Mark Wahlberg burst onto the music scene in the ’90s as a charismatic rapper, but his hard work and determination helped him transform into a Hollywood heavyweight.
Body of Work
Muscle-bound Mark Wahlberg had already modeled skivvies for Calvin Klein and rocketed to the top of the charts with the infectious track “Good Vibrations” when he spoke with Penthouse in March 1993 about his meteoric career and the state of modern-day rap music.
As part of Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, the Boston-born rapper’s aggressive stylings perfectly paired with Loleatta Holloway’s powerhouse vocals on the No. 1 pop smash, making him a household name. But since then, Mark’s star has risen even higher as he launched a successful acting career and appeared in a string of blockbusters, including Planet of the Apes, The Perfect Storm and Transformers: Age of Extinction. And his acclaimed role in Martin Scorsese’s 2006 thriller The Departed even earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Now 50, Mark has also displayed his comedy chops in flicks such as Ted, The Other Guys and Daddy’s Home. But he’s shown himself to be a major player behind the scenes, as well, by serving as an executive producer on dozens of projects, including the crime saga Boardwalk Empire, the comedy-drama Entourage and The Rock’s HBO series Ballers. In 2010, Mark was honored with his very own star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.
Along with his brothers Donnie and Paul, Mark’s also a co-owner of the Wahlburgers dining chain, which inspired an A&E reality series of the same name that debuted in 2014 and aired for 10 seasons. He’s also a part owner of Performance Inspired, a supplement company he cofounded in 2016 with former GNC executive Tom Dowd, and invested in the Barbados Tridents cricket team, in addition to many more business ventures.
Though it’s been 30 years since he first flexed his muscles on MTV, Mark has maintained his impressive physique and whipped the internet into a frenzy in 2020 when he shared his jam-packed schedule, which included early a.m. workouts and “cryo chamber recovery” sessions.
As popular as ever, Mark has more than 17 million Instagram followers at @markwahlberg. But he’s not the only social media sensation in his home. His pet pooch Champ has nearly 90,000 Instagram followers of his own at @champeranian, and Mark has joked the pup is the “number one Pomeranian on the ’gram!”
One of the hardest working men in Hollywood, Mark has multiple irons in the fire, including The Six Billion Dollar Man—a modern retelling of the ’70s classic The Six Million Dollar Man—in which he’s currently slated to play astronaut Steve Austin, a role that was originated by Lee Majors. Prior to that release, moviegoers can next see him on the big screen in the video game-inspired film Uncharted, which is set to hit theaters in February 2022—and with Mark leaping into the action, it’ll no doubt be a winner.
Full disclosure, we do not have the most Wahlberg-dedicated fans currently working in this department. Ironically it was only a couple of weeks ago that the head writer learned the fellow who plays Danny Reagan on Blue Bloods actually started with his brother Mark here in an apparently popular music group called New Kids on the Block. (In defense of our head writer, he does know the names of all the original members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, and he once went to an Elvis concert on purpose.) … That said, having an article in Penthouse Magaines and NOT mentioning “Boogie Nights” just seems like a pretty big oversight. Some people forget what we do for a living. It’s cute. (Maybe the anonymous author just wanted to avoid making a dick move, y’know?)
Since we try to stay in that being honest mode, we will admit that by the time this picture was taken at Van Andel Arena (Grand Rapids, MI) in 1989, Mark Wahlberg has been gone from the groupf for over four years. We included it here simply to show what “major” performances looked like back then. … The 1980s were a weird time — a very, very weird time.
