Mickey Rourke
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- For the NHL player, please see Mickey Roach
History
Early life
Rourke was born into an Irish Catholic family and grew up in the neighborhoods of heavily African-American Liberty City in Miami. He has a younger sister (Patty), a younger half-brother (Joey), and six step-siblings, the result of his parents' divorce and his mother's remarriage. After attending Miami Beach Senior High School, he studied at the Lee Strasberg Institute (where veteran method actors such as Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken studied).Early acting career
Rourke's film debut was a small role in Steven Spielberg's film 1941, but his portayal of an arsonist in Body Heat garnered attention, despite his modest time onscreen. During the early 1980s, he starred in the cult classic Diner, which also starred Paul Reiser, Daniel Stern, Steve Guttenberg and Kevin Bacon. The film was directed by Barry Levinson (director of Rain Man), and most of the principal actors later became well-known stars.Soon after, Rourke starred in Francis Ford Coppola's follow-up to The Outsiders in the coming-of-age tale, Rumble Fish. Playing the enigmatic older brother of Matt Dillon's character, he was praised as a standout in a film that also featured such talents as Dennis Hopper, Diane Lane, Nicolas Cage, Chris Penn, Laurence Fishburne and Tom Waits.
Rising status as actor
Rourke's performance in the film The Pope of Greenwich Village alongside Darryl Hannah and Eric Roberts caught the attention of critics. While the film was a box office flop during its initial release, the film has become a minor cult hit. Actor Johnny Depp calls it "perfect cinema" and HBO's Entourage has praised it. Rourke has said that the film is his favorite movie, and both Hannah and Roberts have cited it as a highlight of their careers.In the mid-1980s, Rourke won more leading roles. His role alongside Kim Basinger in the controversial, sexually-themed box-office hit 9½ Weeks helped to give him "sex symbol" status. He gained some critical praise for his work in Barfly as the alcoholic writer Charles Bukowski, and in the Oliver Stone-penned Year of the Dragon. Some critics consider his finest performance to be in the 1987 movie Angel Heart, Alan Parker's film, which became controversial for a sex scene involving Cosby Show cast member Lisa Bonet. Although some of Rourke's work was seen as controversial in the US, he was well-received by French audiences, who loved the "rumpled, slightly dirty, sordid...rebel persona" (source: Hollywood.com article on Rourke) that he projected in "Year of the Dragon", "9 1/2 Weeks", "Angel Heart", and "Desperate Hours"
In the late 1980s, Rourke also performed with musician David Bowie on the Never Let Me Down album, and wrote his first screenplay, Homeboy, a boxing tale in which he also starred. In 1991 he starred in the action film Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man as Harley Davidson, a biker in the near future whose best buddy, Marlboro was played by Miami Vice star Don Johnson). Even though it was a box office bomb, today it has some popularity in the niche market for ineptly-made video B-movies.
Acting downturn
Rourke's acting career eventually became overshadowed by his personal life and his seemingly eccentric career decisions. Some directors such as Alan Parker began finding it difficult to work with Rourke. Parker stated that "working with Mickey is a nightmare. He is very dangerous on the set because you never know what he is going to do" (source: Hollywood.com article on Rourke).He is alleged to have turned down a number of high-profile acting roles, including the roles of Elliot Ness in The Untouchables and Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop. (It should be noted that Sylvester Stallone also refused the role and the script was heavily re-written when Eddie Murphy came on board). As well, it is alleged that Rourke turned down the roles of Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs, Tom Cruise's role in Rain Man, Nick Nolte's part in 48 Hours, Christopher Lambert's part in Highlander and a part in Platoon.
During this period, Rourke spent time with an entourage that included motorcycle gang members and hip-hop star Tupac Shakur. He is alleged to have had social contacts with individuals that had links to John Gotti's organized crime organization. While Rourke turned down major film roles, he did perform in "soft-core" adult-themed films such as Wild Orchid, which may have had an impact on his reputation as an actor during this period. A controversy over Rourke's political beliefs also developed when Rourke stated that he had donated part of his salary from 1989's "Francesco" to the Irish Republican Army (source: Hollywood.com article on Rourke). .
In 1991, Rourke decided that he "...had to go back to boxing," because he felt that he "...was self-destructing...[and] had no respect for myself being an actor." When Rourke became a professional boxer, he won the all of his fights against minor opponents (and had one fight come to a draw). However, he never achieved national prominence, and he received a number of injuries, including a broken nose, toe, and ribs, a split tongue, and a compressed cheekbone. An anecdotal [reference please] account of Rourke's boxing career in Japan ridicules his "neko (cat) punch." Boxing promoters have claimed that Rourke was too old to do well against top-level fighters. Indeed, Rourke himself admits that entering the ring was a sort of personal test: "[I]...just wanted to give it a shot, test myself that way physically, while I still had time (interview in The Gate with Christopher Heard). In 1995, Rourke retired from boxing and returned to acting.
Return to the screen
In the early 1990s, Quentin Tarantino offered Rourke the part of Butch Coolidge in Pulp Fiction. Rourke refused, and the role eventually was offered to Matt Dillon and Sylvester Stallone, before Bruce Willis invested in the film and was given the part.After his retirement from boxing, Rourke did accept brief roles in several 1990s films, including John Grisham's The Rainmaker, Vincent Gallo's Buffalo '66, Steve Buscemi's Animal Factory and Sylvester Stallone's remake of Get Carter. While Rourke was also selected for a significant role in Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line, Rourke's part ended up on the editing room floor.
Beginning in 2000, Rourke took the role of The Cook in Jonas Åkerlund's Spun, which became a cult hit amongst Generation X audiences. In Spun, Rourke was teamed up once again with his Pope of Greenwich Village co-star Eric Roberts.
His first collaborations with directors Robert Rodriguez and Tony Scott in Once Upon a Time in Mexico and Man on Fire, were for smaller roles. Nonetheless, these directors subsequently decided to cast Rourke in lead roles in their next films.
In 2005, Rourke made his comeback in mainstream Hollywood circles with a lead role (Marv) in Robert Rodriguez's adaptation of Frank Miller's Sin City. Rourke received awards from the Chicago Film Critics Association, the IFTA and the Online Film Critics Society, as well as "Man of the Year" from Total Film magazine that year. Rourke followed Sin City with a supporting role in Tony Scott's Domino alongside Keira Knightley. Rourke's time in the early 1990s with Hell's Angels and Tupac Shakur and his stint as a boxer and gave him a gritty, street-wise credibility in his role as a bounty hunter.
Previous collaborations
During his career, Rourke worked with directors including Steven Spielberg, Lawrence Kasdan, Francis Ford Coppola, Barry Levinson, Stuart Rosenberg, Nicholas Roeg, Michael Cimino, Adrian Lyne, Alan Parker, Mike Hodges, Barbet Schroeder, Walter Hill, Tsui Hark, Terrence Malick, Jonas Åkerlund, Wong Kar Wai, Tony Scott, Robert Rodriguez and John Madden, as well as actors-turned-directors Sean Penn, Vincent Gallo and Steve Buscemi. In addition, in 2003, Rourke provided the voice for "Jericho" in the third installment of the Driver series: Driv3rCurrent Activities
It is anticipated that Rourke will take the role of The Blackbird in an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's Killshot, As well, Rourke is expected to take the lead role in Quentin Tarantino's segment of Grind House, Darrius Sayle in an adaptation of the Alex Rider novel Stormbreaker. He will also appear in a role alongside Ray Liotta in John McNaughton's The Night Job and reprise the role of Marv in the Dame to Kill For segment of Sin City 2.Rourke also recently appeared in a 40-page story by photographer Bryan Adams for Berlin's Zoo Magazine. In an article about Rourke's return to steady acting roles, entitled Mickey Rourke Rising (from The Gate), Christopher Heard stated that actors Johnny Depp, Sean Penn, and Brad Pitt have "...animated praise for Rourke and his work." Despite having withdrawn from acting at various points, and having made movies that he now sees as a creative "sell-out" (the action film Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man), Rourke has stated that "...all that I have been through...[has] made me a better, more interesting actor." Rourke's renewed interest in pursuing acting can be seen in his statement that "...my best work is still ahead of me" (article in The Gate).
