A bald Mickey Rourke looked unrecognizable as he emerged from the LA home he is potentially facing eviction from after allegedly failing to pay nearly $60,000 in rent.
The former Hollywood bad boy, 73, was seen on New Year’s Day looking a far cry from the hunky image he cultivated during his heyday – as he grabbed a Taco Bell delivery.
The actor appears to have suffered shocking major hair loss since he was last pictured on August 11, when he was spotted with noticeably fuller locks.
Wearing a striped sweater, rosary, and no shoes on, a frail Rourke looked somber during his rare public outing, amid continued turmoil in his personal life.
According to documents obtained by the Daily Mailthat were filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, Rouke was given a three-day notice on December 18 to pay up on his allegedly overdue rent or to vacate the premises. At the time, Rourke owed $59,100, according to the complaint from plaintiff Eric T. Goldie.
Rourke (real name: Philip Rourke Jr.) has only been renting the three-bedroom home since March 30, when he signed a lease for $5,200 in rent per month.
A bald Mickey Rourke looked unrecognizable as he emerged from the LA home he is potentially facing eviction from after allegedly failing to pay nearly $60,000 in rent
In what is a rare sighting of the star, Rourke appeared briefly from his home to pick up food dropped off at his doorstep
Mickey was a far cry from the hunky image he cultivated during his heyday; pictured 1989
The lawsuit indicates that the monthly rent on the 2.5-bathroom home was later raised to $7,000 beginning in Rourke’s second month of occupancy.
Rourke’s rented home has a major connection to early 20th-century Los Angeles history, as the house — which was constructed in 1926 — was occupied in the 1940s by the influential crime novelist Raymond Chandler, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The house is also centrally located in Los Angeles’ Beverly Grove neighborhood, just south of West Hollywood and only blocks away from the popular Grove outdoor shopping center and the neighboring Farmer’s Market.
According to the complaint, Rourke wasn’t home when someone attempted to give him the three-day notice on December 18, so the document was posted outside the house.
In addition to the $59,100 that Rourke allegedly owes in back rent, Goldie is also seeking to have the Iron Man II actor pay his attorney fees and to end the lease, which would presumably prevent Rourke from continuing to live at the house even if he did pay up.
The lawsuit is the latest setback for the Angel Heart actor, after he was kicked out of the UK Celebrity Big Brother house last year over ‘unacceptable language and behavior’ directed at his fellow housemate, JoJo Siwa.
In April, Rourke’s brief stint in the Celebrity Big Brother house came to an unexpected end when he was booted from the show after making homophobic comments directed at Siwa, 22.
In one episode, the Rumble Fish actor referred to Siwa’s sexuality and said that he would ‘vote the lesbian out real quick.’
After Rourke was called out for his plans to vote out Siwa, he took advantage of British slang by saying, ‘I need a f*g,’ as if referring to a cigarette, before he gestured to Siwa and added, ‘I’m not talking to you.’
Fans of the show branded Rourke a ‘homophobe’ on social media over his comments, including an incident in which he left Siwa in tears by claiming that he would be able to ‘make her straight.’
Rourke, who famously underwent numerous plastic surgeries, looked frail as he stepped out
Wearing a striped sweater, rosary, and no shoes on, a frail Rourke looked somber during his rare public outing, amid continued turmoil in his personal life
Rourke, pictured 2022, looked dramatically different in these new photos
Rourke pictured 1980
Rourke looked unrecognizable and frail during his rare sighting
The fallen star grabbed groceries at his LA home
Rourke is facing eviction imminently from his home – pictured
The lawsuit is the latest setback for the Angel Heart actor, after he was kicked out of the UK Celebrity Big Brother house last year over ‘unacceptable language and behavior’ directed at his fellow housemate, JoJo Siwa
Rourke was once a Hollywood heartthrob who established himself as an in-demand leading man in films including Diner (1982), Francis Ford Coppola’s Rumble Fish (1983), 9 1/2 Weeks (1986) and Angel Heart (1987).
But in the early 1990s, Rourke retreated from acting after a string of underperforming films and instead pursued an earlier passion, boxing. He was 39-years-old when he re-entered the ring as a professional.
The punishing physical nature of the sport left Rourke with serious injuries requiring reconstructive surgery, which significantly changed his appearance and ended any chance of returning to his status as a popular romantic lead.
Reflecting on his return to boxing in a 2009 interview with The Daily Mail, he said: ‘I went back because of shame.’
‘I was a good amateur and took a year off due to a concussion. I grew up in a gym in Miami, the one where Muhammad Ali trained. I had 142 amateur fights and lost three,’ he recalled.
In 1991, he re-entered the ring as a professional at the age of 39, telling the Daily Mail in 2009 that he ‘went back because of shame’ and only intended to return to the ring for one fight, which spiraled into eight
For years, Rourke’s ever-changing appearance sparked speculation, which he later clarified was largely due to botched reconstructive surgeries meant to repair damage from his boxing career
He would return to Hollywood and receive accolades for Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler in 2008, earning a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and his first – and only – Academy Award nomination for Best Actor
He had intended to return to the ring for just one bout, but that spiraled into eight, until he was advised to stop because of neurological problems.
‘I didn’t lose any pro fights, but I got properly kicked every day in the gym,’ he said.
The New York-born actor broke his nose twice – leading to five operations – and smashed his cheekbone.
‘I had to have cartilage taken from my ear to rebuild my nose, and a couple of operations to scrape out the cartilage because the scar tissue wasn’t healing properly. That was one of the most painful operations, but the worst was hemorrhoids.’
For years, Rourke’s face attracted speculation, as many wondered if his varying looks were down to years of boxing or ‘bad surgery’.
‘Most of it was to mend the mess of my face because of the boxing, but I went to the wrong guy to put my face back together,’ he explained.
That same year, his first wife, Debra Feuer, claimed, while speaking to the Mirror, that his bouts of procedures were largely because he was ‘so insecure’.
Rourke continued to act in smaller roles after giving up boxing in 1994.
He made a comeback in 2008 with the title role in Darren Aronofsky’s drama The Wrestler, in which he played a washed-up professional wrestler trying to hold on to what career he had left while trying to revive his floundering relationship with his daughter.
The film was a hit with critics and won the Golden Lion for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival, while Rourke received a BAFTA and Golden Globe Award for his role, as well as an Oscar nomination.
After the success of The Wrestler, Rourke went on to play the villain Whiplash in Iron Man 2, though most of his subsequent movies were low-budget films that received little attention.
