HOT GALLERY: A Star is Reborn! Check Out How These Stars’ Careers Went from “What Happened to Them?” to “I Love Them!”
We all know the familiar story of the has-been—too many canceled shows, a sex scandal gone awry, a drug addiction they couldn’t kick, or the rut of being typecast. See how this humble bunch triumphed over career adversity and got a second chance at stardom. By Kacey ArnoldDuring the ’80s, Rourke was the It guy, known for films like The Pope of Greenwhich Village, Diner (featuring an all-star cast and the original D**k in a Box, where he strategically places a box of popcorn to win a bet—sorry, but due to copyright laws, you’ll have to rent it to see it), Rumble Fish, Angel Heart, and 9 ½ Weeks. But then he left his promising career and fame to become a professional boxer (which explains some of his, shall we say, facial upgrades). After phoning in the occasional unmemorable part for the money, he returned to Hollywood, ready to put in the work. The opportunity to rise again came when Darren Aronofsky fought to get him on The Wrestler, for which Mickey earned Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Oscar noms—strong comeback, kid! He said, “If I knew it would take me 15 years to come back, I would have done things differently.” I think you can sit this round out, Mickey. With knockout follow-ups like Ivan Vanko/Whiplash in Iron Man 2, Tool in The Expendables, and King Hyperion in Immortals, it’s clear you’re here to stay.
March 15, 2014 at 6:57 pm, Kritsada said:
Remember when ANY blog had a great comments sitecon? The House was especially blissful. You know, I’ve often thought to myself that right around 2008 was the height of the cinephile environment for me. There were lots of blogs worth reading and there were engaging comments sitecons where people really wanted to make arguments and deepen the conversation. Don’t get me wrong, that still happens now, here and there. I’m fortunate in that it happens at my blog once in a while. But Facebook and Twitter have effectively ended that.To be fair, sometimes the commenting is better on Twitter (I can’t speak for Facebook) because the character limit forces you to get to the point and creates an immediacy to the exchange that sometimes was difficult with longer responses. But those tweets disappear. On the other hand, I read this piece this morning and the comments might as well have been posted yesterday (I mean, other than the fact that some folks still hadn’t seen The Wrestler). What a beautiful time capsule!I don’t want to regulate how people use Twitter (to each their own), but sometimes when I open my feed I marvel at the number of people who seem to have this need to fill Twitter with something’ constantly even if they have nothing to say. (More than once, I’ve read tweets to the effect of: I feel like I should tweet something but I have nothing to say. I suspect folks think they’re being ironic when they tweet that. But it isn’t funny. It’s just sadly revealing.) Where was I?Anyway, even without the comments I loved this piece. You should be proud of it.