Mark Jerrold Henry, better known as Mark Henry, was born on June 12, 1971 in the small town
of Silsbee in East Texas.
He is an American strongman, power lifter, Olympic weightlifter, and retired professional wrestler.
Throughout his career, Henry is a two-time Olympian, a Silver, Gold, Bronze Medalist
at the Pan American Games, WDFPF World Champion and a two-time U.S. National Champion,
as well as a two-time world champion in WWE.
He currently works for the company as a backstage producer.
Henry comes from a family in which almost all of the men are larger than average, especially
his great uncle, who was 6 ft 7 in, weighed approximately 500 lb.
He was raised with his brother, Pat, by his father Ernest Henry and his wife, Barbara;
his father passed away when he was 12 years old, and two years later Mark was diagnosed with dyslexia.
Mark has been active in sports since an early age.
He was a big wrestling fan and André the Giant was his favorite wrestler.
While he attended Silsbee High School, he started playing football for the school’s
team until he became a senior, when he suffered from ligaments injuries.
So he transferred to lifting weights, and by the time he was 18 he was named as the
“the world’s strongest teenager” by the Los Angeles Times.
Speaking about his personal life, Mark Henry has been married to Jana Henry since 2005,
with whom he has two children, Jacob and Joanna.
Their current residence is in Austin, Texas.
Mark first became famous when he won Olympic medals two times in 1992 and then again in 1996.
He has won the Silver, Gold and the Bronze medal in the Pan American Games as well in 1995.
Mark then became the “Drug-free” world champion in 1995 as a power lifter.
He has also won the US National Championship twice, in 1995, and again two years later.
Currently, he still holds the World Drug-free powerlifting records in the squat, deadlift
and total and the USAPL American record in the deadlift since 1995.
He is credited for the biggest raw squat and raw powerlifting total ever performed by a
drug tested athlete, regardless of weight class, as well as the greatest raw deadlift
by an American citizen.
Some of his wins in weightlifting include the US National Weightlifting Championship
in 1993, 1994 and 1996; the US Olympic Festival Championship in 1993 and 1994; and the NACAC
Championship of 1996.
Henry holds all three Senior US American weightlifting records of 1993–1997 and has won the first
annual “Arnold Strongman Classic” in 2002.
Henry began wrestling for the World Wrestling Federation in 1996 and was signed to a ten-year
contract after competing in the 1996 Summer Olympics.
To speak of his accomplishments in the WWE, he is a one-time WWF European Champion and
a two-time world champion, having held the ECW Championship in 2008, and WWE's World
Heavyweight Championship in 2011.
In first winning the ECW Championship, Henry became only the fourth African-American world
champion in WWE history.
After WrestleMania 33, which was held in January 2017, Henry retired and transitioned into
a backstage producer role.
In April 2018, Henry was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2018.
As of 2021, the net worth of Mark Henry is estimated to be over $6 million.
Henry and his family currently live a 4,518 square-foot custom home in Austin, Texas.
Built in 2001, the home has four bedrooms, four full bathrooms and a half, and offers
outdoor entertaining areas, swimming pool with arch fountains, outside fireplace, three-car
garage, plus lake & hill country views.
Apart from his successful career in the sports, Mark Henry has also made his film debut, appearing
in the role of Tut Beemer in “MacGruber” (2010), which was followed by starring in
the films “A Haunted House 2” (2014), and “Incarnate” (2015).
All of these roles have added to the overall size of his net worth.
Most wrestlers who get sent down from the WWE main roster to developmental will ultimately
get released.
Mark Henry was one of the few who proved that it could ultimately benefit a wrestler in
the right scenario.
WWE sent Henry down to OVW from 2000 to 2002 to improve his conditioning and in-ring skills.
Henry was humbled after a hit or miss start to his wrestling career.
The end game saw Henry become a star later in his career with the process paying off
in the long run.
In March 2019, Henry pledged to donate his brain to CTE research once he dies.