Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg (born June 5, 1971) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor and television producer. Also known as "Marky Mark" in his earlier days, he had become famous in his debut as a rap musician with the band Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch.Born in Dorchester, Boston, Massachusetts, he was the youngest of nine children, with siblings Arthur, Jim, Paul, Robert, Tracey, Michelle, Debbie, and Donnie Wahlberg. His father, Donald Edward Wahlberg, was a delivery driver, and his mother, Alma Elaine Donnelly, was a nurse; the two divorced in 1982. His paternal grandfather was of Swedish descent, while the majority of his other ancestry is Irish. Wahlberg had a Catholic upbringing and attended Copley Square High School (but never graduated) on Newbury Street in Copley Square in Boston. The campus now houses Muriel Snowden International School.
As a young teenager, Wahlberg participated in several acts of extreme violence for which he was charged, later claiming to have been in trouble 20-25 times with the Boston Police Department as a youth. At 15 he harassed a group of African American school children on a field trip by throwing rocks (causing injuries) and shouting epithets. When he was 16, while under the influence of cocaine and alcohol (again using racist language) he knocked a middle aged Vietnamese man unconscious with a wooden stick and left another Vietnamese man permanently blind in one eye. In an interview for Inside the Actor's Studio, he admitted that he has no recollections of the incident, because he passed out just before the police caught him. For these crimes Wahlberg was charged for attempted murder, pled guilty to assault, and was sentenced to 2 years in jail at Boston's Deer Island House of Correction, of which he served 45 days. In yet another incident when he was 21 Wahlberg fractured the jaw of a neighbor in an unprovoked attack.
Wahlberg is a practicing Catholic. He is left handed. The actor/rapper dated actress Jordana Brewster. In 1996, he also dated his Fear co-star Reese Witherspoon during and after the production of the movie.He has dated his co-star in the film The Big Hit, China Chow.Wahlberg settled down with his longtime girlfriend actress/model Rhea Durham and they have two children together. The couple’s first child, a daughter named Ella Rae, was born on September 2, 2003. Their second child, Michael, joined the family on March 22, 2006.
Wahlberg was a scheduled passenger on one of the hijacked flights from Boston to Los Angeles on September 11, 2001, but decided at the last minute to head up to the Toronto International Film Festival instead.
Wahlberg is actively involved in charity. He established the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation in May 2001 for the purpose of raising and distributing funds to youth service and enrichment programs.
