Donnie Wahlberg is an actor, singer, and producer from the United States with a net worth of $25 million. He rose to prominence as a member of the New Kids on the Block boy band. He is also an actor and a businessman.
Early Life:
Donnie Wahlberg was born in Boston, Massachusetts on August 17, 1969, as Donald Edmond Wahlberg Jr. He grew raised in Dorchester, a mostly Irish-American area.
Donald, a teamster and delivery truck driver, and Alma, a nurse’s aide, have nine children. Donnie is the eighth. Mark Wahlberg, a fellow actor, musician, and producer, is his younger brother. Wahlberg is distantly connected to Nathaniel Hawthorne on his mother’s side. Donnie’s family was close-knit when he was younger, and they all attended church together every Sunday.
Having such a large family, however, was not without its drawbacks; siblings regularly quarreled, and the family was frequently short on funds. Donnie’s parents split when he was 12 years old, in 1982. While the rest of the siblings were either out on their own as adults or had gone to live with their father, he and Mark decided to live with their mother.
Boston was engulfed in the debate over mandated busing to enforce public school desegregation when Donnie started elementary school in the 1970s. Wahlberg was bussed for nearly an hour a day to William Monroe Trotter School, which was predominantly African American.
Wahlberg developed a strong attachment to the soul and rap music prominent among his African American pals. Michael Jackson was his childhood hero. Wahlberg considers being bussed to school to be one of the best things that have ever happened to him and his career, as he used to spend his afternoons on the bus crafting rap songs with his closest friends–his biggest influences.
Music Career:
Wahlberg attended Copley High School with his close buddy Danny Wood. It was here that they founded The Kool-Aid Bun, a rap group. Donnie auditioned for music producer Maurice Starr when he was 15 years old. He was holding open auditions for the first large boy band in the United States.
Starr was immediately smitten with Wahlberg’s triple threat of singing, dancing, and rapping abilities, and he enlisted him for the group. Wahlberg enlisted the help of his brother Mark, buddy Danny Wood, Jordan Knight, and Knight’s elder brother Jonathan, as well as Jordan Knight’s older brother Jonathan. Mark was dissatisfied with the band’s artistic direction and abruptly left.
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New Kids on the Block was the name of the group. In 1986, they got a record deal with Columbia Records and released their first album. Their single Be My Girl received very little broadcast, and album sales were pitiful. Hangin’ Tough, the group’s second album, was released two years later. The band’s first single, Please Don’t Go, Girl, received major national airplay after a difficult start.
The song charted at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. NKOTB went on to have two more hit songs, You Got It (The Right Stuff) and I’ll Be Loving You (Forever), both of which reached No. 3 and No. 1 on the charts. By 1989, Hangin’ Tough had become the country’s No. 1 album.
Donnie was one of pop music’s first stereotypical “bad boys.” NKOTB sold tens of millions of records and more than $400 million in goods at the height of their fame. Donnie assisted Mark in launching his rap career as NKOTB’s success began to diminish in the early 1990s. Donnie co-wrote and produced Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch’s platinum-selling debut album “Music for the People.” Donnie subsequently embarked on a career as an actor.
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Donnie reunited with former NKOTB members for a reunion album, The Block, released in 2008. It debuted at number one on the Billboard charts. To promote the album, they went on a globe tour. In 2013, Donnie and the rest of NKOTB took part in the Package Tour, which also included 98 Degrees and Boyz II Men.
Acting Career:
“Bullet,” starring Tupac Shakur and Mickey Rourke, as Wahlberg’s debut picture. In the same year, he co-starred with Mel Gibson in the film Ransom as a kidnapper. In 1999, Wahlberg starred alongside Rose McGowan in the modest South-Boston-based film Southie.
It was offered to his brother Mark at first, but he had to decline after being offered the lead part in Boogie Nights. Donnie’s portrayal of Danny Quinn gained him some critical acclaim, despite the fact that it was a short picture.
Donnie received more critical acclaim for his tiny role in the 1999 film “The Sixth Sense” and his role as Second Lieutenant C. Carwood Lipton in the HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers.” Donnie featured in Dreamcatcher, a Stephen King adaption of the alien invasion thriller Dreamcatcher, in 2003.
In 2005, Wahlberg featured in the sequel to the critically acclaimed Saw film series. In 2006, he had a brief part in the short-lived CW drama Runway. Donnie appeared in two TV shows in 2007: A&E’s Kings of South Beach and The Kill Point. In 2008, he was seen in the films Righteous Kill and What Doesn’t Kill You.
In 2010, Wahlberg debuted as Detective Daniel Reagan in the television series Blue Bloods. In 2014, he began starring in the reality TV series Wahlburgers, and in 2015, he began starring in Donnie Loves Jenny. Wahlburgers was nominated for Primetime Emmy Awards in 2014 and 2015 for the Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program.
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In 2006, he was nominated for a Teen Choice Award for Saw II, and in 2017, he was nominated for a People’s Choice Award for Favorite TV Crime Drama Actor. From 2014 to 2015, he executive produced the reality documentary “Boston’s Finest.” Zookeeper, his most recent film, was released in 2011.
Blue Bloods Salary:
Donnie earned $60,000 each episode, or $1.3 million per season, in the early seasons of the show. In recent years, his per-episode pay has averaged $150,000, equating to almost $3.3 million per season.
Personal Life:
In 1991, Wahlberg was charged with arson after a fire broke out at the Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. NKOTB were out partying with their fans when Wahlberg poured vodka on a hallway carpet and set it on fire. After Donnie agreed to appear in PSAs about fire safety and drunk driving, the case was downgraded to a misdemeanor and dismissed.
Wahlberg was married to Kim Fey from 1999 to 2008, and then to Jenny McCarthy, a model, and comedian, in 2014. They have two daughters. With his brothers Paul and Mark, he co-owns the hamburger chain Wahlburgers, which is featured in the show.