Mark King (born 28 March 1974) is a professional snooker player.
King has never quite reached the top echelons of snooker. He has never won a ranking tournament, his closest attempt being runner-up in the 1997 Regal Welsh Open and the 2004 Irish Masters. In 2003 a poor season saw him drop out of the top 16, at which point he declared that he would "never set foot on a snooker table again", although he has since changed his mind and has not retired from the game.
In December 2004 he reached the semi-finals of the UK Championship, losing 9-4 to eventual winner Stephen Maguire. At 8-3 a mobile phone went off in the crowd, prompting King to quip "if that's my missus, tell her I'll be home soon". Defeat to Neil Robertson (he was trailing 7-2 but only lost 10-9) in qualifying for the World Championship in 2005 cost him the chance of a top 16 return, and on improving his record of reaching four last-16 matches without success. However he did qualify for the 2006 event, resiliantly losing 10-6 against Stephen Maguire in the first round.
His mother was jailed for life in 2004 for murdering her cousin.
