More than three decades before he played a grief-stricken FBI agent on HBO’s “Task,” Mark Ruffalo was a guest star on the forgotten CBS dramedy “Due South.”
Ruffalo guest-starred in Season 1, Episode 9, titled “A Cop, a Mountie and a Baby,” playing Vinnie Webber, a down-on-his-luck father who wants to repay a hefty gambling debt by selling his newborn child to a black market adoption agency. Constable Benton Fraser (Paul Gross) and his partner, Detective Ray (David Marciano), get involved in the investigation after inexplicably discovering Vinnie’s abandoned child in the back of Ray’s car. As the duo figures out the best route to reunite the kid with his parents, Vinnie’s desperate plan is exposed and the episode races toward its violently climactic end.
Originally debuting as a Canadian TV movie in 1994 before premiering on CBS that same year, “Due South” followed the escapades of Constable Benton Fraser, who solved crimes alongside his white wolf, Diefenbaker, blending elements of both a procedural and a comedy.
“Due South” was canceled after its 24-episode first season, despite being a hit in other countries. The show’s international success led to it being revived for a second season, according to the Los Angeles Times, but CBS did not order a third. “Due South” lived on, however, when Canada’s CTV greenlit the show for two more seasons in 1997.
Mark Ruffalo has built a robust television career since 2020
Despite Mark Ruffalo’s guest appearance on “Due South,” which came right after his television debut in an episode of “CBS Summer Playhouse,” he only appeared in a handful of TV roles up until the early 2000s. Ruffalo earned his first Emmy nomination in 2014 for his work in HBO’s “The Normal Heart,” in which he played HIV/AIDS activist Ned Weeks.
HBO’s “I Know This Much Is True” earned the actor an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award in 2020, thanks to Ruffalo’s impressive turn as identical twins Dominick and Thomas Birdsey. Ruffalo then went on to appear in several Marvel Studios tie-in television projects, including “What If…?” and “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law,” in which he reprised the role of Bruce Banner/The Hulk.
Fast-forward to 2023, Ruffalo reunited with collaborator Shawn Levy (with whom he had previously worked on 2022’s “The Adam Project”) for Netflix’s miniseries adaptation of “All the Light We Cannot See.” Ruffalo is now playing his most captivating TV role to date — Tom Brandis in HBO’s “Task,” which offers a nuanced exploration of grief and redemption through the lives of two traumatized protagonists.
