Mickey Rourke

He broke through in Diner (1982) playing a directionless Baltimore charmer, then kept stacking roles other actors wouldn't touch. 9½ Weeks, Angel Heart, Barfly: they worked because he brought a self-destructive edge that felt genuine, not performed. By the late 1980s, critics were calling him one of the best actors of his generation. At 39, he walked away from all of it to turn professional boxer. The pro record went 6-0-2, though his own stepfather said opponents took obvious dives for money. He came back five years later with a reconstructed nose and a career that had largely moved on without him.

The Wrestler (2008) had a $6 million budget because every financier passed when they heard his name. Darren Aronofsky spent 18 months finding a willing investor. The gamble paid: Golden Globe, BAFTA, Oscar nomination, and the doors reopened. The second act didn't hold. In 2025, he was removed from Celebrity Big Brother UK for homophobic remarks, his fee reportedly cut from £500,000 to £50,000. A court ruled in his landlord's favor after he owed $59,100 in back rent, and he publicly rejected the $100,000 GoFundMe fans set up as 'humiliating.' The pride that ended the first career is apparently still operational.

Beverly Hills Cop was reportedly offered to him before Eddie Murphy. He passed. Dustin Hoffman personally called to offer him the Rain Man role. He never called back. He declined Platoon, The Untouchables, The Silence of the Lambs, and Pulp Fiction, the last one without reading the script, by his own account. The Butch Coolidge role went to Bruce Willis. Nobody who passes on that many defining films can honestly call it bad luck.