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Donnie and Mark Wahlberg are two of the biggest names in entertainment, but what do we know about their father?
Read on.
Donald Edmond Wahlberg Sr., the father of Dannie, Mark, and their seven brothers and sisters, worked as a delivery driver.
According to his obituary in The Boston Herald, Donnie died in 2008 in Dorchester. He also served in the Army during the Korean War.
The outlet details that Donald was a longtime member of Teamsters Local 25.
In an Esquire profile on Mark published in 2014, the actor shared, “I think, for the most part, I had a pretty good childhood. It wasn’t until we got older that we realized we didn’t have what a lot of other people had.”
Asked how his relationship with his Dad was, he explained, “My dad was the best, though my parents divorced when I was ten or eleven. I was pretty young. It was pretty hard.”
Wahlberg continued:
“I was close to my dad because I was the youngest, so even before I was in school I was spending time with my dad. I would go to work with him when he drove his truck and delivered to all the schools. You know, both my parents worked very hard to put food on the table, so we didn’t get the kind of time that I would have liked with him, especially when they got divorced. I remember thinking it was all about me and, you know, wanting them to be together. But it was obvious they were better apart than together. I remember sitting with him in the kitchen while he was listening to Al Jolson, having a Schlitz, smoking his Winstons, flicking the ash—you know, he’d be in the backyard or in the garden, and he’d flick the ash into the cuff of his pants; he didn’t want to flick the ash in his backyard. It was the first and only house he ever owned. And he bought it after winning a bet with a bookie.”
These days, Mark has four children of his own. In his interview with Esquire, Mark explained that over time, his father had a couple of strokes and grew ill. Then, he moved to a Catholic assisted living home in South Boston.
Fortunately, he had the opportunity to meet Mark’s daughter, Ella, and son, Mikey. He tells Esquire, “When I told him I named my first son Mike, he got a big smile on his face. He died when my wife was pregnant with my little guy, Brendan.”
Today, Mark co-owns the Wahlburgers chain and co-stars in the reality series about it. In July 2010, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.