Mark Wahlberg

Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg (born June 5, 1971), former stage name Marky Mark, is an American actor, businessman, and former rapper. He has received multiple accolades, including a BAFTA Award, and nominations for two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, nine Primetime Emmy Awards, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Wahlberg was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1971. In the 1990s, Wahlberg was a member of the music group Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, with whom he released the albums '' Music for the People'' (1991) and ''You Gotta Believe'' (1992). Wahlberg made his screen debut in ''Renaissance Man'' (1994) and had his first starring role in ''Fear'' (1996). He received critical praise for his performance as porn actor Dirk Diggler in '' Boogie Nights'' (1997).

In the early 2000s, he ventured into big-budget action movies, such as '' The Perfect Storm'' (2000), ''Planet of the Apes'' (2001), and ''The Italian Job'' (2003). He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing a police officer in the crime drama ''The Departed'' (2006). He was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for the sports drama biopic ''The Fighter'' (2010), in which he starred as Micky Ward. In the 2010s, he landed successful comedy roles with ''The Other Guys'' (2010), ''Ted'' (2012), ''Ted 2'' (2015), '' Daddy's Home'' (2015), and ''Daddy's Home 2'' (2017). He also became the protagonist in two films in the ''Transformers'' live-action film franchise, '' Transformers: Age of Extinction'' and '' Transformers: The Last Knight''. He was the world's highest-paid actor in 2017.

Wahlberg served as executive producer of five HBO series: the comedy-drama ''Entourage'' (2004–2011), the period crime drama '' Boardwalk Empire'' (2010–2014), the comedy-dramas ''How to Make It in America'' (2010–2011) and ''Ballers'' (2015–2019), and the documentary ''McMillions'' (2020). He is co-owner of the Wahlburgers chain and co-starred in the reality TV series about it. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010.

Early life and family

Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg was born on June 5, 1971, in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. He is the youngest of nine children, including actor Robert and singer/actor Donnie. His mother, Alma Elaine (née Donnelly; 1942–2021), was a bank clerk and a nurse's aide, and his father, Donald Edmond Wahlberg Sr. (1930–2008), was a delivery driver and U.S. Army veteran of the Korean War. Wahlberg's parents divorced in 1982; afterward, he divided his time between them.

Wahlberg is of Swedish descent through his father, and of Irish descent through his paternal grandmother. His mother was of Irish, English and French-Canadian ancestry. On his mother's side of the family, he is distantly related to author Nathaniel Hawthorne. Wahlberg was raised Catholic, and attended Copley Square High School on Newbury Street in Boston. By age 13, he had developed an addiction to cocaine and other substances; he did not receive his high school diploma until June 2013, at the age of 42.

Legal issues

In June 1986, a 15-year-old Wahlberg and three friends chased after three black children while yelling "Kill the nigger, kill the nigger" and throwing rocks at them. The next day, Wahlberg and the others followed a group of mostly black fourth-graders (including one of the victims from the previous day) taking a field trip on a beach, yelled racial epithets, threw rocks at them, and "summoned other white males who joined" in the harassment. In August 1986, civil action was filed against Wahlberg for violating the civil rights of his victims, and the case was settled the next month.

Wahlberg perpetrated another racist assault in April 1988. Then 16, he assaulted a middle-aged Vietnamese-American man on the street, calling him a "Vietnam fucking shit" and knocking him unconscious with a large wooden stick. Later the same day, Wahlberg attacked Johnny Trinh, another Vietnamese-American, punching him in the eye. When Wahlberg was arrested and returned to the scene of the first assault, he told police officers: "I'll tell you now that's the mother-fucker whose head I split open." Later, Wahlberg would explain that he was on PCP at the time. Investigators also noted that Wahlberg "made numerous unsolicited racial statements about 'gooks' and 'slant-eyed gooks. Wahlberg was charged with attempted murder, pleaded guilty to felony assault, and was sentenced to two years in jail, but served only 45 days of his sentence. Wahlberg believed he had left the second victim permanently blind in one eye, though Trinh later said that he had lost his eye in the Vietnam War, while serving in the South Vietnamese Army, who were fighting alongside American troops.

In August 1992, Wahlberg fractured the jaw of his neighbor Robert Crehan in an attack. Court documents state that in 1992, Wahlberg, "without provocation or cause, viciously and repeatedly kicked" Crehan in the face, while another man, Derek McCall, held the victim on the ground. Wahlberg's attorney claimed that Wahlberg and McCall, who is black, were provoked after McCall was called a racial slur by Crehan. The lawsuit was settled between the two parties, avoiding a criminal trial.

In 2006, Wahlberg said the right thing for him to do would be to meet with Trinh and make amends, though he had not done so. In 2016, while requesting a pardon for his conviction for the assault on Trinh, Wahlberg said he had met with Trinh and apologized "for those horrific acts." Trinh released a public statement forgiving Wahlberg.

In 2014, Wahlberg applied for a pardon from the State of Massachusetts for his convictions. His pardon application engendered controversy. According to the BBC
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