Who Plays Danny On Blue Bloods?
CBS cop drama "Blue Bloods" revolves around multiple generations of the Reagan family, each adult member of which works in law enforcement in some capacity. Danny Regan is an NYPD detective, and since he's the oldest son of Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck), he's among the most prominently featured characters in the show's ensemble cast. Playing Danny is Donnie Wahlberg, an actor and musician who is arguably identifiable first and foremost for his proximity to his superstar brother.
Donnie Wahlberg, of course, is related to Mark Wahlberg. Specifically, Mark is the youngest of nine Wahlberg siblings — 12, in total, counting their father's kids from a previous marriage — and Donnie is the next youngest. In the '80s, they both got their start in the entertainment industry as members of the boy band New Kids on the Block. In fact, while Mark's short tenure in the group may be an important early part of his mythology, Donnie was its first member and the one who recruited the rest of the group.
While Donnie's musical career was still flourishing, Mark got his start as an actor in 1993. Donnie followed two years later, appearing in the 1996 drama "Bullet," opposite leads Mickey Rourke and Tupac Shakur. Three years later, he played a brief but pivotal role in "The Sixth Sense," exposing him to a much wider audience and solidifying his trajectory in Hollywood.
Donnie Wahlberg was a prolific actor before his big Blue Bloods role
Following a few additional film roles in the wake of "The Sixth Sense," Donnie Wahlberg started working in TV during the early 2000s. First, he showed up on a single episode of "The Practice" before landing a part in the main cast of "Big Apple" — a show about NYPD cops that premiered in 2001. That same year, he was also in the expansive cast of HBO's hit World War II drama, "Band of Brothers." Then, the following year he starred as an LAPD cop in an NBC drama called "Boomtown."
The next major development in his career was his role in the second "Saw" film — once again as a cop. He reprised his "Saw" character in the franchise's third and fourth films. The year after "Saw IV" premiered, Wahlberg reunited with New Kids on the Block, returning to music for the first time since he got his start as an actor. The group remains active to this day.
Wahlberg then debuted as Danny Regan in 2011, and already has more than 270 appearances as the character to his name, making it perhaps the defining role of his acting career. Since then he also co-founded the Wahlburgers restaurant chain with Mark Wahlberg and their sibling, Paul Wahlberg. This career venture subsequently became the subject of a reality TV show, sharing a name with the restaurant that aired on A&E between 2014 and 2019.