Happy Birthday To… Marky Mark! 41 years ago today, Mark Wahlberg was born. To commemorate his 41st year, here’s a look back at the wacky adventure the Bostonian actor, producer, rapper and party boy calls ‘life’.
Marky Mark was always a trouble maker, one of nine kids, committing small felonious acts, a high-school dropout and in search of fame. He would get his first taste of it, briefly joining his older brother’s band (Donnie Wahlberg in New Kids on the Block). After a short three month stint, Mark decided to form his own, cooler band, Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch.
Mark Wahlberg would be shirtless and exposing his underwear for most of his rapping career, showing off his abs any chance he got. Most notably in 1992, when he posed for Calvin Klein in his skivvies, with Kate Moss.
Mark Wahlberg wanted to try acting. In the early nineties, Mark was a part of medium successful films, and acted alongside nobodies and eventually Hollywood stars: The Substitute was his first film and a total flop. He acted opposite Danny De Vito in Renaissance Man which was good, and with fellow teen heartthrob Leonardo Di Caprio in The Basketball Diaries, playing a friend and fellow junkie. He continued dark roles when he played Reese Witherspoon’s psychotic bf in Fear, and would eventually reach Oscar nomination status in Paul Anderson’s Boogie Nights, where he played a bus-boy-turned-porn-star.
Mark Wahlberg continued to re-invent himself, and make his name as a serious actor in big roles. The Perfect Storm, Planet of the Apes, Rock Star, The Italian Job, I Heart Huckabees, Four Brothers, and even acting with his childhood friend Leo Di Caprio again in The Departed, where he was nominated for an Oscar for his acting role.
From troubled teen to A list act, Mark Wahlberg has grown up before our very eyes (and he cleans up nice!). He has four kids now, a hot wife, and this whole hot-dad thing makes us heart him even more. The days of Marky Mark the shirtless jerk may be far gone, but that mischievous smile will never fade.
