Mark William Calaway is an American professional wrestler

Professional wrestling

Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...

 better known by his ring name

Ring name

A ring name is a stage name used by a professional wrestler, martial artist, or boxer. While some ring names may have a fictitious first name and surname, others may simply be a nickname, such as The Undertaker.-Wrestling:...

 The Undertaker. He is signed to WWE as a member of its SmackDown brand. He is one of WWE's senior competitors, having been with the company for twenty-one years. Mark Calaway began his wrestling career with World Class Championship Wrestling

World Class Championship Wrestling

World Class Championship Wrestling ' was a regional professional wrestling promotion headquartered in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. Originally owned by promoter Ed McLemore, by 1966 it was run by Southwest Sports, Inc., whose president, Jack Adkisson, was better known as wrestler Fritz Von Erich...

 (WCCW) in 1984. He joined World Championship Wrestling

World Championship Wrestling

World Championship Wrestling, Inc. was an American professional wrestling promotion which existed from 1988 to 2001. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it began as a regional promotion affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance , named Jim Crockett Promotions until November 1988, when Ted Turner and...

 (WCW) as "Mean" Mark Callous in 1989. When WCW did not renew Calaway's contract in 1990, he signed with the World Wrestling Federation as Kane The Undertaker in November and, after tweaking his name to The Undertaker, has remained with the company since.

The Undertaker has two contrasting personas: The Deadman, an undead

Undead

Undead is a collective name for fictional, mythological, or legendary beings that are deceased and yet behave as if alive. Undead may be incorporeal, such as ghosts, or corporeal, such as vampires and zombies...

, occult

Occult

The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...

-like figure, which has consisted of many different versions, beginning with the Western

Western (genre)

The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

 mortician

Funeral director

A funeral director , also known as a mortician or undertaker, is a professional involved in the business of funeral rites. These tasks often entail the embalming and burial or cremation of the dead, as well as the planning and arrangement of the actual funeral ceremony...

 character in November 1990

Survivor Series (1990)

Survivor Series was the fourth annual Survivor Series pay-per-view professional wrestling event produced by the World Wrestling Federation...

 and ending with the Ministry of Darkness

Ministry of Darkness

The Ministry of Darkness was a professional wrestling stable in the World Wrestling Federation during the WWF Attitude Era of the late 1990s...

 leader in September 1999 before returning to The Deadman in March 2004

WrestleMania XX

WrestleMania XX was the twentieth WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view produced by World Wrestling Entertainment . It took place on March 14, 2004 at Madison Square Garden in New York....

 as a hybrid of all his previous incarnations; his other persona is The American Bad Ass, a biker

Motorcycling

Motorcycling is the act of riding a motorcycle. A variety of subcultures and lifestyles have been built up around motorcycling.-Benefits:Robert M. Pirsig's book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was a paean celebrating motorcycling...

 which ran from May 2000

Judgment Day (2000)

Judgment Day was the second annual Judgment Day professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation . It took place on May 21, 2000 at the Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky....

 to November 2003

Survivor Series (2003)

Survivor Series was the seventeenth annual Survivor Series professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment...

.