Donnie Wahlberg
Full Name: Donald Edmond Wahlberg
Birthdate: August 17, 1969
Birthplace: Dorchester Massachusetts
Father: Donald Walhberg
Mother: Alma Wahlberg
Brothers: Arthur, James, Paul, Robert and Mark
Sisters: Debbie, Michelle, and Tracey
Early Life
He was born in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, as the eighth of nine children, with older siblings Arthur, Jim, Paul, Robert, and Tracey, Michelle, Debbie, and younger sibling Mark. His mother, Alma Elaine (nee Donnelly), was a bank clerk and nurse's aid, and his father, the late Donald Mark Edmund Wahlberg, was a teamster who worked as a delivery driver; the two divorced in 1982. His paternal grandfather was of Swedish descent, while the majority of his other ancestry is Irish.
Wahlberg began performing in plays as early as the first grade. In high school, he attended a fledgling arts program and became involved in theatre, acting, writing, and directing plays.
Career
At age fifteen, Wahlberg joined New Kids on the Block and in a few years they went from playing at high school parties to becoming a pop music sensation. Donnie was known as the "bad boy" of the group and was known to curse during live performances on awards shows. In March 1991 he was arrested and charged with first degree arson. He was accused of starting a hotel on fire with a molotov cocktail fire bomb. In the 2001 New Kids on the Block E! True Hollywood story, bandmembers Jordan Knight and Jonathan Knight revealed Donnie had only set off a fire extinguisher. The white smoke from it caused guests to panic, culminating in the arson charge. These charges were later reduced then dropped because he agreed to do public service commercials. In 1990, Wahlberg scored a hit on the Top 100 with "The Right Combination", a duet with Japanese pop star Seiko Matsuda who was attempting to cross over to North America from the Japanese market.
After New Kids on the Block broke up in 1994, Wahlberg focused on writing and producing for his younger brother, Mark Wahlberg who at the time was best known as the leader of the hiphop band "Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch." Both Wahlberg brothers soon began successful careers as actors.
Donnie Wahlberg's first film appearance as an actor was in the 1996 film Bullet with Mickey Rourke. Also in 1996, he appeared as a kidnapper in over his head in Ransom with Mel Gibson. Wahlberg received attention for his role in the 1999 film The Sixth Sense, playing the distraught patient of Bruce Willis's character in the opening sequence. This role was originally intended for a 13-year-old boy until Wahlberg met with writer and director M. Night Shyamalan to inquire about obtaining the rights for a theatre production and ended up getting the pivotal role.
In 2001, Wahlberg co-starred as 2nd Lieutenant C. Carwood Lipton in the Emmy Award-winning television miniseries Band of Brothers. Wahlberg also starred in the 2002-2003 NBC drama series Boomtown as Joel Stevens, an intense Los Angeles police detective struggling to keep his troubled home life private while remaining dedicated to facing the challenges of his daily work life. Graham Yost, executive producer and writer of Boomtown, had worked with Wahlberg in Band of Brothers and was so impressed by his performance that he wrote the role of Joel Stevens specifically for him.
2003 was also the year that Wahlberg starred alongside Timothy Olyphant and Jason Lee as the mentally challenged Duddits in William Goldman and Lawrence Kasdan's adaptation of the Stephen King alien-invasion thriller, Dreamcatcher. In 2005, Wahlberg starred as Detective Eric Matthews in the second installment of the Saw series. He reprised the role in Saw III in 2006 and Saw IV in 2007.
In 2006, Wahlberg also played the significant role of Lieutenant Commander Burton in the military/boxing drama, Annapolis. In September 2006, he had the lead role of the short-lived television drama Runaway on The CW. The show was cancelled in October 2006 due to poor ratings. In 2007, he starred alongside Jason Gedrick, Ricardo Chaivera, and Nadine Velazquez in the television movie Kings of South Beach on A&E. Also in 2007, he starred opposite John Leguizamo on the TV series The Kill Point.
In 2008, he appeared in Righteous Kill co-starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. He also co-starred in What Doesn't Kill You with Ethan Hawke, Mark Ruffalo and Amanda Peet.
Donnie recently completed voiceover work for the 2008 installment of the Turok (2008) videogame. He is also rumored to be in Catherine Hardwicke's film version of the popular "Twilight" series.
Wahlberg currently stars as a detective on CBS's Blue Bloods, a cop drama set in New York City. The show, which also stars Tom Selleck and Bridget Moynahan.
Currently, Donnie is the host of an internet radio show on Friday nights at 8 pm PST called "DDUB's R&B Back Rub" on Cherry Tree Radio.
In the spring of 2008, New Kids on the Block reunited. The band released an album and had a world tour in 2008. They had a cruise in 2009 and 2010 with another in May 2011. There is a tour scheduled for 2011 with Backstreet Boys. New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys have a collaboration album coming out in May 2011.
Mark Wahlberg
Full Name: Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg
Birthdate: June 5, 1971
Birthplace: Dorchester Massachusetts
Father: Donald Walhberg
Mother: Alma Wahlberg
Brothers: Arthur, James, Paul, Robert and Donnie
Sisters: Debbie, Michelle, and Tracey
Early Life
Born in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, he is the youngest of nine children, with siblings Arthur, Jim, Paul, Robert, Tracey, Michelle, Debbie, and Donnie Wahlberg. His mother, Alma Elaine (nee McPeck), was a bank clerk and nurse's aid, and his father, Donald Edward Wahlberg, was a Teamster who worked as a delivery driver; the two divorced in 1982. 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 teenager, Wahlberg participated in several acts of violence and vandalism. He later claimed to have been in trouble 20-25 times with the Boston Police Department as a youth. By the age of thirteen Wahlberg had developed a serious addiction to cocaine and other substances. At fifteen he harassed a group of African American school children on a field trip by throwing rocks (causing injuries) and shouting epithets. When he was sixteen (again using racist language) after robbing a pharmacy under the influence of PCP, Wahlberg knocked a middle aged Vietnamese man unconscious, left another Vietnamese man permanently blinded in one eye, and attacked a security guard. Wahlberg has said that he has no recollection 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 two years in jail at Boston's Deer Island House of Correction, of which he served 45 days. In yet another incident, a 21-year-old Wahlberg fractured the jaw of a neighbor in an unprovoked attack.
Career
Music
Wahlberg first came to fame as the younger brother of Donnie Wahlberg of the successful 1980s and 1990s boy band New Kids on the Block. Mark, at age thirteen, had been one of the group's original members, along with Donnie, Danny Wood, Jordan Knight, and Jonathan Knight. Uninterested in the group's bubblegum pop and squeaky-clean image, however, he soon quit. It was his departure that eventually allowed Joe McIntyre to take his place as the fifth member of the group.
Wahlberg began recording as Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, earning a hit with "Good Vibrations" from the album Music for the People. The record was produced by brother Donnie and later hit #1 on The Billboard Hot 100, later becoming certified as a Platinum single. In the video, widely broadcast on music video channels, Mark was shown boxing, lifting weights and showing off his bare, well-muscled torso. The second single, "Wildside," peaked at #5 on Billboards Hot Singles Sales chart and at #10 on The Billboard Hot 100. It was certified as a Gold single. Marky Mark opened for the New Kids on the Block during their last tour. The second Marky Mark LP, You Gotta Believe, was a relative failure. Wahlberg also collaborated musically with reggae / ragga singer Prince Ital Joe in a project featuring Marky Mark. The project combined rap and ragga vocals with strong eurodance music (as in the singles Happy People, United, Life in the Streets, and Babylon) courtesy of Frank Peterson and Alex Christensen as producers.
He briefly became embroiled in controversy when he appeared to endorse the homophobic comments made by Shabba Ranks when they appeared as guests on the British chat show The Word. When Ranks made the statement that "gays ought to be crucified", Wahlberg remained in silence at his comments, which made the public believe he agreed with them. He later publicly dissociated himself from Ranks' comments, but only after widespread media coverage.
Mark's cocky, street-wise persona contributed to his fame. During concert performances, he was known for stripping to a pair of white briefs, gyrating his hips and rubbing his crotch. In the dedication of his 1992 book Marky Mark, co-authored with photographer Lynn Goldsmith, Wahlberg says in the preface that "I wanna dedicate this book to my dick".
Advertising Career
Wahlberg was known for his impressive physique. He first displayed it in the Good Vibrations music video and most prominently in a series of underwear ads for Calvin Klein shot by Herb Ritts following it with Calvin Klein television ads. In 1992 the Calvin Klein billboard in New York's Times Square featured Wahlberg exclusively. Magazine and television promotions would sometimes feature Mark exclusively or accompanied by model Kate Moss. Annie Leibovitz also shot a famous session of Mark Wahlberg in underwear for Vanity Fair's annual Hall of Fame issue. He also made a workout video entitled The Marky Mark Workout: Form... Focus... Fitness. Although Wahlberg made several sexual references in the video, it was passed as exempt from classification because he was able to disguise them with hip hop slang. Notably, he says to a female participant before doing an exercise, "If I get diesel (muscular), maybe I'll get some skins" (a reference to or of the labia). He also says "I can't get no coochie (a reference to a woman's vagina) without no Gucci", which was a phrase that Mark heard from a toilet attendant during his visit to London.
Film Career
Wahlberg then began an acting career, making his debut in the 1993 TV movie The Substitute. His big screen debut came the next year, with the Danny DeVito feature Renaissance Man. A basketball fanatic, he caught the attention of critics after appearing in The Basketball Diaries in 1995, playing the role of Mickey alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, in a film adaptation of the Jim Carroll book of the same name. He also starred in the 1996 James Foley thriller Fear.
He has earned many positive reviews after successful movies like Boogie Nights as Dirk Diggler, Three Kings, The Perfect Storm, The Italian Job, and Four Brothers. His performance in I ♥ Huckabees was voted best supporting performance of the year in the 2004 Village Voice Critics Poll. Wahlberg was originally cast as Linus Caldwell in Ocean's Eleven; Matt Damon played the role instead. The two later worked together in The Departed. Wahlberg was also considered for a role in the film Brokeback Mountain. It was originally intended to star him and Joaquin Phoenix, but Wahlberg was uncomfortable with the film's sex scenes and his role ultimately went to Jake Gyllenhaal.
Wahlberg recently starred in the American football drama, Invincible, based on the true story of bartender Vince Papale. He is also the executive producer of the HBO series Entourage which is loosely based on his experiences in Hollywood. He also appeared as a foul-mouthed Massachusetts State Police detective in Martin Scorsese's critically acclaimed thriller, The Departed in 2006, which netted him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture, and an NSFC Best Supporting Actor award.
Wahlberg has confirmed that he was approached to star in a sequel to The Departed, but it is still early in development. The sequel would reportedly revolve around the Staff Sergeant played by Wahlberg.
To prepare for his role in Shooter, Wahlberg attended long-range shooting training at Front Sight Firearms Training Institute near Pahrump, Nevada, and was able to hit a target at 2000 yards. He has said in a number of interviews that he will retire at the age of 40 to concentrate on parenthood and professional golf. However, in early 2007 he indicated that this was no longer the plan as "his golf game is horrible". He played Jack Salmon, a leading role in Peter Jackson's film of The Lovely Bones. In 2007 he starred opposite Joaquin Phoenix in We Own the Night, a movie about a family of police officers in New York City. The movie also starred Robert Duvall and Eva Mendes.
Wahlberg will play the drug kingpin Jon Roberts in the remake of the 2006 documentary Cocaine Cowboys, which chronicles the story of the largest cocaine trafficker in Miami in the 1970s and 1980s, and he has persuaded Leonardo DiCaprio to play the supporting role.
He starred in M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening as Eliot Moore, which premiered in movie theatres on June 13, 2008. The same year, he played the title role in Max Payne, based on a video game of the same name. While promoting Max Payne, Mark became involved in a feud with Saturday Night Live's Andy Samberg and threatened to "crack that big (bleep)ing nose of his." Samberg had done an impression of Wahlberg in a Saturday Night Live skit titled "Mark Wahlberg Talks To Animals." However, Wahlberg later appeared in a follow-up skit parodying both the original skit, Samberg's impression of Wahlberg, and his own threats to Samberg.
Personal Life
Wahlberg is a committed Roman Catholic, who attends daily Mass, credits his faith and a priest from his childhood for helping him turn his life around, and recognizes the seriousness of his faith. In the early 90s Wahlberg dated former child actress Soleil Moon Frye. Wahlberg and model Rhea Durham have been together since 2001 and got married on August 1, 2009 at the Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Beverly Hills. The couple have four children, Ella Rae (born September 2, 2003), Michael Robert (born March 21, 2006), Brendan Joseph (born September 16, 2008) and Grace Margaret (born January 11, 2010).
Actively involved in charity, Wahlberg established the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation in May 2001 for the purpose of raising and distributing funds to youth service and enrichment programs.
Wahlberg has four tattoos done by various artists including Paul Timman. The tattoos include Sylvester the cat with Tweety in his mouth on his ankle, a tattoo of his initials MW with Wahlberg through them on his upper right arm, and a Bob Marley tattoo with "One Love" on his upper left arm. The final tattoo, which Wahlberg holds as his most meaningful, is the rosary tattoed around his neck, with a crucifix and the words "In God I Trust" resting over his heart.
His father, a US Army veteran of the Korean War, died on Saint Valentine's Day, February 14, 2008.