Mark Ruffalo’s tragic life just keeps getting sadder and sadder.
Ruffalo has become one of the highly regarded actors in Hollywood, with his versatility evident through his transition from romantic comedies to action and drama.
As well as being known for his acting career, the star is also known for his political activism on humanitarian, environmental, and health issues.
And while there’s no arguing that Ruffalo has found huge success, he’s also faced tragedy.
It turns out that the beloved Hollywood star has gone through some incredibly dark chapters in his life.
Ruffalo admitted that during his childhood, he was embarrassed by his ambitions to become an actor.
In an era and environment where such dreams were often dismissed or mocked, young Mark felt isolated by his aspirations.
When chatting with the Child Mind Institute, he said he felt ‘strange, unique and freakish’ during his school years.
The award-winning actor’s career took an unexpected path from diverse indie films in the 1990s to romantic comedies in the early 2000s, which ironically hurt his standing in Hollywood.
After his wife encouraged him to try rom-coms, he starred in the hit 13 Going on 30, approaching it with director Gary Winnick as an ‘important indie movie with a message’ about innocence and treating people well, per Slash Film.
However, the film’s success led to typecasting, and Ruffalo experienced direct rejection from studios.
During Zodiac negotiations, a studio negotiator bluntly told his manager: “We don’t give a s*** about Mark Ruffalo, we don’t even want Mark Ruffalo in this movie.”
When Joss Whedon surprisingly offered him the role of the Hulk in The Avengers, Ruffalo connected with the character’s resistance to others’ expectations.
He saw parallels to his own struggle against being pigeonholed, and the role ultimately revitalized his career and demonstrated his versatility as an actor.
Ruffalo has also opened up about experiencing s**cidal thoughts, acknowledging that one of his closest friend’s s**cide served as a ‘rock’ to get him out of his own depression.
The loss of someone so close forced the actor to confront the darkest corners of his own mind.
“When he died, it rocked me out of a dark depression,” he said, per Looper.
The tragedy became a turning point, a moment of clarity amid the fog of depression that had been consuming him.
“The moment he left, I realised that death wasn’t an escape, that s*cide wasn’t an answer,” he added.
This realization, born from devastating loss, helped pull Ruffalo back from the brink and gave him a new perspective on the value of life, even life filled with struggle.
Ruffalo told The Observer that ‘people are so afraid of mental illness’ and that it’s something he’s been ‘struggling with his whole life.’
The revelation came as a shock to many fans who know him as the affable, charismatic presence in Marvel films and critically acclaimed dramas.
He commented: “It’s like a low-grade depression that just is running all the time in the background.”
This constant companion has shadowed Ruffalo throughout his journey from struggling actor to Hollywood A-lister, a silent burden he’s carried even during his most triumphant moments.
Although Ruffalo managed to get through this dark chapter, he faced even more heartbreak in 2001 when he was diagnosed with acoustic neuroma, a brain tumor.
The diagnosis came at a particularly cruel time, just as his career was beginning to take off and his wife was about to give birth to their first child.
While the tumor turned out to be benign, the operation to remove it resulted in the loss of hearing in his left ear, as well as one side of his face becoming completely paralysed.
The actor who had worked so hard to break into Hollywood suddenly found himself physically transformed, uncertain if he’d ever work again.
He was then forced to take a break from his work and social life while he recovered from the surgery and its devastating side effects.
Following the operation, Ruffalo says he also gained two stone in weight and his prescribed drugs resulted in a loss of balance.
The physical toll was matched by the emotional devastation of seeing himself so changed.
Recalling keeping his condition a secret, he said (via Express): “I didn’t want any visitors. I was so unbelievably miserable, and what was worse was people’s reactions to seeing me. It was shattering to them.” T
he isolation only deepened his depression, creating a vicious cycle of suffering.
To help cope with all his lingering health conditions, Ruffalo ended up turning to meditation as a lifeline when traditional medicine could only do so much.
He explained: “It’s pretty much a daily practise that quiets your brain and oddly enough, actually slows down time, so you’re not so much trapped in your immediate reactions to things. My work started to change, my luck started to change. The way the world looked to me changed.”
This mindfulness practice became not just a coping mechanism, but a fundamental tool for managing his mental health and navigating the challenges life continued to throw at him.
But perhaps most heartbreaking of all is a family tragedy Ruffalo experienced in 2008.
Ruffalo’s brother, Scott, was shot in the head while in his own home and to this day, no arrests or charges have been made, per ABC.
The circumstances surrounding Scott’s death remain murky.
Initially investigated as a possible homicide, the case eventually stalled.
A Saudi princess was briefly arrested but released after her attorney claimed Scott had been playing with a gun.
The truth of what happened that night may never be fully known.
Discussing the unsolved case, Ruffalo said: “It’ll always be the great mystery of my life. I make peace with every mystery in my life, you just live alongside it.”
