Photo: (2008) Dimitrios Kambouris, © WireImage.com; biography: primarily from Wikipedia

Born Phillip Andre Rourke Jr. in Schenectady, NY. Grew up in the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami, FL. After a stint as an amateur boxer, he temporarily gave it up when a friend at the University of Miami told him of a role available in "Deathwatch". Rourke got the part and immediately became enamoured of acting. Borrowing $400 from his sister, he went to New York in order to take private lessons with an acting teacher from the Actors Studio.

Rourke made his film debut with a small part in Steven Spielberg's 1941 (1979). Other early films include FADE TO BLACK (1980) and BODY HEAT (1981). He made his big-screen breakthrough in the part of Robert "Boogie" Sheftell in Barry Levinson's DINER (1982). Substantive film roles followed, including EUREKA and RUMBLE FISH (both 1983), THE POPE OF GREENWICH VILLAGE (1984), YEAR OF THE DRAGON (1985), 9½ WEEKS (1986), ANGEL HEART, BARFLY and A PRAYER FOR DYING (all 1987), HOMEBOY (1988), FRANCESCO, JOHNNY HANDSOME and WILD ORCHID (all 1989), DESPERATE HOURS (1990), and HARLEY DAVIDSON AND THE MARLBORO MAN (1991).

Stating that he "...had to go back to boxing" because he felt that he "...was self-destructing... (and) had no respect for myself being an actor", he broke with acting and was a professional boxer from 1991 to 1995. His boxing career resulted in severe facial injuries that required a number of operations to repair his damaged face.

After his retirement from boxing, Rourke did accept supporting roles in several 1990s films, including Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of John Grisham's THE RAINMAKER (1997), Vincent Gallo's BUFFALO '66 (1998), Steve Buscemi's ANIMAL FACTORY (2000), Sean Penn's THE PLEDGE (2001) and Sylvester Stallone's remake of GET CARTER (2000). Rourke also has written several films under the name "Sir" Eddie Cook, including BULLET (1996), in which he co-starred with Tupac Shakur.

While Rourke was also selected for a significant role in Terrence Malick's THE THIN RED LINE, Rourke's part ended up on the editing room floor. Rourke also played a small part in the film THURSDAY (1998), in which he plays a crooked cop. He also had a lead role in 1997's DOUBLE TEAM, which co-starred martial arts actor Jean-Claude Van Damme. It was Rourke's first over-the-top action film role, in which he played the lead villain. During that same year, he filmed ANOTHER 9½ WEEKS, which only received limited distribution. He ended the 1990s with the direct-to-video films OUT IN FIFTY, SHADES and television movie "Shergar", which is about kidnapping of Epsom Derby winning thoroughbred racehorse Shergar.

In 2001, he appeared as the villain in Enrique Iglesias's music video for HERO which also featured Jennifer Love Hewitt. In 2002, Rourke took the role of The Cook in Jonas Åkerlund's SPUN, teaming up once again with Eric Roberts. His first collaborations with directors Robert Rodriguez and Tony Scott in ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO (2003) and MAN ON FIRE (2004) were for smaller roles. Nonetheless, these directors subsequently decided to cast Rourke in lead roles in their next films. In 2005, Rourke made his comeback in mainstream Hollywood circles with a lead role (Marv) in Robert Rodriguez's adaptation of Frank Miller's SIN CITY. Rourke received awards from the Chicago Film Critics Association, the IFTA and the Online Film Critics Society, as well as "Man of the Year" from Total Film magazine that year. Rourke followed SIN CITY with a supporting role in Tony Scott's DOMINO alongside Keira Knightley, in which he played a bounty hunter.

His recent films have included STORMBREAKER (2006), THE WRESTLER (2008), KILLSHOT and THE INFORMERS (both 2009), and 13, SIN CITY 2, THE EXPENDABLES and IRON MAN 2 (all planned for release in 2010).

Rourke was married to actresses Debra Feuer (1981-89) and Carré Otis (1992-98).

  Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role 2008: THE WRESTLER