Mickey Rourke

Acting

Mickey Rourke

Born 1952-09-16 · Schenectady, New York, USA

Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke Jr. (born September 16, 1952) is an American actor and former boxer who has appeared primarily as a leading man in drama, action, and thriller films. During the star of the 1980s, Rourke played supporting roles in films like Body Heat (1981) and Diner (1982), before portraying leading roles in films like The Motorcycle Boy in Rumble Fish (1983), Charlie Moran in The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984), Captain Stanley White in Year of the Dragon and John Gray in 9½ Weeks (1986). He received critical praise for his work in the Charles Bukowski biopic Barfly and the horror mystery Angel Heart (both 1987). In 1991, following a string of critical and commercial failures, Rourke—who trained as a boxer in his early years—left acting and became a professional boxer for a time. After retiring from boxing in 1994, Rourke returned to acting and had supporting roles in several films such as The Rainmaker (1997), Buffalo '66 (1998), Animal Factory, Get Carter (both 2000), The Pledge (2001), Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003), Man on Fire (2004) and Domino (2005). In 2005, Rourke made a comeback in mainstream Hollywood circles with a lead role in the neo-noir action thriller 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. This comeback culminated in his portraying aging wrestler Randy 'The Ram' Robinson in the sports drama film The Wrestler (2008). For the role, Rourke won the Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award for Best Actor, and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. After this, Rourke appeared in several commercially successful films; Iron Man 2, The Expendables (both 2010) and Immortals (2011), before primarily going on to work in independent and direct-to-video productions.

Acting credits

Iron Man 2 poster
6.9

With the world now aware of his dual life as the armored superhero Iron Man, billionaire inventor Tony Stark faces pressure from the government, the press and the public to share his technology with the military. Unwilling to let go of his invention, Stark, with Pepper Potts and James 'Rhodey' Rhodes at his side, must forge new alliances – and confront powerful enemies.

Iron Man 2

2010

The Expendables poster
6.3

Barney Ross leads a band of highly skilled mercenaries including knife enthusiast Lee Christmas, a martial arts expert Yin Yang, heavy weapons specialist Hale Caesar, demolitionist Toll Road, and a loose-cannon sniper Gunner Jensen. When the group is commissioned by the mysterious Mr. Church to assassinate the dictator of a small South American island, Barney and Lee visit the remote locale to scout out their opposition and discover the true nature of the conflict engulfing the city.

The Expendables

2010

The Wrestler poster
7.5

Aging wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson is long past his prime but still ready and rarin' to go on the pro-wrestling circuit. After a particularly brutal beating, however, Randy hangs up his tights, pursues a serious relationship with a long-in-the-tooth stripper, and tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter. But he can't resist the lure of the ring and readies himself for a comeback.

The Wrestler

2008

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For poster
6.4

Some of Sin City's most hard-boiled citizens cross paths with a few of its more reviled inhabitants.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

2014

Man on Fire poster
7.5

Jaded ex-CIA operative John Creasy reluctantly accepts a job as the bodyguard for a 10-year-old girl in Mexico City. They clash at first, but eventually bond, and when she's kidnapped he's consumed by fury and will stop at nothing to save her life.

Man on Fire

2004

Sin City poster
7.5

Welcome to Sin City. This town beckons to the tough, the corrupt, the brokenhearted. Some call it dark… Hard-boiled. Then there are those who call it home — Crooked cops, sexy dames, desperate vigilantes. Some are seeking revenge, others lust after redemption, and then there are those hoping for a little of both. A universe of unlikely and reluctant heroes still trying to do the right thing in a city that refuses to care.

Sin City

2005

Once Upon a Time in Mexico poster
6.3

A corrupt CIA agent Sands hires hitman El Mariachi to assassinate a Mexican general hired by a drug kingpin attempting a coup d'état of the President of Mexico.

Once Upon a Time in Mexico

2003

Immortals poster
6.1

Theseus is a mortal man chosen by Zeus to lead the fight against the ruthless King Hyperion, who is on a rampage across Greece to obtain a weapon that can destroy humanity.

Immortals

2011

Nine 1/2 Weeks poster
6.1

An erotic story about a woman, the assistant of an art gallery, who gets involved in an impersonal affair with a man. She barely knows about his life, only about the sex games they play, so the relationship begins to get complicated.

Nine 1/2 Weeks

1986

The Rainmaker poster
7.0

Fresh out of law school and desperate for work, idealistic rookie Rudy Baylor takes on a powerful insurance company accused of denying a dying boy’s claim. Teaming up with a scrappy, unlicensed paralegal, he finds himself in a David-versus-Goliath courtroom battle that tests his ethics, courage, and belief in justice.

The Rainmaker

1997

Body Heat poster
7.0

During an extreme heatwave, a beautiful Florida woman and a seedy lawyer engage in an affair while plotting the murder of her rich husband.

Body Heat

1981

Angel Heart poster
7.1

A down-and-out Brooklyn detective is hired to track down a singer on an odyssey that will take him through the desperate streets of Harlem, the smoke-filled jazz clubs of New Orleans, and the swamps of Louisiana and its seedy underworld of voodoo.

Angel Heart

1987

Stormbreaker poster
5.2

After the death of his uncle, 14-year-old schoolboy Alex Rider is forced by the Special Operations Division of the UK's secret intelligence service, MI6, into a mission which will save millions of lives.

Stormbreaker

2006

Wild Orchid poster
5.3

A woman lawyer becomes mesmerized by a self-made millionaire during an encounter in Rio setting off a series of erotic encounters.

Wild Orchid

1989

Buffalo '66 poster
7.1

Billy is released after five years in prison. In the next moment, he kidnaps teenage student Layla and visits his parents with her, pretending she is his girlfriend and they will soon marry.

Buffalo '66

1998

The Pledge poster
6.6

A police chief, about to retire, pledges to help a woman find her daughter's killer.

The Pledge

2001

13 poster
5.8

A naive young man assumes a dead man's identity and finds himself embroiled in an underground world of power, violence, and chance where men gamble behind closed doors on the lives of other men.

13

2010

Rumble Fish poster
7.0

Absent-minded street thug Rusty James struggles to live up to his legendary older brother's reputation, and longs for the days of gang warfare.

Rumble Fish

1983

The Informers poster
4.8

A collection of intersecting short stories set in early 1980s Los Angeles, depicts a week in the lives of an assortment of socially alienated, mainly well-off characters who numb their sense of emptiness with casual sex, violence, and drugs.

The Informers

2008

1941 poster
5.8

In the days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, panic grips California, where a military officer leads a mob chasing a Japanese sub.

1941

1979

Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man poster
6.3

It's the lawless future, and renegade biker Harley Davidson and his surly cowboy buddy, Marlboro, learn that a corrupt bank is about to foreclose on their friend's bar to further an expanding empire. Harley and Marlboro decide to help by robbing the crooked bank. But when they accidentally filch a drug shipment, they find themselves on the run from criminal financiers and the mob in this rugged action adventure.

Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man

1991

Domino poster
5.9

The story of the life of Domino Harvey, who abandoned her career as a Ford model to become a bounty hunter.

Domino

2005

Double Team poster
5.3

A CIA agent is interned for failing to kill an international terrorist. Escaping from his island exile, he teams up with a flamboyant arms dealer and sets out to find the terrorist and rescue the agent's family. Together they're a two-man arsenal... with enough voltage to rock the free world.

Double Team

1997

Killshot poster
5.8

Beautiful Carmen Colson and her ironworker husband Wayne are placed in the Federal Witness Protection program after witnessing an "incident". Thinking they are at last safe, they are targeted by an experienced hit man and a psychopathic young upstart killer.

Killshot

2008

Behind the camera