Few actors were as highly praised in the early 1980s as former amateur boxer Mickey Rourke. After Rourke was personally selected by Elia Kazan to attend the Actors Studio, he burst on the scene in a variety of critically acclaimed roles, including Body Heat, Diner, The Pope of Greenwich Village, 9 1/2 Weeks, and Barfly. However, he did several odd films in the late 1980s like portraying St. Francis Of Assisi in the almost three hour Francesco, the nearly X-rated Wild Orchid, and the box office bomb Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man. And then in his infinite wisdom, at the age of 38 he decided to return to boxing. While he was remarkably successful in the ring for a man of his age, injuries left his once-handsome face disfigured, and his concentration on the sport meant he had to turn down roles in many films that would go on to become classics, including The Silence Of The Lambs and Pulp Fiction. Rourke returned to acting full-time in the mid-1990s, and he looked like he was poised for a Robert Downey Jr. style career resurrection after acclaimed performances in movies like Sin City and The Wrestler (for which he was nominated for an Oscar). But Rourke has since had trouble finding meaningful roles, and several of his recent movies (such as Passion Play and Java Heat) were only released in limited theaters. He will appear in the Sin City sequel in 2014, but that's his first notable role in several years.
Chris McKittrick is a published author of fiction and non-fiction and has spoken about film and comic books at conferences across the United States. In addition to his work at WhatCulture!, he is a regular contributor to CreativeScreenwriting.com, MovieBuzzers.com, and DailyActor.com, a website focused on acting in all media. For more information, visit his website at http://www.chrismckit.com.
