By Cynthia Littleton Business Editor After years of making a name for himself in New York theater, Mark Ruffalo was on the cusp of breaking in to high-profile movie roles when television came calling.
In 1999, Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson had been handed a 13-episode order from UPN for a cop drama “The Beat.” Fontana and casting director Alexa Fogel had been impressed by Ruffalo’s work on stage and recruited him to co-star in the series as the hotheaded ladies-man New York City beat cop Zane Marinelli.
Fontana and Levinson’s track record with NBC’s indelible “Homicide: Life on the Street” and HBO’s arresting “Oz” lent credibility to “The Beat.” The show promised to be envelope-pushing, if only because nobody was watching UPN anyway.
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