Mickey Rourke has been kicked out of Celebrity Big Brother after using “inappropriate sexual language” on the reality TV show.
The Hollywood actor, 72, left the ITV 1 show at the weekend after further “instances of unacceptable behaviour” that included making former Dance Moms star JoJo Siwa cry by comments about her sexuality.
He also used language that made The Only Way Is Essex star Ella Rae Wise feel uncomfortable.
The actor said: “I stepped over the line. And I take responsibility for doing the wrong thing. ’Cause I lost my temper, and I’ve been trying to work on it my whole life and I wish I would have had better self-control and I’m very sorry.
“I’m ashamed of myself for losing it for a few seconds there. Nobody got touched or hurt.”
Read more: Mickey Rourke controversy explained — why was he kicked off Celebrity Big Brother?
Nonetheless, Rourke has now been evicted from the house and once more faces a setback in his beleaguered career, having partly rebuild it with acclaimed film The Wrestler in 2009.
Here is the story so far.
Who is Mickey Rourke?
Born in New York in September 1952, Rourke has had a chequered career that began as a boxer in the Seventies and he achieved some success as an amateur.
In his twenties, he put his rugged physique to a different use in getting minor acting roles before getting a breakthrough in 1981 neo-noir film Body Heat.
His career really took off in the Eighties before he returned to the boxing ring in the 1990s and won a few bouts on the celebrity circuit.
He has had various ups and downs in his professional life and also led a colourful personal life, which has been hinted at with some of his Celebrity Big Brother comments.
What are his career highlights and lows?
On the back of Steven Spielberg’s 1941 and 1980 horror comedy Fade to Black, Rourke came to prominence in Body Heat.
He established a successful career in the Eighties that included a star turn in erotic thriller 9 1/2 Weeks opposite Kim Basinger.
Eighties hits included Barfly, Rumble Fish, A Prayer for the Dying, Francesco, Angel Heart and Year of the Dragon – all of which have positive reviews on IMDB.
But issues in his personal life and poor career choices led his career to take a downturn in the Nineties with Buffalo 66 (1998 – 7.4 on IMDB) being a high point and Another 9 ½ Weeks (1997 – 3.0 on IMDB) being a low.
Rourke credited his comeback in the Noughties to years of intensive therapy.
“I was out of control, I was out of my mind. I had to lose my house, my wife, my money, my career, everything, for me to fall all the way down to the bottom,” Rourke told the Standard.
“Then somebody advised me I needed to talk to somebody. I resisted but I went, because everything was gone."
His comeback peaked with Darren Aronofsky film The Wrestler, for which he won a Bafta and was nominated for an Academy Award for best actor.
This led to him playing Ivan Vanko in Iron Man 2 but unfortunately for Rourke his resurgence did not last.
“My career is in the toilet,” Rourke candidly told the Sun before he entered the reality TV show this year. “I’m not getting A-list movies.”
“I’ve made many mistakes, many. I have nobody to blame for my ship sinking except myself,” Rourke said. “There’s directors I want to work with and have them not be afraid of me and trust me for who I am today, not for the reputation I have.”
Is Mickey Rourke married?
Rourke’s first wife, Debra Feuer, described her former husband as “jealous and controlling” and said his fame ignited a self-destructive streak. “Mickey was never violent towards me,” Feuer told the Mirror. “He would threaten other actors if he thought they were paying me too much attention but that was it.”
When Feuer was cast in To Live and Die in LA, she alleges Rourke “threatened my co-star Willem Dafoe” and director William Friedkin. “It was crazy.” she said. “[Rourke] was so insecure."
The two were married from 1981 to 1989.
He was fired from a film in the Nineties for attacking a man accused of dealing heroin to his second wife, Carré Otis, whom he was married to between 1992 and 1998.
“I hit him harder than anybody in my life,” Rourke told the Times. “He was out before he hit the ground. I hit an artery and there was a stream of blood that went 20ft into the air.”
