With The Wrestler, Mickey Rourke is back in the headlines and maybe even the Oscar hunt. He always seems to be just a DUI or an assault on a director away from slipping back into B movies and straight-to-DVD thrillers, but even if he does, don’t worry. He’ll be back.

1. Body Heat (1981)
In his breakout role as an arsonist helping a lawyer cover up a murder, Rourke made his first big impression on audiences. Only on screen briefly, he was billed far below William Hurt and Kathleen Turner, but almost stole the show.

2. Diner (1982)
In this classic story of high school friends reunited when one gets married, Rourke plays Boogie, the tough guy womanizer of the group. Most of the dialogue was improvised, and Rourke’s sleazy charm hit home, but he was hardly the only standout. Diner turned a whole pack of young unknowns into stars: Kevin Bacon, Steve Guttenberg, Paul Reiser, Tim Daly, and Ellen Barkin.

3. Rumble Fish (1983)
As a gang leader called the Motorcycle Boy, Rourke heads another stellar young cast, with Matt Dillon, Nicolas Cage, Laurence Fishburne, Diane Lane, and Chris Penn. Shot in high-contrast black and white, the film was intentionally avant-garde, and performed poorly (on its opening weekend, it played in just one theater). But it cemented Rourke as the tough, tortured hard case — a role he’s still playing.

4. The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984)
Rourke plays an out-of-work maitre d’ who robs a local business, only to find that the money he stole belonged to a mob boss. More character study than narrative, Rourke gets to chew up the scenery.

5. 9 1/2 Weeks (1986)
This softcore sex-a-thon costarrring Kim Basinger isn’t exactly high art. But it was a pop culture event, and maybe the high water mark of Rourke the celebrity, if not Rourke the actor. Four years later Wild Orchid, another thin plot wrapped around elaborate sex scenes, would mark the beginning of his long slide into mediocrity.

6. Barfly (1987)
Playing Henry Chinaski (a thinly veiled Charles Bukowski), Rourke brought the infamously drunk poet to life. As a boozy, broken romantic, Rourke went deep into character, honestly looking ripped as he stumbled through Los Angeles’s seediest bars.

7. Angel Heart (1987)
A mix of hardboiled detective noir and supernatural thriller, Angel Heart is best known for the sex scene between Rourke and a post-Cosby Show Lisa Bonet, which almost won the film an X rating. Rourke plays a private eye tracking down a singer, who ends up finding voodoo and Satanism, courtesy of Robert De Niro. Worth watching for the twist ending alone.

8. Sin City (2005)
Rourke is unrecognizable under a layer of facial prosthetics as Marv, the indestructible vigilante in Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller‘s comic book adaptation. With his gravel-crunched voice-over and stacked biceps, Marv hits just the right balance between street hood and gold-hearted white knight.

9. The Wrestler
As Randy “The Ram” Robinson, Rourke plays a character much like himself — a past-his-prime former star with the miles and the scars that come with living hard. (Rourke barely looks like himself these days, with his battered face and obvious plastic surgery, which makes the casting all the more perfect; look at Bret “the Hitman” Hart or “Macho Man” Randy Savage today.) Nominated for a Golden Globe, an Independent Spirit Award, and a SAG Award, it’s his most celebrated role to date, and just might win him an Oscar.

Tags: mickey rourke, sin city, the wrestler