Mickey Rourke

In the mid 80s one of the most charismatic talented and striking looking films stars was of course Mickey Rourke, a guy who had the rare ability of great acting ability without looking like he was acting whilst having the natural charm and looks needed to justify his A-list status. It did, of course, all go wrong but this has been gone over many times. However back in 2008 he was re-discovered by Hollywood after his massively overwhelming performance in "The Wrestler" as still being someone who could turn-up in a film and give a performance that could only be matched by maybe Day Lewis, Gary Oldman or DeNiro. The Award season got him on the red carpet, the critics were pining to hail his re-discovered talent and it seemed that Mickey was back in the big time... the question was would he screw it up again or would he finally learn from his mistakes of disrespecting everyone who came in to contact with him? That is of course a harder question to answer but what is clear is that since his re-emergence on the big stage and red carpet things have not risen to that hight again since then.
The Wrestler, however brilliant it and he was, was over 8 years ago now, Mickey is now 63 (not a age that favours leading men) and a quick look at his filmography since The Wrestler suggests that Mickey has been more concerned with paying the bills rather than churning out another creditable film. For example last year he was in films like "A hit man in London" "Blunt force" and "War Pigs" all directed by people you never heard of and starring actors who are clearly on their way down or also never heard of, not that you ever heard of there films either, and its the same story more or less in the 8 years since The Wrestler.
Rouke is a superb actor but it would seem that his damaged Hollywood associations run deep and while he may turn up in another independent film of note again his domain is likely to remain naff straight-to-DVD fodder from here on out.