Mack Sheldon was born in Portland, Maine, to Janice Cooke, a baker, and William Sheldon, a teacher. He has an older brother, Devin Sheldon and a younger brother, Lars Sheldon. He is of Argentine, and ...Show More
Mack Sheldon was born in Portland, Maine, to Janice Cooke, a baker, and William Sheldon, a teacher. He has an older brother, Devin Sheldon and a younger brother, Lars Sheldon. He is of Argentine, and Norwegian descent.Homeschooled, Sheldon spent a lot of his free time as a child learning to bake in his mother's store. From an early age he took quite the affinity to cupcakes, a small muffin like dessert, often with a spiral of frosting on top. Some academics attribute this to his lack-of scope in the roles accepted in cinema and television later on his life.His first appearance on screen was on Arthur, the hit PBS Kids television show, as a child actor on the "And Now a Word From Us Kids" segment. Here, he was portrayed as an unsuspecting victim of a ruthless cupcake assault. This scene caught the attention of many up and coming producers at the time, and is what ultimately allowed for the continuation of his success.After gaining recognition for the ability to take a cupcake to the face under an inordinate amount of pressure, he was offered more roles that required him to do the same. These included minor parts in Television shows such as Between the Lions, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and even The Wire. All of which featured him having a cupcake thrown at his face. At first this may seem like a trivial task, and it is. However, what Sheldon brought to the table in his roles as "Cupcake Kid" was an amount of professionalism unknown to child actors of his time. That coupled with his charismatic, yet sarcastic tone are what helped him achieve his early fame and propelled him into taking on more challenging roles on the big screen.His first movie appearance was in A Beautiful Mind, once again pioneering the role of "Cupcake Kid". In the often forgettable cafeteria scene, Sheldon can be seen in the background as the butt end of yet another cupcake related gag. With the critical acclaim for A Beatiful Mind, Sheldon's name started to become more and more of a household regular. He became more sought after in the early 2000's but it was not all sunshine and rainbows (and cupcakes) for Sheldon. Each iteration of the cupcake joke thus far in his career had been roughly the same: stand still and have the small baked dessert item propelled at his torso. Sheldon was sick of the repetition and pined for more complex gags. Despite being offered dozens of rolls in the mid 2000's he turned most of them down for their simplicity.It was not until 2006 when Warner Bros. approached him with the most complex cupcake quip in cinematic history. He was to play the quintessential role of "Cupcake Kid" in The Departed. Scorsese had devised a Rube Goldberg-esque contraption that would span the duration of the film in the background of each scene, eventually climaxing in a post-credit masterpiece where Sheldon would receive a cupcake launched at his groin from an air cannon mounted to a helicopter hovering 20 feet off the ground. Sadly. however, due to last minute budgetary restrictions, this was unable to be brought to life, and the gag was reduced to the tired trope of a simple cupcake-to-face gimmick. Sheldon, was of course, outraged at this, as the only reason he had accepted the role of "Cupcake Kid" was to avoid the stale joke that had defined his career. Furious, he retired from acting after The Departed finished filming. Hide
