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 He
was born Donald Edmond Wahlberg,
Jr. on August 17, 1969 in
Dorchester Massachusetts, into a
Swedish/Irish-Catholic family,
the eighth of nine children of
Donald Sr. and Alma Wahlberg.
His parents eventually divorced
and Donnie, finding himself
already in trouble, found a
positive outlet performing in
school plays and became involved
in varied aspects of theater --
acting, writing, and directing.
At the age of 15, he became a
member of the teen vocal group
originally called "NYNUK."
Donnie's younger brother,
Mark Wahlberg, was
originally one of the Boys but
balked at the direction the
group was taking and backed out.
Following a false start with
their
debut album "New Kids on the
Block," the teens persevered
with a sophomore record and
proceeded to hit #1 with the
single "Please Don't Go Girl" in
1988. They continued to bombard
the market with
one-after-another "Top Ten" hits
including "The Right Stuff" and
"I'll Be Loving You Forever."
Leaving the young girls panting
for more, they became one of the
hottest young
singing/line-dancing groups to
hit the late 80s/early 90s. The
Boys went on to sell over 70
million albums worldwide, and
provoke the spawning of other
five-member harmony groups such
as Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC.
During its heyday, Donnie played
up his resident "bad boy"
persona by tallying up several
run-ins with the law, including
an alleged arson at a Kentucky
hotel (charges were dropped). He
also delved into "body art" with
numerous tattoos and body
piercings in an effort to buck
their already-cloying image.
Amid intergroup dissension and
Milli Vanilli-like charges of
not contributing all the vocals
to their albums, the pop band
finally disbanded in 1994 --
partly out of frustration but
also having outgrown the group's
juvenile moniker.
Unsure of his direction while
attracting more trouble in the
tabloids, Donnie, who helped
write, arrange and produce
brother Mark's Funky Bunch
group's first two albums a few
years earlier, switched gears.
He rapped some and modeled some,
then transformed himself into an
actor, a route taken earlier by
his talented bro. While Mark has
turned out to become the bigger
film star over the years, Donnie
has stepped out of his shadows
to receive raves and renewed
respect for his own tense and
compelling character work.
He first showed up in big screen
action. Making his
debut as a "tough guy" thug
in the
Mickey Rourke urban outing
Bullet (1996), the filmed
was made in 1994 but not
released until two years later.
Usually cast as an amoral heavy,
Donnie moved up the quality
ladder with director
Ron Howard's thriller
Ransom (1996) as part of a
gang of kidnappers who nab
Mel Gibson's son, to their
eventual regret, of course. His
next repellent took the form of
a drug dealer in the goth indie
horror
Black Circle Boys (1997),
but the film came and went.
After a couple of TV movies, he
finally nabbed a starring role
in the film
Southie (1998) playing more
or less himself as an
Irish-American prodigal son who
returns to the mean streets of
his native Boston. The movie
also featured another brother
Robert Wahlberg who also was
testing the acting waters.
Ironically, one of Donnie's most
powerful roles during this
period was also one of his
briefest. Seen in the opening
sequence, he is nearly
unrecognizable (having dropped
an alarming amount of weight)
portraying a deranged former
patient of psychiatrist
Bruce Willis whose sudden
explosion into unfathomable
violence sets up the clever
twists and turns that turned
M. Night Shyamalan's classic
psychological thriller
The Sixth Sense (1999) into
a critically-acclaimed box
office hit. Donnie's opening bit
was mouth dropping and jarring
in its horror. He also proved he
wasn't a flash in the pan by
backing up this perf with a
major role as a WWII paratrooper
in the critically-hailed
ten-part epic
"Band of Brothers" (2001),
which won multiple Emmy
awards (6).
This TV role directly led to his
casting as a gritty L.A.
detective in the NBC dramatic
series
"Boomtown" (2002), an
acclaimed series that didn't
survive a second season. Since
then Donnie has patented his
unrefined intensity into a
number of other films such as
Triggermen (2002) and
Saw II (2005). He currently
lives in Los Angeles with his
wife, Kim Fey, and sons Xavier
and Elijah. As a former teen
heartthrob seemingly headed down
a troubled and dangerous path
after his initial success, he
somehow managed to avoid the
traditional pitfalls of
drugs and self-destruction,
and has since proven himself an
actor with "the right stuff."
Temporarily biography on
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Credtis imdb.com |
