Truth about Mickey Rourke’s harrowing decline: Hollywood bad boy’s crippling cash crisis… his eviction battle… and his shocking new look

He’s shocked fans with his disheveled new look as he stepped out of his Los Angeles home with a shaved head and gaunt face.

But friends have revealed Mickey Rourke’s appearance does not surprise them, after a lifetime of drugs, alcohol and facial surgeries.

The former Hollywood heartthrob, 73, was seen on New Year’s Day bearing little resemblance to the hunky silver-screen image that once made him famous.

The actor was pictured picking up a Taco Bell delivery outside his home, amid reports he is facing eviction over nearly $60,000 in unpaid rent.

A source told the Daily Mail Rourke is ‘rich poor’ and living ‘paycheck-to-paycheck’ as he ‘spends [money] so fast’ that he is ‘at square one’ whenever he gets paid.

Rourke’s once-luscious hair was gone, replaced by a nearly bald head in his latest sighting, with the insider stating the actor has ‘lived the life of a rock star.’

‘People remember him as one of the most handsome men in Hollywood, so seeing him like this, naturally people will judge or ridicule him.’

The Daily Mail has reached out to Rourke’s representatives for comment. 

‘Mickey has lived the life of a rock star with plenty of drug and alcohol abuse over the years,’ the insider said, adding, ‘so, to see him worse for wear in recent pictures without the benefit of Hollywood movie magic, we shouldn’t be surprised that he looks nothing like he used to.’

As for his finances, the insider shared that the former leading man is ‘rich poor.’ 

‘When it comes to his finances, the movies he has been doing don’t pay that much for the life he is used to, it’s almost a paycheck-to-paycheck type deal, where if he was more protective of his finances, he’d be OK.’

‘He’s rich poor if that makes sense. He has outlets to make substantial amounts of money by doing films and reality shows, but he spends it so fast that he is at square one right around the time that he starts making money,’ the source said.

The insider added that the actor is certain he’ll be able to land a deal that allows him to stay in his home and not get evicted. 

‘He’s confident that he will keep his place and make some sort of deal to remain living there.’

The source went on to say that Rourke is ‘difficult, not the most liked person, but things usually end up making sense and he feels that this will be the same.’

On Thursday, Rourke emerged from his home looking frail and wearing a striped sweater, rosary, and no shoes on.

The actor appeared to have suffered major hair loss since he was last pictured on August 11, when he was spotted with noticeably fuller locks.

According to documents obtained by the Daily Mail and filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, Rouke was given a three-day notice on December 18 to pay his allegedly overdue rent or 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.

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, constructed in 1926, was occupied by the influential crime novelist Raymond Chandler in the 1940s, 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.

From leading roles in films directed by cinematic giants like Francis Ford Coppola and Darren Aronofsky to a dramatic fall from grace after being booted from Celebrity Big Brother for jaw-dropping remarks earlier this year, the actor’s once-storied career has taken a spectacular nosedive.

Once known for his rugged good looks and dangerous charisma, Rourke’s appearance has undergone drastic changes, largely due to extensive plastic surgeries following injuries sustained during his stint as a professional boxer.

In April, Rourke suffered a controversial exit from the UK edition of Celebrity Big Brother.

The once top-billed star was forced out of the house after leaving several housemates in tears, including JoJo Siwa, whom he targeted with a string of remarks that were deemed homophobic.

At one point, he claimed he could ‘turn her straight’ and repeatedly referred to her as ‘the lesbian,’ but Siwa stood her ground – later calling his behavior hurtful, yet expressing empathy by describing him as a ‘hurt man’.

He also left fellow housemate and The Only Way Is Essex reality star Ella Rae Wise in tears with a vile sexual comment, shortly before being removed from the house.

Rourke has openly admitted that his career is ‘in the toilet,’ blaming his notoriously short fuse for damaging relationships with directors – a pattern of behavior that played out once again during his turbulent reality show appearance.

He told The Sun this was why he had not been landing A-list movies, and that his short temper stopped him from booking ‘movies that have integrity’.

‘There are directors I want to work with and have them not be afraid of me and trust me for who I am today, not for the reputation I have,’ he said.

‘I’ve made mistakes, many, I have nobody to blame for my ship sinking except myself.’

At the height of his career in the 1980s and early 90s, Rourke was hailed as one of Hollywood’s most magnetic and unconventional leading men with standout performances in 9½ Weeks, Angel Heart and Rumble Fish.

He earned a reputation for his brooding intensity and raw charisma, and gained respect for his serious role as the poet and alcoholic Charles Bukowski’s alter ego in the 1987 film Barfly.

But by the early 90s, his career faltered after he stepped away from Hollywood to pursue professional boxing, leading to numerous injuries that would dramatically change his face.

Rourke came from a martial arts background, winning his first big match at 12 years old. In 1991, he re-entered the ring as a professional at the age of 39.

‘I went back because of shame,’ he told the Daily Mail in 2009. ‘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 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 disclosed he had broken his nose twice – which led 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 has 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’.

‘He got worse when he met his second wife, Carre Otis,’ the former actress – who was married to him from 1981 to 1989 – told the outlet.

‘She had issues with drugs but she was so beautiful that Mickey wanted to be a part of her world. That’s when the plastic surgery started. He’ll kill me for saying this but he wanted the part in one film so badly that he got cheek implants.

‘He told me he was swollen because he’d had his molar teeth removed. But I knew that was untrue – he didn’t have any molars to take out.’

In 2017, Rourke admitted he had gotten a ‘nose job’ as he shared a picture of himself bandaged up in a hospital bed.

‘Moments after ‘ nose surgery with Dr. Dhir,’ he penned. ‘Now i am ‘pretty again ‘:(lol)…one more to go. ‘I don’t know what day it is don’t even realize operation is over.’ 

Despite his changing looks and bad reputation in Hollywood, Rourke was given another chance by Aronofsky to make a major comeback.

And he delivered, with a critically acclaimed performance in The Wrestler (2008), where he played Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson, an aging professional wrestler grappling with physical decline and personal regrets.

The role would earn him a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and his first – and only – Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

He would go on to act in Iron Man 2 (2010) and The Expendables (2010), but his career would fizzle out once again.

This is reportedly due to his notorious attitude on set and his feuds with co-stars, the most famous one being with Hollywood legend Robert De Niro, whom he once admitted he idolized.

Their long-standing feud in the media began when they worked together in the 1987 film Angel Heart.

It was reignited in 2019 when he claimed famed director Martin Scorsese wanted him to be in his 2019 crime film The Irishman, but De Niro refused to work with him.

De Niro’s reps were quick to respond at the time with a statement saying Rourke was ‘never asked to be in The Irishman nor was he ever even thought of, discussed or considered to be in the movie,’ in a Page Six article with the headline ‘Robert De Niro: Mickey Rourke is lying about The Irishman snub’.

Rourke, then 67, took to Instagram in July 2020 and made a harsh promise to the two-time Academy Award winner:

‘Let me tell you something, you punk a**, when i see you i swear to God on my Grandmother, on my brother and all my dogs, i gonna embarrass you severally 100% [sic].’

The actor has sparked controversy both for his personal and professional life.

The Hollywood star was previously accused of putting a gun to his ex-wife Carre Otis’ head on their honeymoon and threatened to kill himself with a hari-hari sword if she didn’t say yes to his proposal.

Rourke was also arrested four years before their divorce in 1998 over claims he slapped and kicked Otis. The case was later dropped.