I like patient people. Those who never give up.  They are hard to find. Most people spend their time thinking about all the reasons they cannot do something instead of spending their time just trying to do it. That is why I admire the life of the  for a long time not so well known actor Mark Ruffalo. He has been appearing in a lot of movies lately. Some big budget movies like the 2012 film called The Avengers with Robert Downey Jr.  He also has a very active role playing a wrestler in a more recent film. It helps that he was a championship wrestler in high school. For his role in the film called Foxcatcher, he goes back to the moves.  It was the most physical acting role he has ever done.

He gave up wrestling in senior year for acting. All his closest relatives were hairdressers. In the movies he has been known for his very different roles. In 2014 he played a disgraced music executive in the movie called Begin Again. The same year he played a gay activist in the movie called In The normal Heart. He played the Hulk super hero in The Avengers and that is all in films released this past year. He is an American success story because he is everywhere now. But it all started slowly for him. Mark studied acting at the Stellar Adler Acting School in Los Angeles. It was a three year program that took him six years to complete.

For a long time it was bar tending that actually paid the bills. He was a popular bartender where he had a drink people ordered called a Markorita named after him. After more than 600 auditions Mark finally broke through the movie industry in the year 2000 landing a part in the film You Can Count on Me playing Laura Linney’s troubled brother. After 10 years of trying to be discovered in the movies, the doctors find a mass in his brain. His beautiful wife was pregnant and his son was born 2 weeks after he gets notice of his brain problems. He thought he was going to die and didn’t know how he could tell his wife that.  The tumor was benign but the surgery to remove it left one side of his face paralyzed

Doctors said he probably wouldn’t get his face back. But after a year went by he got his facial movement back.  Slowly Mark Ruffalo the actor came back and in 2004 he stared in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Thirteen Going on Thirty and Collateral all released in the same year. His success made him accepted at home where all the hairdressers had successful businesses. His brother Scott was a popular hairstylist in Beverly Hills and for the longest time Mark was referred to as just being Scot’s brother. In 2008 Scott was found shot in the back of his head and no suspect has ever been found. The case was closed just as a homicide.  He lives alongside his brother’s mystery death every day.

He then left California greiving over the loss of his brother and thought he gave up acting to be a writer. He bought a farm in upstate New York to begin his new life with his wife and now three kids. Then Hollywood called him to be the lead in the 2010 film called The Kids Are Alright playing a sperm donor to a lesbian couple played by Anette Benning and Julie Ann Moore. He got an Oscar nomination.  Today at 46 years old acting is now seeking him. Stick with it folks, you never know.  This is it Tanner, go for your dreams.