Donald Edmond Wahlberg, Jr. (born August 17, 1969) is an
American singer, actor and
film producer. He is a member of the popular 1980s and 1990s
boy band New Kids on the Block and is the older brother of fellow actor/
musician Mark Wahlberg. His background includes
music,
feature films, and
television. In recent times, Donnie has been typecast as a detective for his roles in the
Saw films,
Boomtown and
Righteous Kill.
Biography
Early life
He was born in the
Dorchester neighborhood of
Boston, Massachusetts, as the eighth of nine children, with older siblings Arthur, Jim, Paul,
Robert, and Tracey, Michelle, Debbie, and younger sibling
Mark. He also has three half siblings from his fathers first marriage, Donna, Scott and Buddy. His mother, Alma Elaine (
née Donnelly), was a bank clerk and nurse's aid, and his father, the late Donald Edmund Wahlberg,Sr. was a
teamster who worked as a delivery driver; the two divorced in 1982.
[Donnie Wahlberg Biography (1969-)][Donnie Wahlberg Biography - Yahoo! Movies] He has mostly
Irish, and some
Swedish and
French Canadian ancestry.
[Ancestry of Mark Wahlberg]
Wahlberg began performing in
plays as early as the
first grade. In
high school, he attended a fledgling arts program and became involved in theatre, acting, writing, and
directing plays.
