After a quick foray into comedy with this summer's The Other Guys, Mark Wahlberg returns to drama this month in The Fighter. He stars as Mickey Ward, a tough-luck Boston boxer with a domineering mother/manager (Melissa Leo) and a brother/trainer (Christian Bale) who once knocked down Sugar Ray Leonard before becoming a crackhead. Alert Oscar! But how did Wahlberg become an Academy Award-nominated actor from his roots as a hip-hop artist who lead the infamous Funky Bunch? You can always trace a direct line through a handful of roles (not necessarily his best roles, mind you) to illustrate what led to an star's current success, and with Wahlberg, that line might be as high as it's ever been. Let's look at eight performances that trace the evolution of one Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg.
Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch (1991)
It's actually quite amazing that we as a society have pretty much forgotten about this stage of Wahlberg's career. I mean, seriously, you have to be really quite good as an actor to make people forget that you once paraded around in your underwear singing lyrics like, "Vibration good like Sunkist/Many wanna know who done this." What's great is that Marky Mark... I'm sorry, Wahlberg, actually trains as a boxer in the video for "Good Vibrations." We've come full circle.
Renaissance Man (1994)
Wahlberg's first film (not counting a made-for-TV movie called The Substitute, in which he was still credited as Marky Mark) came in a supporting role in Penny Marshall's Renaissance Man. The premise basically concerns a down-on-his-luck Danny Devito teaching a class of Army students (including Wahlberg) how to speak proper English -- knowledge Wahlberg would later use to talk to animals. Considering some first film roles that now prestigious actors had to accept, all things considered, this wasn't too bad a gig.
Boogie Nights (1997)
Obviously, a huge turning point in Wahlberg's career -- The first film that made a wide audience (after some notice in the mostly panned Basketball Diaries) stand up and say, "Wait a second, this guy can really act!" What's most impressive: Wahlberg, who can actually carry a tune (see: Funky Bunch, Marky Mark and the), nails the "I can't sing but I'm trying my best" voice. Boogie Nights also restored Burt Reynolds into our lives, however briefly. Unfortunately, Wahlberg's next film was The Big Hit.
Three Kings (1999)
The first of Wahlberg's collaborations with David O. Russell finds him as a soldier in the first Gulf War plotting to steal gold from Saddam Hussein's fortune. At the time, starring along with George Clooney (who was just two year removed from still being Batman & Robin's George Clooney) and Ice Cube, it was Wahlberg's biggest hit both critically and financially -- grossing over $60 million at the box office.
The Perfect Storm (2000)
Fun fact: To this day, The Perfect Storm is still Wahlberg's biggest domestic hit, grossing $182 million. Wolfgang Petersen's film adapts the Sebastian Junger book of the same name -- a tale of a doomed Gloucester fishermen trying to hit a huge payday by venturing out to the Flemish Caps but who, as the title hints, run into a few meteorlogical complications. After Three Kings and this film, there was plenty of talk about Clooney and Wahlberg continuing as an acting duo well into the next decade; to date, however, this remains their last onscreen collaboration. (Wahlberg was reportedly asked to play the role of Linus in Oceans 11; the role went to Matt Damon when Wahlberg instead decided to star in...)
Planet of the Apes (2001)
Kind of a strange turning point in Wahlberg's career: The big-budget extravaganza remains his second biggest domestic hit of all time, yet exists as a kind of non-factor. I mean, in what world is a $362 million global grosser considered (when it's considered at all) as a flop? It would be five more years before a role of Wahlberg's created any comparable amount of buzz.
The Departed (2006)
Wahlberg received his first Oscar nomination for the role of wisecracking, street-tough Staff Sgt. Dignam. Not only did Wahlberg walk away with the only acting nomination from a stellar cast that included Leonardo DiCaprio (DiCaprio was nominated that year for Blood Diamond), Jack Nicholson and Matt Damon, but Wahlberg's character was (spoiler alert) pretty much the only character to survive this gangland bloodbath of a movie.
The Other Guys (2010)
Hey, who knew Wahlberg could do comedy? (Notwithstanding the unintentional laughs of The Happening, of course.) Sure, it was a little bit of a risk for Adam McKay to cast a guy best known for his roles as a brash talker more serious roles, but the move paid off: Wahlberg turned out to be the perfect foil for Will Ferrell in what might be the funniest film of this past summer. And yes, as it turns out, Mark Wahlberg playing a character who yells a lot is quite funny.