Best known as: Star of You Can Count on Me and Just Like Heaven
After nearly a decade of struggling to build a screen career, Mark Ruffalo broke through with his performance in the Sundance Film Festival favorite You Can Count On Me (2000, starring Laura Linney. With rugged good looks and a flair for both comedy and drama, by 2004 he had emerged as one of Hollywood's busiest leading men, appearing that year with Naomi Watts in We Don't Live Here Anymore, with Kirsten Dunst in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, with Jennifer Garner in 13 Going On 30 and with Tom Cruise in Collateral. With a solid background in the theater, Ruffalo has a reputation as a "serious" actor, but his film work has included big budget thrillers, indie dramas and light romantic comedies. His other films include Windtalkers (2002, directed by John Woo), In the Cut (2003, directed by Jane Campion) and Just Like Heaven (2005, opposite Reese Witherspoon).
