Mickey Rourke

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, it has become somewhat of a minor cult hit. Actor Johnny Depp calls it "perfect cinema" and HBO's Entourage has praised it. Rourke has said 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 earned himself additional leading roles. His role alongside Kim Basinger in the controversial, sexually-themed box-office hit 9½ Weeks helped him gain "sex symbol" status. He received 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. This film by Alan Parker was seen as controversial due to a sex scene involving Cosby Show cast member Lisa Bonet. Although some of Rourke's work was viewed as controversial in the US, he was well-received by French audiences who loved the "rumpled, slightly dirty, sordid...rebel persona" that he projected in Year of the Dragon, 9 1/2 Weeks, Angel Heart, and Desperate Hours.

In the late 1980s, Rourke performed with musician David Bowie on the Never Let Me Down album. Around this same time, he also wrote his first screenplay, Homeboy, a boxing tale in which he starred. In 1991 Rourke starred in the action film Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man as Harley Davidson, a biker whose best friend, Marlboro, is played by Miami Vice star Don Johnson. Even though it was a box office bomb, it later achieved some level of popularity.

ourke's acting career eventually became overshadowed by his personal life and seemingly eccentric career decisions. Directors such as Alan Parker found 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".

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 has been reported that Sylvester Stallone also refused the role and the script was heavily re-written when Eddie Murphy came on board. It is also 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 linked to John Gotti's 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. It was during production of Wild Orchid that Rourke began a relationship with his co-star, Carre Otis who he later married. Rumors that a love scene they filmed for the movie was not simulated have persisted to this day, although both actors deny it.

A controversy over Rourke's political beliefs also developed when he claimed to have donated part of his salary from the 1989 film, Francesco, to the PIRA. He later backed away from that statement and was never banned from entering the UK. In 2006, Rourke voiced support for the Republican US President George W. Bush.

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 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.

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. Rourke also played a small part in a cult classic entitled Thursday, in which he plays a crooked cop (along with his usual cool and calm routine).

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 and his performance in Spun is considered the highlight of the film by many critics.

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 gave him a gritty, street-wise credibility in his role as a bounty hunter.