew Broderick. For his performance, he won the Best Actor Award at the 2000 Montreal Film Festival and the New Generation Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. The Martin Scorsese-produced film won the coveted Grand Jury Prize for best film in dramatic competition and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival.

Ruffalo's other credits include What Doesn't Kill You, Brian Goodman's autobiographical crime drama; The Last Castle opposite Robert Redford and James Gandolfini; Windtalkers opposite Nicolas Cage; XX/XY; Committed; Ride With the Devil, directed by Ang Lee; 54; Safe Men; The Last Big Thing; A Fish in the Bathtub with Jerry Stiller; and Dan Bootzin's Life/Drawing.

Ruffalo's acting roots lie in the theater, where he first drew attention starring in the off-Broadway production of This is Our Youth, written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan, for which he won a Lucille Lortel Award for Best Actor. Ruffalo has won several awards for other performances, including a Dramalogue Award and the Theater World Award. In 2000, Ruffalo was seen in the off-Broadway production The Moment When, a play by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner James Lapine.

Having trained with Joanne Linville at the distinguished Stella Adler Conservatory, Ruffalo made his theater debut in Avenue A at The Cast Theater. Ruffalo continued his relationship with The Cast Theater, performing in several of Justin Tanner's award-winning plays, including Still Life with Vacuum Salesman and Tent Show.

A writer, director and producer as well, Ruffalo co-wrote the screenplay for the independent film The Destiny of Marty Fine, which was the first runner-up in the 1995 Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Additionally, he has directed several plays and one-acts. In 2000, he directed Timothy McNeil's original play Margaret at the Hudson Backstage Theatre in Los Angeles.

Ruffalo resides in Los Angeles.


Note: This profile was written in or before 2010.
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Mark Ruffalo Facts

OccupationActor
BirthdayNovember 22, 1967 (56)
SignSagittarius
BirthplaceKenosha, Wisconsin, USA
Height5' 9" (1m75)  How tall is Mark Ruffalo compared to you?

Selected Filmography

Now You See Me 2
Marvel's The Avengers: Age Of Ultron
Marvel's The Avengers
Now You See Me
Spotlight
Zodiac
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Collateral
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