Mark Ruffalo

For those who are fans of the Marvel movies, he played Bruce Banner, aka The Incredible Hulk

Birth name: Mark Alan Ruffalo

DOB: 11/22/1967

Where: Kenosha, Wisconsin

Trivia

-His mother Marie Rose was a hairdresser and stylist while his father Frank was a construction painter

-In 2002, he was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma, a benign brain tumor, which resulted in partial facial paralysis. He has since recovered

-Spent nearly a decade bartending before entering the show business world

-He was scheduled to appear in the 2002 film Signs. Unfortunately, he had to drop out due to a brain tumor that was discovered. After undergoing brain surgery, he suffered from partial facial paralysis. He has since fully recovered

-He had a brother named Scott who committed suicide on Dec. 8, 2008 outside his Beverly Hills home. It was discovered he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head

-All three of his siblings, Scott, Tanya Marie and Nicole, are all hairstylists

-Prior to playing the role of the Incredible Hulk, he was a fan of the comic series and television show, just like his predecessor, Edward Norton

-He and Benicio Del Toro were classmates at the Stella Adler Drama School in Los Angeles

-He can successfully play the bass guitar

Filmography

Mirror 2: Raven Dance (1995)

-Christian

The Dentist (1996)

-Steve Landers

54 (1998)

-Ricko

You Can Count on Me (2000)

-Terry

The Last Castle (2001)

-Yates

Windtalkers (2002)

-Pappas

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

-Stan

13 Going On 30 (2004)

-Matt Flamhaff

Collateral (2004)

-Fanning

Rumor Has It...(2005)

-Jeff Daly

All the King's Men (2006)

-Adam Stanton

Zodiac (2007)

-Inspector David Toschi

Reservation Road (2007)

-Dwight Arno

Shutter Island (2010)

-Chuck Aule

Date Night (2010)

-Brad Sullivan

The Avengers (2012)

-Bruce Banner / Incredible Hulk

Now You See Me (2013)

-Dylan Rhodes

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

-Bruce Banner / Incredible Hulk

Now You See Me 2 (2016)

-Dylan Rhodes

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

-Bruce Banner / Incredible Hulk

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

-Bruce Banner / Incredible Hulk

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

-Bruce Banner / Incredible Hulk

Now You See Me: Now You Don't (2025)

-Dylan Rhodes

Ocean's Thirteen (2007)

The third installment in the highly successful Ocean's series

Summary

-One of the original crew members, Reuben Tishkoff, was ripped off by casino manager Willy Bank. Now it's time for the crew to plan a third heist as payback

Cast

-George Clooney: Danny Ocean

-Brad Pitt: Rusty Ryan

-Matt Damon: Linus Caldwell / Lenny Pepperidge

-Michael Mantell: Dr. Ryan

-Elliott Gould: Reueb Tishkoff

-Al Pacino: Willy Bank

-Eddie Jemison: Livingston Dell

-Don Cheadle: Basher Tarr

-Shaobo Qin: Yen

-Casey Affleck: Virgil Malloy

-Scott Caan: Turk Malloy

-Bernie Mac: Frank Catton

-Carl Reiner: Saul Bloom

-Eddie Izzard: Roman Nagel

-Ellen Barkin: Abigail Sponder

-Julian Sands: Greco Montgomery

-Don McManus: Neil the Pit Boss

Did You Know?

-The scenes showing Linus walking through the streets of London talking on the phone were shot while Matt Damon was in London filming The Bourne Ultimatum. The production crew of Ocean's Thirteen took advantage of this, as they wanted the character Greco to be British and a former classmate of Roman Nagel

-The phone Abigail Sponder gives Willy Bank is a custom made Gold Samsung, made just for the movie

-The numbers Mr. Weng picks on the roulette wheel, 11, 12, 13, all refer to the films in the Ocean's series

-This was one of Bernie Mac's final roles on screen before his death on August 9, 2008, at the age of 50

-Director Steven Soderbergh had Al Pacino in mind first as the role of Willy Bank. The producer for the film, Jerry Weintraub, is a good friend of Pacino's and convinced him to be in the film

-All of the scenes featuring Al Pacino were shot in 3 weeks

-This film reunited Al Pacino and Andy Garcia after they worked together on The Godfather Pt. III (1990)

-The ringtone on Rusty's phone is The Human League's "Don't You Want Me"

-In the scene where the pit boss is seen leaving a pawn shop, he passes by a sign reading "Griffin". In Las Vegas, The Griffin Agency is responsible for helping casinos spot card counters and cheaters. In this area of town, The Griffin Bar is downtown

-The stuntman who Don Cheadle impersonates uses the stage name "Fender Roads." This is a homonym of "Fender Rhodes", an electric piano made by the Fender Corporation in the 1940s and 1950s, developed by Harold Rhodes

-This film reunites both Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin, both of whom starred in the 1989 film Sea of Love

-Terry Benedicts pretends to show interest in the 'Nuff Said dominoes game. The real Bellagio features a dominoes game called Pai Gow, which originated in China

Ocean's Twelve (2004)

This is the second installment of the highly successful Ocean's series

Summary

-Danny and the crew, plus an additional member, head to Europe to pull off three major heists

Cast

-Brad Pitt: Rusty Ryan

-Catherine Zeta-Jones: Isabel Lahiri

-George Clooney: Danny Ocean

-Julia Roberts: Tess Ocean

-Casey Affleck: Virgil Malloy

-Andy Garcia: Terry Benedict

-Scott Caan: Turk Malloy

-Shaobo Qin: Yen

-Don Cheadle: Basher Tarr

-Matt Damon: Linus Caldwell

-Carl Reiner: Saul Bloom

-Robbie Coltrane: Matsui

Did You Know?

-For the laser dance, Vincent Cassel didn't need a stuntman. He is an expert in the Brazilian martial art known as capoeira. He did the entire dance himself

-While shooting in Rome, Brad Pitt and George Clooney got caught in the rain while jogging. The doorman of their hotel wouldn't let them enter the hotel because he thought they were vagrants

-Sitting on the shores of Lake Como in Italy is the Nigh Fox's mansion. The city overlooking Lake Como is called Bellagio. The city and lake inspired the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas, where the site of the original heist was in 2001's Ocean's Eleven

-The necklace that Rusty Ryan wears is a replica of a necklace with the wedding ring that Brad Pitt wore when he was married to Jennifer Aniston

-Despite Europol being a police organization in Europe, they have no executive powers to execute warrants or arrest people like they are shown in the movie. They exist to foster cooperation between the police services in Europe

-Unlike the movie, where it suggests that Europol is in Amsterdam, in real life Europol is located in The Hague, where many war crimes are put on trial. Many of the scenes showing the Europol office were shot in the city hall of The Hague and this location is only 50km south of Amsterdam

-In the scene with the train, Turk is seen wearing a Boston Red Sox cap while Danny is seen wearing a New York Yankees cap. This was to make it seem more realistic to distract the guards on the train. This is because the Yankees and the Red Sox have been rivals for over 100 years and their fans don't get along with each other

Ocean's Eleven (2001)

This is one of the more well known heist films starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney

Summary

-Danny Ocean is a gangster with the ultimate heist in mind. Rob three casinos simultaneously during a popular boxing event. To make this work, he will need a group of associates with specific areas of expertise

Cast

-George Clooney: Danny Ocean

-Bernie Mac: Frank Catton

-Brad Pitt: Rusty Ryan

-Elliott Gould: Reuben Tischoff

-Casey Affleck: Virgil Malloy

-Scott Caan: Turk Malloy

-Shaobo Qin: Yen

-Lori Galinski: Blackjack Dealer

-Matt Damon: Linus

-Andy Garcia: Terry Benedict

-Julia Roberts: Tess Ocean

-James Curatola: Baccarat Dealer

Did You Know?

-The security staff at The Bellagio allowed the crew to tap into their real security system to obtain real surveillance of the casino

-Andy Garcia struggled to do a serious scene with Carl Reiner because Reiner was amusing

-While auditioning with the Peking Acrobats, Shaobo Qin was spotted and asked to audition for the role of Yen

-During off time, the cast gambled. There was a debate about who won the most. George Clooney, it was said, had lost 25 hands of blackjack

-The role Matt Damon plays, Linus Caldwell, was originally supposed to go to Mark Wahlberg. But he turned down this role to star in the 2001 film Planet of the Apes

-Don Cheadle, whose character used a London-based Cockney accent, said it was not great. He wanted to change it, but his agent refused

-Since Shaobo Qin didn't speak much English, and this was his film debut, he had a Chinese translator on set to tell him what to do

-The entire crew of the movie was granted full access to The Bellagio. The reason being that producer Jerry Weintraub was good friends with former owner Steve Wynn. Wynn had sold the casino to Kirk Kerkorian prior to filming, but Weintraub was also friends with him

-The arguments Virgil and Turk have were based on arguments that screenwriter Ted Griffin and his brother had as kids

-The Bellagio had closed their valet parking area for the movie. Even the visiting high rollers had to use the parking garage, just like everyone else

-Bernie Mac improvised a lot of his lines, such as "You want me to get on the table and dance?"

-For the montage of Las Vegas, the Elvis Presley song "A Little Less Conversation" was chosen because it sounded like a Vegas song, rather than "Viva Las Vegas". While being one of Elvis' least known songs, it was given a modern remake thanks to Thomas Holkenborg, who is known as Junkie XL, and it became a hit on the radio

-The boxing match is between boxers Wladimir Klitschko and Lennox Lewis. While these two have never actually fought each other, on June 1, 2003, Lewis fought Vitali Klitschko, Wladimir's older brother, and won

-Don Cheadle went to London to talk to people to learn how to speak with a Cockney accent for his character Basher Tarr

-The prison Danny Ocean is released from, North Jersey State Prison, is actually the East Jersey State Prison, which was formerly known as the Rahway State Prison. The area where his parole interview was being held was the "Drill Hall", where inmates have their indoor gym / recreation area. The cell block Danny was leaving was "3-Wing", which was a regular and working cell block. The other inmates were either confined to their cells or relocated to other parts of the prison for filming. The "officer" who was escorting Danny was, in real life, a Lieutenant and, at the time of filming, he was the coordinator of the "Scared Straight" program, which would take at-risk youths and show them the reality of prison if they didn't change their ways

-Both Scott Caan and Andy Garcia have a connection to The Godfather series. Scott Caan's father is James Caan, who played Santino "Sonny" Corleone while Andy Garcia played Vincent Mancini, the love child of Sonny and his mistress Lucy Mancini in The Godfather Part III

-When Danny gets released from prison again, Tess makes a comment that goes "We have to get Rusty a girl." Rusty replies "There's a women's prison down the road." In real life, there is a women's prison, the only women's prison in all of New Jersey, roughly an hour away from the "North Jersey State Prison" in Rahway, New Jersey. It's called the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility

-The Malloy twins are played by Scott Caan and Casey Affleck. Their first names are Virgil and Turk. This is a nod to The Godfather, specifically one of the men who gets killed in the restaurant, Virgil "Turk" Sollozzo. Scott Caan's father is James Caan, whose meeting with Sollozzo resulted in an assassination attempt on Don Vito Corleone

-When Bernie Mac's character Frank Catton is shaking hands with a car salesman named Billy Tim Denham, that character is played by Joe La Due. This actor also appeared in the film Casino. He was the one whose hand was smashed by a hammer because he was found to be cheating at blackjack

Sea of Love (1989)

This was the first movie Al Pacino made, after taking a four year break from film after 1985's Revolution. I thought it was very good. I will warn you, though. If you don't like nudity or foul language, this may not be the film for you

Summary

-A detective, who also happens to be an alcoholic, is investigating a series of murders tied to lonely hearts ads in a newspaper. And he falls for a woman who might be the prime suspect

Cast

-Al Pacino: Frank Keller

-John Goodman: Sherman Tuohy

-Ellen Barkin: Helen Cruger

-Michael Rooker: Terry

-William Hickey: Frank Keller Sr

-Richard Jenkins: Gruber

-Paul Calderon: Serafino

-John Spencer: Lieutenant

-Damien Leake: Ernest Guy

-Zachary Michael Simmons: Ernest's Son

-Patricia Barry: Older Woman

Did You Know?

-When Al Pacino's character Frank Keller is trying to court the character played by Ellen Barker, he is rudely bumped into by someone on 5th Avenue. Director Harold Becker stated that this was not in the script. It was completely authentic, caused by a real New York resident. Al Pacino includes this moment into the film and continues on without missing a beat

-The "Meet the Yankees" breakfast that the police use to apprehend criminals was based on a real event

-When this movie is shown on television, Lorraine Bracco was shown as Al Pacino's ex-wife. Her scenes were cut from the final product of the film

-At the time of this film, he was living with his good friend Diane Keaton, She had found the script for this film and convinced him to do it. He was still hurt from doing the 1985 film Revolution and was not sure he wanted to make a return to films. Keaton had informed him that he was not an A-list actor anymore, that offers were not coming in very often, but this was a film he was meant to do. Not only that, he was also going flat broke and going through tax problems stemming from financing a film called The Local Stigmatic with his own money and also not making films for four years. He finally agreed to do this film and it helped him immensely

-Richard Price, who wrote the novel this film is based on, wrote the screenplay with Dustin Hoffman in mind. With him wanting too many re-writes, Al Pacino took over the role instead

-This was Al Pacino's first film after a four year break. His last film before this was 1985's Revolution

-Michael Rooker was cast in this film after his role in the 1986 film Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

-This movie is credited with being the film that pulled Al Pacino out of a bad string of movies he had made during the 1980s

-This film was the fourth out of five films Al Pacino had made with Martin Bregman. They are 1973's Serpico, 1975's Dog Day Afternoon, 1983's Scarface, 1989's Sea of Love, 1993's Carlito's Way

-During the undercover scene where Al Pacino and John Goodman's characters are working, that restaurant, O'Neal's, was a real New York City restaurant, owned by actor Patrick O'Neal. It was located near Lincoln Center and closed in 1993, just a year before Patrick O'Neal's death in 1994

-Both Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin attended the same high school, the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts. This high school was also featured in the TV show and film Fame

-During the scene where Frank Keller is trying to convince his lieutenant to let him do the sting operation without a wire, he says "What is she gonna do, confess? Shoot me? We're in a restaurant!" Ironically, Al Pacino, who played Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy, appeared in a scene in the first film, where he shoots a cop in a restaurant, which was also said to be impossible

-In a 2007 interview, Ellen Barkin revealed an unknown secret about her love scenes with Al Pacino in the film. She stated that while he is normally a cocky, outgoing actor, when the cameras started rolling, he became shy and bashful. "We never talk about that scene. Al was very shy. I don't think he's comfortable with those kind of scenes. I am. At the time I was anyway. Now I wouldn't be, but I thought it was a good icebreaker in those days."

-Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin starred in another movie together. Ocean's 13, where he plays Willy Bank and Ellen plays his right-hand woman

-Any interior shots were filmed in Toronto while exterior shots were filmed in New York City, most of them being filmed in the Upper East Side

-It was not a mistake that Frank used an incorrect last name in his newspaper personal ad. A police officer undercover would never use their real last name

-In the fancy restaurant scene, the strolling violinist is playing "Strangers in the Night". This song was also featured in the 1983 film Scarface, during the scene showing the shootout

-This is one of four films written by Richard Price, but starring Samuel L. Jackson. They are 1995's Kiss of Death, 2000's Shaft and 2006's Freedomland

-John Spencer played another police lieutenant in the 1989 film Black Rain

Rambo III (1988)

This is the third film in the highly successful Rambo series, starring Sylvester Stallone

Summary

-Former Vietnam vet John Rambo leaves a peaceful Buddhist monastery in southeast Asia to rescue his former mentor from Russian commandos in Afghanistan

Cast

-Sylvester Stallone: Rambo

-Richard Crenna: Col. Sam Trautman

-Marc de Jonge: Zaysen

-Kurtwood Smith: Griggs

-Spyros Fokas: Masoud

-Sasson Gabay: Mousa

-Doudi Shoua: Hamid

-Marcus Gilbert: Tomask

-Alon Aboutboul: Nissem

Did You Know?

-Throughout the movie, if you look closely, you can see scars on Rambo's body. Such as the scar on his right arm from 1982's First Blood, which was caused by falling through the trees. Or the small scar on his right cheek, caused by a heated knife scraping his face in 1985's Rambo: First Blood Pt. II

-The last film in the Rambo series to star Richard Crenna as Col. Sam Trautman. He died on 1/17/2003 before a fourth film could be made. The 2008 film Rambo is dedicated to him in memory

-One scene shows Rambo playing a sort of polo-like game on horseback. In real life, Sylvester Stallone has experience riding horses. He's been riding horses since he was a child and even competed in polo matches starting at age 11. The game he plays is a popular game all across southern Asia called buzkashi

-Masoud (Spyros Fokas) is a reference to a real life figure named Ahmad Shah Masoud, a leader in the Afghan resistance against Russia, the minister of defense in Afghanistan and a leader in the resistance against the Taliban regime

-At the monks temple in Thailand, where Col. Trautman finds Rambo, it was a real temple in Thailand undergoing renovations. Director Peter McDonald stated that many of the monks there were not actors in costume, but actual monks from that temple. They were paid to appear as extras. He went on to say that he was delighted to give money to people who really needed it, as opposed to people who had too much of it

-Rambo is seen wearing the green charm necklace Co Bao from Rambo: First Blood Pt. II was wearing, that he put on after she died. In this film, he gives the necklace to Hamid before leaving Afghanistan

F1: The Movie (2025)

For any fan of Formula 1, this is a must see movie. I actually had plans of going to see it with my sister in the theatre, both of us wearing our Formula 1 gear (me wearing either Aston Martin or Mercedes, her wearing Ferrari), but now I have to buy it on Amazon instead

Summary

-A former Formula One driver, who was a legend in his time, comes out of retirement to team up with a younger driver and his team

For any fans of F1, you should immediately recognize Oscar Piastri in this picture

Cast

-Brad Pitt: Sonny Hayes

-Damson Idris: Joshua Pearce

-Javier Bardem: Ruben Cervantes

-Kerry Condon: Kate McKenna

-Tobias Menzies: Peter Banning

-Kim Bodnia: Kaspar Smolinski

-Sarah Niles: Bernadette

-Will Merrick: Nickleby

-Joseph Balderrama: Fazio

-Abdul Salis: Dodge

-Callie Cooke:Jodie

-Leigh Diffey: Daytona Race Broadcaster

-Will Buxton: Himself

-Martin Savage: Las Vegas FIA Race Director

Did You Know?

-It took a year to convince the FIA (the governing body of Formula 1) and the ten teams to allow production of the teams and drivers on the tracks during race weekends. One concern of the Red Bull team was that they would be shown as the villain because the Mercedes team had built the car used in the movie and then Mercedes F1 driver Lewis Hamilton was included as a producer on the film. Jerry Bruckheimer stated that the FIA or any of the teams would be not shown in a negative way

-Filming the racing scenes were scattered throughout the 2023 and 2024 race weekends. A garage was set up for production between the garages of the Mercedes and Ferrari teams

-For the drivers of the 2025 racing season, a private screening of the movie was held at the Cannes Film Festival

-Brad Pitt and Damson Idris did all of their own driving in this film

-Sarah Niles, who plays the mother of Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), is only 4 years older than him

-The car Brad Pitt drove is a modified Dallara F2 2018. The motor was replaced with an electric motor. It was created with the help of the Mercedes F1 team and Carlin Motorsport

-Brad Pitt is a long time fan of auto racing

-Director Joseph Kosinski was worried about Sir Lewis Hamilton's reaction to the footage of racing. Kosinski said "He smiled and said 'It looks fast.' I was like 'Oh, thank God.' If Lewis says that, we're in a good place.'"

-Any interior shots of the actors behind the wheel is actually them driving. No stunt men were used for the racing scenes. Brad Pitt logged over 6,000 miles of racing time, which now makes him quite experienced

-The scenes showing the racing simulator were done at the HQ and factory for the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team in the UK

-Bernie Collins, a Northern Irish female Formula 1 strategy engineer, was the inspiration for Kerry Condon's character, who was the first female technical director of the Formula One APX GP team

-Sonny Hayes would wear mismatched socks, a trait that former F1 driver Alex Wurz would do. Wurz would wear mismatched racing shoes and socks

-As a tribute to the F1 world, HAAS team principal Guenther Steiner can be seen swearing. He is famous for his profane language among Formula 1 fans. He does it silently in the film, but lip readers can still pick it up. Despite not being seen using profane language during broadcasts, the Netflix series Drive to Survive did an episode featuring Guenther Steiner, making it clear about his use of profanity

-The headquarters for the APX team is actually the McLaren headquarters. It's the McLaren Technology Center

-The English Bulldog being walked through the paddock early in the film belongs to Formula 1 driver Sir Lewis Hamilton. The dog's name is Roscoe and he frequently joins Lewis during racing weekends

-This film was initially considered as a sequel to the 1990 film Days of Thunder

-Max Verstappen, driver for the Red Bull team, skipped the private screening for the F1 drivers and the New York premier while Carlos Sainz Jr, driver for Ferrari and now Williams Racing, cautioned the "pure F1 fans" to be "open minded to Hollywood films"

-Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) has a tattoo on his left arm. It's of the Jerez circuit in Spain, the circuit in which his character had his career-ending crash during an F1 race in the 1990s

-The name of the racing team Sonny joins is APX, pronounced Apex, the innermost point of a corner that a car can take to minimize lap time

-As part of an invitation from McLaren team principal Zak Brown, Brad Pitt took McLaren driver Lando Norris' car out for a private test at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) circuit in Texas. Lando Norris and SkySports commentator and former Formula 1 driver Martin Brundle were present to give Pitt any advice. He did three laps in Norris' car

Zak Brown, McLaren Team Principal

-Black and gold are the colors of the APX team. They are also the same colors for the University of Missouri, where Brad Pitt attended school and dropped out