Mark Ruffalo Bio: Age, Height, Wife Sunrise Coigney, 3 Kids, Hulk, 4 Oscar Nods & Net Worth

Early Life & Education

Mark Alan Ruffalo was born on November 22, 1967, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. His mother, Marie Rose, worked as a hairdresser and stylist, and his father, Frank Lawrence Ruffalo Jr., was a construction painter. He has two sisters and a brother, and both of his brothers have since died, Scott in 2008 and Tanya Marie in 2023.

His household was religiously mixed. His father was Baháʼí, his mother was Christian, and the family also had Catholic influences, which meant he grew up hearing strong arguments from several directions. He has said that experience taught him early that sincere people can disagree completely and still deserve respect.

School was harder than it looked from the outside. He struggled with undiagnosed dyslexia and ADHD as a child and a young adult, and he has talked about how that shaped his confidence. He attended both Catholic and progressive schools, wrestled in junior high and high school, and graduated from First Colonial High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 1986.

He did not go straight to a prestigious drama program. He moved to San Diego with his family, then to Los Angeles, where he took classes at the Stella Adler Academy and co-founded a small theater company called Orpheus. That company is where he learned to act, build a set, and sell a ticket, which is a more practical education than most film schools offer.

Career Journey

The Long Apprenticeship

His screen debut came in an episode of CBS Summer Playhouse in 1989, followed by minor film roles that barely registered. He played a small character in an episode of Due South in 1994 and appeared in low-budget horror sequels, which is the kind of résumé most actors would prefer to forget.

The turning point was theater. In 1996 he starred as Warren Straub in the original cast of Kenneth Lonergan’s play This Is Our Youth off-Broadway, opposite Josh Hamilton and Missy Yager. Lonergan was a founding member of the Naked Angels theater company, which Ruffalo also joined, and the relationship changed his career.

In 2000, Lonergan cast him as Laura Linney’s troubled brother in You Can Count on Me. The film drew two Oscar nominations and made critics compare Ruffalo to a young Marlon Brando. He won awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the Montreal World Film Festival for a performance that is still one of his best.

Leading Man and Character Actor

The 2000s made him a reliable romantic lead and a reliable supporting presence. He starred in 13 Going on 30 (2004) and Just Like Heaven (2005), played the detective in David Fincher’s Zodiac (2007), and appeared in Shutter Island (2010). In 2006 he also made his Broadway debut as Moe Axelrod in Clifford Odets’s Awake and Sing!, earning a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play.

Then came the run that defined his reputation. The Kids Are All Right (2010) earned him his first Oscar nomination, for playing a sperm donor who disrupts a family. Foxcatcher (2014) brought a second, for his portrayal of the wrestler Dave Schultz. Spotlight (2015) brought a third, for playing reporter Michael Rezendes. Poor Things (2023) brought a fourth, for a performance so far outside his usual register that critics described it as scenery-chewing in the best sense.

Four supporting-actor nominations is a record-tying total, and it understates his range. He is equally convincing as a decent man under pressure and as a vain, ridiculous peacock, which is a wider spread than most actors of his generation can manage.

Bruce Banner and the Marvel Years

In 2012 he replaced Edward Norton as Bruce Banner in The Avengers, a recasting that could have ended badly and instead worked immediately. He returned in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), and the Disney+ series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022).

The role made him globally famous in a way that Spotlight never could. It also put him in a franchise that includes Robert Downey Jr., whose Tony Stark carried the early films, and Sebastian Stan, whose Bucky Barnes became one of the series’ longest arcs.

Television, 2025, and 2026

Television gave him his first major trophy. In 2020 he played twin brothers Dominick and Thomas Birdsey in HBO’s I Know This Much Is True, a dual role that required him to carry almost every scene, and he won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series for it.

In 2025 he played Kenneth Marshall in Bong Joon-ho’s science fiction film Mickey 17, opposite Robert Pattinson, and starred in the HBO crime drama Task, which critics described as one of his strongest screen performances in years.

2026 is a busier year than he has had in a while. He appears opposite Chris Hemsworth in the crime thriller Crime 101, and he returns as Bruce Banner in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, released in July 2026. He also filmed Good Sex with Natalie Portman for Netflix, and in May 2026 he was announced as the voice of Nero in Pixar’s Gatto, which is scheduled for 2027.

Career Stats