|
Mickey Rourke, born to an Irish Catholic family, grew up in the tough neighborhoods of Liberty City in Miami. After attending Miami Beach Senior High School, he would go on to study at the legendary Lee Strasberg Institute (where veteran method actors such as Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken studied).
Rourke's film debut was a small role in Steven Spielberg's 1941, but his memorable portayal of an arsonist in Body Heat garnered significant attention, despite his modest time onscreen.
During the early 1980s, Rourke's career blossomed. In 1982 he starred in the underrated cult classic Diner, also starring Paul Reiser, Daniel Stern, Steve Guttenberg and Kevin Bacon. The film was directed by Barry Levinson (Rain Man), and almost all of the principal actors went on to larger careers - most notably Rourke.
Soon, Rourke starred in the Francis Ford Coppola coming-of-age tale, Rumble Fish, wherein he played the older and enigmatic brother of Matt Dillon.
One of Rourke's most memorable performances of the decade came in the film The Pope of Greenwich Village alongside his good friend Eric Roberts.
Rourke became one of the decade's leading men, and arguably the major sex symbol of his acting generation, a title no doubt fueled by his role alongside Kim Basinger in the controversial box-office hit 9½ Weeks. He attained mass critical acclaim for his work in Barfly as the alcoholic writer Charles Bukowski, but many critics consider his finest film of the latter end of the 1980s to be the controversial and hauntingly dark Angel Heart.
Directed by Alan Parker, Angel Heart is about a private eye who is hired by a man named Louis Cyphere (Robert De Niro) to track down a missing singer. The film takes place in the sweltering heat waves of 1950s New Orleans, given a backdrop involving Voodoo and satanic rituals. The film was most controversial for its explicit sex scene involving Cosby Show cast member Lisa Bonet. Bill Cosby allegedly tried to have the film blocked from release so that it would not " taint" the image of his sitcom.
Parker's multi-genre film was not only visually satisfying, but featured one of Rourke's most intense and tour de force performances. Many critics maintain that it is his best.
Around the time of Angel Heart's release, he 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. His other big role in 1991 was in the action film Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man as Harley Davidson, a biker in the near future whose best buddy is named Marlboro. It failed to offer any real profits, although today it is considered something of a " great bad movie" amongst home video fanatics.
Unfortunately, Rourke's promising acting career eventually became overshadowed by the demands of his personal life as well as his eccentric career decisions. Becoming typecast as a soft-core pornographic actor in the early 1990s for taking on roles in smutty films like Wild Orchid, he ditched acting (temporarily) to become a professional boxer in 1991, and although he won the majority of his fights against minor opponents he never achieved national prominence. In fact, on a recent E! Television program, boxing promoters claimed Rourke was merely " okay" - that he was simply too old to get back in the ring.
|
