Mickey Rourke (Film Stars) - Softcover

Walsh, Keri

Softcover

ISBN 10: 184457430X ISBN 13: 9781844574308

Publisher: British Film Institute, 2014

Synopsis

'Rebel', 'oddball' and 'Uncle Mickey': just three of the many conflicting labels Mickey Rourke has 'earned' over his remarkable career in the limelight. His public persona, moving from actor to boxer to actor, is not easy to define: making it all the more intriguing, and making Keri Walsh's study an unique and fascinating addition to the 'Film Stars' series.

About this title

About the Authors

Keri Walsh is Assistant Professor of English at Fordham University in New York.

Martin Shingler is Senior Lecturer in Radio and Film Studies at the University of Sunderland, UK. He is the co-author of two books, On Air: Methods and Meanings of Radio, with Cindy Wieringa, (1998) and Melodrama: Genre, Style& Sensibility, with John Mercer (2004). He has also published essays on the Hollywood film star Bette Davis in the books Hollywood Spectatorship, eds. Melvyn Stokes and Richard Maltby (BFI, 2001) and Screen Acting, eds. Alan Lovell and Peter Kramer, (1999), and in Screen, the Journal of American Studies, the Journal of Film& Video, Theatre Annual and Film History. He has edited a dossier on Bette Davis for Screen (2008) and an edition of the Radio Journal (2008). He is co-editor, with Susan Smith, of the BFI Film Stars series, and author of 'Star Studies: A Critical Guide' (BFI, 2012).

Susan Smith is Reader in Film Studies at the University of Sunderland, UK. She is author of Elizabeth Taylor (BFI/Palgrave, 2012), Voices in Film (Wallflower Press, 2007), The Musical: Race, Gender and Performance (Columbia University Press, 2005) and Hitchcock: Suspense, Humour and Tone (BFI, 2000). She also co-edits the BFI's Film Stars series.

From the Back Cover

A Method Actor who has both inhabited and transformed the tradition of Brando, Clift, and Dean, Mickey Rourke came out of the Actors Studio in New York in the 1970s and rose to prominence in the early 1980s. In his early roles in Body Heat, Diner, and Rumble Fish, he was a scene-stealer and matinee idol who developed into one of the most interesting and talented stars of the 1980s. But Rourke's reputation as a serious actor was tarnished when he moved into softcore roles in films like 9 ½ Weeks and Wild Orchid. The resulting damage to his image sent him spiraling out of Hollywood and into a life of professional boxing. After reviving his career at the turn of the twenty-first century with a series of small but striking character parts, most notably in Frank Miller's Sin City, Rourke became the muse of young directors like Darren Aronofsky and Robert Rodriguez who valued his self-destructive edge, his conflicted masculinity, and his anti-industry cool. His masterful performance in The Wrestler (2008) revealed Rourke as a tragic actor of the highest caliber who had brokered at tenuous peace with Hollywood at last.

Edition details

• Publisher: British Film Institute
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 184457430X
• ISBN 13: 9781844574308
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144