Mickey Rourke Biography

Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke, Jr. (born September 16, 1952) is an American actor, screenwriter and retired boxer, who has appeared primarily as a leading man in action, drama, and thriller films.

During the 1980s, Rourke starred in Diner, Rumble Fish, and the erotic drama 9½ Weeks, and received critical praise for his work in Barfly and Angel Heart. In 1991, Rourke, who had trained as a boxer in his early years, left acting and became a professional boxer for a time. He had supporting roles in several later films, including The Rainmaker, Buffalo '66, The Pledge, Get Carter, Spun, Once Upon a Time in Mexico and Man on Fire.

In 2005, Rourke made his comeback in mainstream Hollywood circles with a lead role in Sin City, for which he won awards from the Chicago Film Critics Association, the Irish Film and Television Awards and the Online Film Critics Society. In the 2008 film The Wrestler, Rourke portrayed a past-his-prime wrestler, and received a 2009 Golden Globe award, a BAFTA award, and a nomination for an Academy Award.

In 2010, he appeared in Iron Man 2 and The Expendables.

Early life

Philip Andre Rourke, Jr., was born in Schenectady, New York, the son of Annette (née Cameron) and Philip Andre Rourke, Sr. His father was of Irish descent, and his mother had Scottish, French, English, and German ancestry. He was raised Roman Catholic and still practices his faith. His father, an amateur body builder, left the family when Mickey was six years old. After his parents divorced, his mother married Eugene Addis, a Miami Beach police officer with five sons, and moved Rourke, his younger brother (Joey), and their sister (Patricia) to south Florida. There, he graduated from Miami Beach Senior High School in 1971.

Career

Amateur boxing

During his teenage years, Rourke focused his attention mainly on sports. He took up self-defense training at the Boys Club of Miami. It was there that he learned boxing skills and decided on an amateur career.

At age 12, Rourke won his first boxing match as a 112-pound flyweight, fighting some of his early matches under the name Phil Rourke. He continued his boxing training at the famed 5th Street Gym, in Miami Beach, Florida. In 1969, Rourke, then weighing 140 lbs. (63.5 kg), sparred with former World Welterweight Champion Luis Rodríguez. Rodriguez was the number one-rated middleweight boxer in the world and was training for his match with world champion Nino Benvenuti. Rourke claims to have received a concussion from his sparring match with Rodriguez.

At the 1971 Florida Golden Gloves, Rourke suffered another concussion in a boxing match. After being told by doctors to take a year off and rest, Rourke temporarily retired from the ring.

From 1964 to 1973, Rourke compiled an amateur boxing record of 27 wins (17 by knockout) and 3 defeats, which included first-round knockout wins over Sherman Bergman, John Carver and Ronald Robinson, and decision victories over Ron Carter, Charles Gathers, Joe Riles, and Javier Villanueva.

Amateur boxing record

Mickey Rourke's amateur boxing record was 27 wins and 3 losses.

|- | style="text-align:center;" colspan="8"|Amateur Boxing record |- style="text-align:center; background:#e3e3e3;" | style="border-style:none none solid solid; "|Result | style="border-style:none none solid solid; "|Record | style="border-style:none none solid solid; "|Opponent | style="border-style:none none solid solid; "|Type | style="border-style:none none solid solid; "|Rd., Time | style="border-style:none none solid solid; "|Date | style="border-style:none none solid solid; "|Location | style="border-style:none none solid solid; "|Notes |- style="text-align:center;" |style="background:#abcdef;"|Win ||13"0"0 || align=left|Deon Harris |KO || 1 ||1973 Aug 27 || align=left|Liberty City, Florida |align=left| |- style="text-align:center;" |style="background:#abcdef;"|Win ||12"0"0 || align=left|Sherman Bergman |KO || 1 ||1973 Aug 20 ||align=left|Miami, Florida |align=left|Rourke climbs off canvas to win in 31 seconds. |- style="text-align:center;" |Win ||11"0"0 || align=left|John"Two Dice"Carver |KO || 1 ||1972 May 7||align=left| Miami, Florida |align=left|Rourke scores 39 second knockout. |- style="text-align:center;" |Win ||10"0"0 || align=left|Ron"22nd Street"Robinson |KO || 1 ||1972 Feb 15 || align=left|Miami, Florida |align=left|Rourke wins in 18 seconds. |- style="text-align:center;" |style="background:#abcdef;"|Win ||9"0"0 || align=left|Leroy Harrington |KO || 1 ||1971 Jul 04|| align=left|Miami, Florida |align=left|Rourke wins in 15 seconds. |- style="text-align:center;" |Win ||8"0"0 || align=left|Paul Malsoh |KO || 1 ||1970 Jun 22|| align=left|Miami, Florida |align=left|Rourke scores 29 second knockout. |- style="text-align:center;" |Win ||7"0"0 || align=left|Kenny Jacobs |KO || 1 ||1970 Jun 15 || align=left|Miami Beach, Florida |align=left|Rourke wins in 14 seconds. |- style="text-align:center;" |- style="text-align:center;" |Win ||6"0"0 || align=left|Joe Riles |PTS || 3 ||1964 Aug 26 || align=left|Miami, Florida|| |- style="text-align:center;" |Win ||5"0"0 || align=left|Charles Gathers |PTS || 3 ||1964 Aug 12 || align=left|Miami, Florida || |- style="text-align:center;" |style="background:#abcdef;"|Win ||4"0"0 || align=left|Ronnie Carter |PTS || 3 ||1965 Jun 16 || align=left|Miami, Florida |align=left| |- style="text-align:center;" |Win || 3"0"0 || align=left|Javier Villanueva |PTS ||3 ||1964 || align=left|Miami, Florida || |- style="text-align:center;" |style="background:#abcdef;"|Win ||2"0"0 || align=left|Jesus"KoKo"Carranza |PTS || 3 || || align=left|Miami, Florida |align=left| |- style="text-align:center;" |Win || 1"0"0 || align=left|Roger Hough |PTS ||3 ||1964 July|| align=left|Miami, Florida||

Early acting roles

In 1971, as a senior at Miami Beach Senior High School, Rourke had a small acting role in the Jay W. Jensen-directed school play, The Serpent. However, Rourke's interests were geared to boxing, and he never appeared in any other school productions. Soon after he temporarily gave up boxing, a friend at the University of Miami told Rourke about a play he was directing, Deathwatch, and how the man playing the role of Green Eyes had quit. Rourke got the part and immediately became enamored with acting. Borrowing 400 dollars from his sister, he went to New York to take private lessons with an acting teacher from Actors Studio teacher Sandra Seacat.

Seacat motivated Rourke to find his father, from whom he had been separated for more than 20 years. During his visit to the Actors' Studio, after the release of The Wrestler, host James Lipton disclosed the fact that Rourke had been selected to the Actor's Studio in his first audition, which Elia Kazan is reported to have said was the "best audition in 30 years".

Rourke's film debut was a small role in Steven Spielberg's film 1941. However, it was his portrayal of an arsonist in Body Heat that received significant attention, despite his modest time on screen. He mostly appeared in television films in his early career. During the early 1980s, Rourke starred in Diner, alongside Paul Reiser, Daniel Stern, Steve Guttenberg, Tim Daly and Kevin Bacon, and yet again drew further critical notices for his portrayal as the suave compulsive gambler "Boogie" Sheftell; The National Society of Film Critics named him "Best Supporting Actor" that year. Soon thereafter, Rourke starred in Rumble Fish, Francis Ford Coppola's follow-up to The Outsiders.

Rourke's performance in the film The Pope of Greenwich Village alongside Daryl Hannah and Eric Roberts also caught the attention of critics, although the film was not financially successful. In the mid-1980s, Rourke earned himself additional leading roles. His role alongside Kim Basinger in the erotic drama 9½ Weeks helped him gain "sex symbol" status. He received critical praise for his work in Barfly as the alcoholic writer Henry Chinaski (the literary alter ego of Charles Bukowski) and in Year of the Dragon.

In 1987, Rourke appeared in Angel Heart. The film was nominated for several awards. It was seen as controversial by some owing to a sex scene involving Cosby Show cast member Lisa Bonet, who won an award for her part in the film. Although some of Rourke's work was viewed as controversial in the U.S., he was well received by European, and especially French, audiences, who loved the "rumpled, slightly dirty, sordid ... rebel persona" that he projected in Year of the Dragon, 9½ Weeks, Angel Heart, and Desperate Hours. Director Adrian Lyne said that had Mickey died after the release of Angel Heart, he would have become a bigger phenomenon than James Dean.

In the late 1980s, Rourke performed with David Bowie on the Never Let Me Down album. Around the same time he also wrote his first screenplay, Homeboy, a boxing tale in which he starred. In 1989, Rourke starred in the docu-drama Francesco, portraying St. Francis of Assisi. This was followed by Wild Orchid, another critically panned film, which gained him a nomination for a Razzie award (also for Desperate Hours). In 1991, he starred in the box office bomb Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man as Harley Davidson, a biker whose best friend, Marlboro, was played by Don Johnson. In his last role before departing for the boxing ring, Rourke played an arms dealer chased by Willem Dafoe and Samuel Jackson in White Sands, a film noir which reviewers found stylish but incoherent.

Rourke's acting career eventually became overshadowed by his personal life and career decisions. Directors such as Alan Parker found it difficult to work with him. 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." In a documentary on the special edition DVD of Tombstone, actor Michael Biehn, who plays the part of Johnny Ringo, mentions that his role was first offered to Rourke. Rourke is said to have turned down several roles in high-profile films, including 48 Hrs., Platoon, Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop, Rain Man, The Silence of the Lambs and Pulp Fiction.

Professional boxing career

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 (himself as) an actor." Rourke was undefeated in eight fights, with six wins (four by knockout) and two draws. He fought internationally in countries including Spain, Japan and Germany. During his boxing career, Rourke suffered a number of injuries, including a broken nose, toe, ribs, a split tongue, and a compressed cheekbone. He also suffered from short term memory loss.

His trainer during most of his boxing career was Hells Angels member, actor and celebrity bodyguard Chuck Zito. Freddie Roach also trained Rourke for seven fights. Rourke's entrance song into the ring was often Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child o' Mine" (referenced in his film The Wrestler, in which Rourke's character enters his final match of the film to the song playing over the loudspeakers). Boxing promoters said that Rourke was too old to succeed 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." Rourke's boxing career resulted in a notable physical change in the 1990s, as his face needed reconstructive surgery to mend his injuries. His face was later called "appallingly disfigured." In 2009, the actor told The Daily Mail that he had gone to "the wrong guy" for his surgery, and that his plastic surgeon had left his features "a mess."

|- | style="text-align:center;" colspan="8"|Professional Boxing Record |- | style="text-align:center;" colspan="8"|6 Wins (4 knockouts, 2 decisions), 0 Losses, 2 Draws |- style="text-align:center; background:#e3e3e3;" | style="border-style:none none solid solid; "|Result | style="border-style:none none solid solid; "|Record | style="border-style:none none solid solid; "|Opponent | style="border-style:none none solid solid; "|Type | style="border-style:none none solid solid; "|Rd., Time | style="border-style:none none solid solid; "|Date | style="border-style:none none solid solid; "|Location | style="border-style:none none solid solid; "|Notes |- style="text-align:center;" |style="background:#abcdef;"|Draw || 6"0"2 || align=left| Sean Gibbons |MD || 4 || September 8, 1994 || align=left|Davie, Florida |align=left| |- style="text-align:center;" |Win || 6"0"1 || align=left| Thomas McCoy |TKO || 3 || November 20, 1993 || align=left|Hamburg, Germany || |- style="text-align:center;" |Win || 5"0"1 || align=left| Bubba Stotts |TKO || 3 || July 24, 1993 || align=left|Joplin, Missouri|| |- style="text-align:center;" |Win || 4"0"1 || align=left| Tom Bentley |KO || 1 || March 30, 1993 || align=left|Kansas City, Missouri|| |- style="text-align:center;" |Win || 3"0"1 || align=left| Terry Jesmer |PTS || 4 || December 12, 1992 || align=left|Oviedo, Spain || |- style="text-align:center;" |style="background:#abcdef;"|Draw || 2"0"1 || align=left| Francisco Harris |MD || 4 || April 25, 1992 || align=left|Miami Beach, Florida |align=left| |- style="text-align:center;" |Win || 2"0 || align=left| Darrell Miller |KO || 1 , 2:14 || June 23, 1991 || align=left|Tokyo, Japan || |- style="text-align:center;" |Win || 1"0 || align=left| Steve Powell |UD || 4 || May 23, 1991 || align=left|Fort Lauderdale, Florida |align=left|

1990s: Return to acting

In the early 1990s, Rourke was offered and declined the role of Butch Coolidge, which later became Bruce Willis' role in Pulp Fiction. After his retirement from boxing, Rourke did accept supporting roles in several 1990s films, including Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of John Grisham's The Rainmaker, Vincent Gallo's Buffalo '66, Steve Buscemi's Animal Factory, Sean Penn's The Pledge and Sylvester Stallone's remake of Get Carter. Rourke also has written several films under the name "Sir Eddie Cook", including Bullet, in which he co-starred with Tupac Shakur.

While Rourke was also selected for a significant role in Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line; his part ended up on the editing room floor. Rourke also played a small part in the film Thursday, in which he plays a crooked cop. He also had a lead role in 1997's Double Team, which co-starred martial arts actor Jean-Claude Van Damme. It was Rourke's first over-the-top action film role, in which he played the lead villain. During that same year, he filmed Another 9½ Weeks, a sequel to 9½ Weeks, which only received limited distribution. He ended the 1990s with the direct-to-video films Out in Fifty, Shades and television film Shergar, about the kidnapping of Epsom Derby-winning thoroughbred racehorse Shergar. Rourke has expressed his bitterness over that period of his career, stating that he came to consider himself a "has-been" and lived for a time in "a state of shame."

2000s

In 2001, he appeared as the villain in Enrique Iglesias's music video for "Hero", which also featured Jennifer Love Hewitt. In 2002, Rourke took the role of The Cook in Jonas "?kerlund's Spun, teaming up once again with 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, in which he played a bounty hunter. Rourke played the role of "The Blackbird" in an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's Killshot, and appeared as Darrius Sayle in the adaptation of the Alex Rider novel Stormbreaker.

In addition, in 2004, Rourke provided the voice for "Jericho" in the third installment of the Driver video game series. 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", Christopher Heard stated that actors/musicians Tupac Shakur, Johnny Depp, Sean Penn and Brad Pitt have "...animated praise for Rourke and his work." During a roundtable session of Oscar-nominated actors held by Newsweek, Brad Pitt cited Rourke as one of his early acting heroes along with Sean Penn and Gary Oldman.

Despite having withdrawn from acting at various points, and having made films 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."

Rourke had a role in the film version of The Informers, playing Peter, an amoral former studio security guard who plots to kidnap a small child. In 2008, Rourke played the lead in The Wrestler, winner of the Golden Lion Award for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival, about washed-up professional wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson. Regarding first reading the screenplay, he stated that he originally "didn't care for it."

</ref>}}

He also spoke on personal concern and hesitance of being in a film about wrestling, for he perceived it as being "pre-arranged and pre-choreographed." However, as he trained for the film, he developed an appreciation and respect for what real-life pro wrestlers do to prepare for the ring:

</ref>}}

He trained under former WWE wrestler Afa the Wild Samoan for the part, and has received a British Academy (BAFTA) award, a Golden Globe award, an Independent Spirit Award, and an Oscar nomination as Best Actor. Rourke was pessimistic about his chances to win the Oscar, as he had burned many bridges in Hollywood as a result of his past behavior. Rourke lost the Oscar to Sean Penn, while Penn did acknowledge Rourke in his acceptance speech.

Rourke has written or co-written six scripts: Homeboy, The Last Ride, Bullet, Killer Moon, Penance and the latest, Pain. Of these, the first three were produced as films between 1988 and 1996. In early 2009, Rourke developed a small feud with WWE Superstar Chris Jericho, as part of a storyline. The storyline climaxed at WrestleMania XXV, when Rourke knocked out Jericho with a left hook after Jericho won his match against Jimmy Snuka, Ricky Steamboat, and Roddy Piper, with Ric Flair in their corner. In 2009, Rourke starred in John Rich's music video for Shuttin' Detroit Down alongside Kris Kristofferson. In 2009, Rourke voiced protagonist U.S. Navy SEAL Dick Marcinko in the video game Rogue Warrior. The game received very poor reviews from critics.

In 2010, Rourke played the role of the main villain Whiplash in the film Iron Man 2, in an interview with Rip It Up Magazine he revealed that he prepared for the role by visiting Russian jail inmates. He also had a minor role as Tool in Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables. Though he had little screen time, his performance was met with rave reviews and cited as one of the film's highlights. He was unavailable, however, to reprise the role in The Expendables 2, though he is reportedly in talks to return for a possible third film.

Just before the end of the year, he confirmed on a British TV talk show that he would play Gareth Thomas in an upcoming film about the Welsh rugby star who came out as gay the previous year. As of February 2011, he had begun research on the film, but noted, "We're not going to make this movie until we've done all the proper research. We need to do our homework and I need to train for from nine to eleven months." In 2011, Rourke was cast in the film Java Heat as an American citizen shadowing terrorists group in Java, Indonesia. The film will be released in 2013.

Personal life

Rourke has dated several celebrities, including Terry Farrell and Sasha Volkova. He has been married twice. In 1981, he married Debra Feuer, whom he met on the set of Hardcase (1981) and who co-starred with him in Homeboy (1988) as his love interest. The marriage ended in 1989, with Rourke subsequently commenting that making the film 9½ Weeks "was not particularly considerate to my wife's needs." The two have remained good friends, according to an interview Feuer gave in 2009. Wild Orchid co-star Carré Otis was briefly a cause célèbre following the release of the film owing to rumors that she and then-lover Rourke filmed an unsimulated sex scene. Otis married Rourke on June 26, 1992. In 1994, Rourke was arrested for spousal abuse. The charges were later dropped. The couple reconciled and also starred together in Exit in Red, but their marriage ended in December 1998. Otis and writer Hugo Schwyzer co-authored Beauty, Disrupted: A Memoir, an autobiography that detailed Otis' marriage to Rourke that was published in October 2011 by HarperCollins. In November 2007, Rourke was arrested again, this time on DUI charges in Miami Beach.

In numerous TV and print interviews, he attributes his comeback after fourteen years to his agent David A. Unger, weekly meetings with a psychiatrist, "Steve", and a Catholic priest he identified as "Father Pete".

Since 2009, Rourke has been dating the Russian model Anastassija Makarenko. In mid-2011, he bought an apartment in Wiesbaden, Germany which is close to his girlfriend's parents' place of residence. Rourke is a motorcycle enthusiast and uses motorcycles in some of his films.

Political views

In June 2006 Rourke publicly gave his support to US President George W. Bush and the Iraq War. In January 2009 Rourke expressed admiration for Bush in an interview with GQ magazine. He also expressed his astonishment that Islamic fundamentalists were allowed to continue their activities in the UK after the 7 July 2005 London bombings.

Dogs

In addition to his faith and his psychiatric treatment, Rourke has publicly attributed his comeback to his dogs. He is well known as a pet lover, particularly fond of small-breed dogs. A spay/neuter advocate, Rourke participated in a protest outside of a pet shop in 2007 and has done a public service announcement for PETA.

His first little dog was reportedly a gift from his second wife. Though Rourke's dogs are generally referred to as "chihuahuas," some are not pure-bred. Loki, his most-publicized dog whom he described as "the love of my life," was a chihuahua-terrier mix. So reliant was Rourke on Loki's companionship, he spent US$5,400 to have her flown to England while he was on the set of the film Stormbreaker.

Rourke gave his dogs credit during his Golden Globe Best Actor acceptance speech January 11, 2009: "I'd like to thank all my dogs. The ones that are here, the ones that aren't here anymore because sometimes when a man's alone, that's all you got is your dog. And they've meant the world to me." The day of the 2009 Golden Globes show, he told Barbara Walters that "I sort of self-destructed and everything came out about fourteen years ago or so ... the wife had left, the career was over, the money was not an ounce. The dogs were there when no one else was there." Asked by Walters if he had considered suicide, he responded:

Despite being identified as "Lowjack" in the transcription above, the dog in the anecdote was apparently Beau Jack, who sired two of Rourke's later pets, Loki and her littermate Chocolate. Beau Jack died in 2002, though Rourke gave him 45 minutes of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Chocolate was the subject of a children's book, Chocolate at the Four Seasons, about his temporary stay with producer Bonnie Timmerman. Chocolate returned to Rourke and died in 2006. In addition to those dogs and several other past pets, Rourke currently owns a chihuahua named Jaws who appeared with him in his 2009 PETA ad, as well as in the film "Once Upon a Time in Mexico." He has had as many as seven dogs at one time, back in 2005. At the time of his Golden Globes tribute to his pets, Rourke owned five chihuahuas: Loki, Jaws, Ruby Baby, La Negra and Bella Loca. About a month later, on February 18, 2009, Loki died in Rourke's arms at the age of 18.

Filmography

See Mickey Rourke filmography for more information

Career awards

List of awards

Year	Award	Nomination	Film	Result
1983	Boston Society of Film Critics Award	Best Supporting Actor	Diner	Won
	National Society of Film Critics	Best Supporting Actor
1988	Independent Spirit Awards	Best Actor	Barfly	Nominated
1991	Razzie Award	Worst Actor	Desperate Hours	Nominated
			Wild Orchid
2006	Saturn Award	Best Supporting Actor	Sin City	Won
	Chicago Film Critics Association	Best Supporting Actor
	Irish Film and Television Awards	Best International Actor
	Online Film Critics Society	Best Supporting Actor
	Satellite Award	Best Supporting Actor		Nominated
	Washington DC Area Film Critics Association	Best Ensemble		Nominated
	Critics' Choice Award	Best Ensemble		Nominated
	Total Film magazine	Man of the Year		Voted
2008	Moviefone	Sexiest Movie Couple	9½ Weeks	Voted
	Golden Orange Award	Honorary Award		Won
	Satellite Awards	Best Actor " Drama	The Wrestler	Nominated
	Washington D.C. Area Film Critics	Best Actor		Won
	San Francisco Film Critics	Best Actor		Won
	Broadcast Film Critics	Best Actor		Nominated
	San Diego Film Critics Society	Best Actor		Won
	Toronto Film Critics Association	Best Actor		Won
	Chicago Film Critics Association	Best Actor		Won
	Florida Film Critics Circle	Best Actor		Won
	Detroit Film Critics Society	Best Actor		Won
2009	Golden Globe Award	Best Actor " Drama		Won
	Independent Spirit Award	Best Male Lead		Won
	BAFTA Award	Best Actor		Won
	Academy Awards	Best Male Actor		Nominated
	Chlotrudis Awards	Best Actor		Nominated
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Best Male Actor		Nominated
	Santa Barbara International Film Festival	Riviera Award		Awarded
2010	Scream Awards	Best Villain	Iron Man 2	Won
2011	MTV Movie Awards	Best Villain	Iron Man 2	Nominated

Critical acclaim

According to Rotten Tomatoes, Mickey's most "fresh" film is The Wrestler and most "rotten" film is Wild Orchid.

Rotten Tomatoes

Mickey Rourke films which rated as "fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes.

Rank	Title	%
1	The Wrestler	98%
2	Body Heat	97%
3	Diner	96%
4	The Pope of Greenwich Village	89%
5	The Rainmaker	88%
6	Animal Factory	83%
7	Barfly	80%
8	Sin City	77%

Rank	Title	%
9	Buffalo '66	77%
10	The Pledge	77%
11	Angel Heart	76%
12	Iron Man 2	74%
13	Rumble Fish	70%
14	Once Upon a Time in Mexico	68%
15	A Prayer for the Dying	63%
16	9½ Weeks	62%
17	Year of the Dragon	60%

Metacritic

Mickey Rourke films which rate "fresh" on Metacritic.

Rank	Title	/100
1	Diner	86
2	The Wrestler	81
3	Body Heat	78
4	The Rainmaker	72
5	The Pledge	71
6	Buffalo '66	68
7	The Animal Factory	65
8	Rumble Fish	63

Previous collaborations

Christopher Walken stated to the Film Comment on August, 1992 that it was destiny to make Homeboy with Mickey Rourke:

</ref>}}

Other works

Mickey Rourke made his stage debut in a revival of Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge. Rourke also lent his voice to the video games Driv3r (2004) as Jericho and True Crime: New York City (2005) as Terrence "Terry" Higgins, which was the his fifth and last work with actor Christopher Walken. He also appeared in a Japanese TV commercial for Suntory Reserve (early 90s) and a commercial for Daihatsu and Lark (cigarette). More recently, in 2009, Rourke voiced the character of Dick Marcinko for the biographical video game Rogue Warrior, which was released on December 1, 2009. Ironically, Rourke's portrayal of Marcinko was a source of humorous praise from a few critics (although many others criticized Rourke's role to the same degree that they did every other aspect of the game). In 2010, he appeared in a Dutch TV Commercial for Bavaria Beer.

Rourke starred in a music video, "Hero." He played a gangster in this Enrique Iglesias music video. Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt also made an appearance in this clip. Rourke also provided the mid-song rap on the David Bowie song "Shining Star (Makin' My Love)" on his album Never Let Me Down (1987).