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Welcome to Weird Facts of The 757 where we tell all the weird and cool things that have happened in the area. Tune in every week for a new weird fact about Hampton Roads!
This week's weird fact is about one of the world's favorite superheroes: The Incredible Hulk. That's right: Mark Ruffalo spent his teenage years in our very own Virginia Beach.
Ruffalo was born in Wisconsin to Frank Lawrence Ruffalo and Marie Rose. His father was a house painter, and his mother is a hair stylist. When Mark hit high school, the Ruffalo family moved down to Virginia Beach, Virginia, for his father's work. This is where one of our favorite superheroes started school at First Colonial High School and joined the wrestling team, which he had been on in Wisconsin, too.
Courtesy of giphy.com
I know what you're thinking: the wrestling team was great practice for his role as the Incredible Hulk. He also acted in high school for the Patriot Playhouse, which sparked Ruffalo's love for acting and the big screen. But he did not make it to the big time right away. Mark and his family moved to San Diego, and while performing in and starting his own acting groups and theater companies, Mark worked as a bartender for almost 10 years before he made his big break.
Since 1996, Ruffalo's fame has grown throughout the cinema universe. Minor roles in movies like The Dentist (1996) and Safe Men (1998) was where our hometown hero started. In the early 2000s, he starred as a romantic lead in several movies such as 13 Going on 30 (2004) and Rumor Has It (2005). He branched out to several other film genres; he was in the thriller Shutter Island in 2009. He starred in many more films up until 2012, when the producers of Marvel Studios approached him with the offer to take over the role of Hulk from Edward Norton in The Avengers.
From that point on, Mark Ruffalo has astounded and excited Marvel fans all over the world as the Incredible Hulk in the films Age of Ultron, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, and finally Avengers: Endgame along with many more movies surrounding the Marvel Universe. Hulk drops in at some great times to help his fellow Avengers and defeat the enemy.
My favorite thing about Mark Ruffalo is that even though he's made it to the big league, he always stays so down-to-earth. He seems like a genuinely nice guy, and all of us here in The 757 are proud to say he once lived here.
What is your favorite Mark Ruffalo movie or moment? Do you know anyone famous from Hampton Roads? What are other weird facts about "The 757" that you want us to explore? Tell us in the comments.