emember when Mark Wahlberg went by the handle Marky Mark and spent his days rapping with his band The Funky Bunch and drop-ping his pants on stage? Well, Wahlberg is getting psyched to become a rock star once again. Yup, 10 years later, he's ready to step up to the microphone
and pump out a few tunes - on screen that is.

  Wahlberg is playing Chris "Izzy" Coles, the lead singer of a tribute band, in a new movie called Rock Star. Directed by Stephen Herek (Mr. Holland's Opus, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure), the film tells the story of a wannabe who replaces the lead singer of the metal band he idolizes. It's loosely based on Tim "Ripper" Owens, who stepped into Rob Halford's shoes in Judas Priest in 1996.

  Wahlberg had to make special sacrifices to portray a metal god. "I'm doing this thing where I'm supposed to spit and it's always getting in my hair. The hair smelled like a dead cat and it would get wet - it was just horrible."

  However, he'd probably take hair trouble over returning to the music scene any day. Last year there was talk of Wahlberg resurrecting his music career, but he squelched that rumor, saying "I don't want to do a record right now to push something because the record company has shown interest. They didn't show interest five years ago and they're showing interest now." Wahlberg wasn't always as bitter about the music industry. In fact, the teen from the wrong side of the tracks was going nowhere fast and music gave him a way out.

  The youngest of nine children, Wahlberg was born on July 5, 1971, in a rough area of Boston. His parents divorced when he was 11 and at the age of 14 he dropped out of school and into the drug and crime scene. At 16, he was convicted of beating two men that he was trying to steal beer from and wound up spending 45 days behind bars for that crime. Jail time made an impression, and he adopted a new attitude.

  Still, he might have continued along the same path had his older brother Donnie not helped him. Donnie was a member of New Kids on the Block and used his connections in the music industry to help Mark break into the biz.

  Although Marky Mark didn't earn a reputation as a serious artist (much to his chagrin), he did have a good time on stage. And peeling off his pants did get him noticed. In 1992, he scored a lucrative contract as an underwear model after David Geffen saw his act and reported to a friend at Calvin Klein that he had found his next model. Before long, he was getting paid to strip down to his skivvies.
When Wahlberg soured on the music industry, he turned his attention to
acting and re-invented himself one more time. He got his first break in 1994 when he appeared in Penny Marshall's comedy Renaissance Man. Next he was cast as Leonardo DiCaprio's best friend in The Basketball Diaries. He followed that up in 1996 with a role as an obsessive boyfriend in Fear.

  But the movie that pushed him from young hopeful to Hollywood contender was 1997's Boogie Nights. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the movie takes a frank look at the '70s porn scene. Wahlberg played Eddie Adams/Dirk Diggler and his challenge was to show the making and undoing of a porn star. It was a difficult role that required the actor to expose himself emotionally and physically. "No socks, no underwear, no nothing," he said. "We shot front and back…Lots of humpin' and pumpin'…"

  Still, the risk was worth it. More roles followed in The Big Hit, The Corruptor and Three Kings, where he teamed up with Ice Cube and George Clooney. He reappeared with Clooney in The Perfect Storm last year and was ribbed for their frequent collaboration. But he took it in a good-natured way. "All I want to do for the rest of my career is be George's little sidekick," he joked. "I think he has a crush on me."

  Now, at 30, Wahlberg is considered the serious artist he's always wanted to be. This past summer he had a lead role in Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes and he's currently filming another movie called The Truth About Charlie (a re-make of the 1963 thriller Charade), which is slated for release later this year.

  For a kid who was on track to make crime his career, he's come a long way. If his life were a movie, the character of Mark Wahlberg would be his most impressive role yet.

- Deena Waisberg