10 Actors Whose Career Has BOMBED After Their Biggest Hit

Mickey Rourke has had one of the most fascinatingly topsy-turvy careers of any actor in Hollywood history.

Rourke received consistent acclaim for his evocative performances throughout the '80s in movies such as Diner, Rumble Fish, The Pope of Greenwich Village, 9½ Weeks, Barfly, and Angel Heart.

For several years in the early '90s, however, Rourke stepped back from acting to pursue a career as a boxer, which combined with his reputation for being a difficult actor to work with severely harmed his standing in Hollywood.

Rourke's handsome looks were also impacted by his in-ring injuries, and so it wasn't until he appeared in 2005's Sin City that Hollywood truly began to take notice of him again.

Rourke followed this up with his incredible, Oscar-nominated performance in The Wrestler, which led to him winning the role of villain Whiplash in Iron Man 2.

Though Iron Man 2 was by far the highest-grossing film of Rourke's career and should've ensured he became a tentpole mainstay, in the decade since he's appeared in just a single critically acclaimed film - the 2018 horror anthology Nightmare Cinema.

Sadly he largely appears in low-effort straight-to-VOD fare these days, squandering an immense amount of talent in the process.