Mark Ruffalo shot straight to the top of the Hollywood food chain after starring in the MCU, but he was already working as an actor long before everyone knew him as an Avenger. He had minor roles in films like “The Dentist” and Ang Lee’s “Ride with the Devil,” and he was part of the Academy Award-nominated film “You Can Count On Me.”
His first big break came with nabbing the role in “The Last Castle,” but it was also the time where his world turned upside down. He discovered he had a brain cancer at that time. Jeffrey Katzenberg and other industry leaders reached out after the film was finished. “There I was on the phone with him and I can’t move the left side of my face because it’s paralyzed. And no one knows,” Ruffalo told New York Magazinein 2003 of the interaction.
Ruffalo was suffering from an acoustic neuralgia, which is a tumor behind his ear. The magazine stated that it was a risk to his career as an actor because it affected his auditory and facial nerves. It was benign but it took 10 hours to remove.