Who is Aretha Louise Franklin?

Who is Aretha Louise Franklin? Franklin [1] is an American singer, songwriter and pianist commonly referred to as "The Queen of Soul"[1]. Although renowned for her soul recordings, Franklin is also adept at jazz, rock, blues, pop, R&B and gospel. She is widely acclaimed for her passionate vocal style and powerful range. In 2008, the American music magazine Rolling Stone ranked Franklin #1 on its list of The Greatest Singers of All Time.[2]
Franklin is one of the most honored artists by the Grammy Awards, with 21 wins to date, including the Living Legend Grammy and the Lifetime Achievement Grammy. She has scored a total of 20 #1 singles on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart, two of which also became #1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100: "Respect" (1967) and "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (1987), a duet with George Michael. Since 1961, Franklin has scored a total of 45 "Top 40" hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
In 1987, Franklin became the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.[3] In January 2009, she sang at the presidential inauguration of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama.

Franklin was born on March 25,1942, in Memphis, Tennessee.

The Rev. C. L. Franklin, a Baptist minister, and Barbara Siggers Franklin. Aretha's parents had a troubled relationship and separated when Aretha was six. Siggers died of a heart attack when Franklin was ten. The fourth of five siblings, Aretha's father's first pulpit after Memphis was in Buffalo, New York. The family subsequently moved to Detroit, Michigan where they grew up, Rev. Franklin assumed the pulpit of the New Bethel Baptist Church, and gained national fame as a preacher. Adept at the piano as well as having a gifted voice, Franklin became a child prodigy. By the age of fourteen, she signed a record deal with Battle Records, where her father recorded his sermons and gospel vocal recordings, and she issued Songs of Faith in 1956.

Earlier influences included Clara Ward and

Mahalia Jackson, both of whom spent a lot of time in Aretha's home.

Teenage pregnancies derailed Franklin's gospel career when she gave birth to Clarence in 1956 (at age 14) and Edward in 1958 (at age 16). When she returned to singing, Aretha decided to secure herself a deal as a pop artist. After being offered contracts from Motown and RCA, Franklin signed with Columbia Records in 1960. Her recordings during that time reflected a jazz influence and moved away from her gospel roots. Franklin initially scored a few hits on Columbia including her version of "Rock-A-Bye Your Baby (With A Dixie Melody)", which peaked at number 37 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in 1961, and the Top 10 R&B hits, "Today I Sing The Blues", "Won't Be Long" and "Operation Heartbreak". However, by the end of 1966, with little commercial success in six years with Columbia and desperate for a sound of her own, she accepted an offer to sign with Atlantic Records. According to Franklin years later, "they made me sit down on the piano and the hits came".

In 1967 Franklin issued her first Atlantic single, "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)", a blues ballad that introduced listeners to her gospel style. Produced by Jerry Wexler, the song became Franklin's breakthrough single reaching the Top 10 on the Hot 100, and holding the #1 spot for 7 weeks on Billboard's R&B Singles chart. The B-side, "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man", charted on the R&B side, and introduced a more gospel element to Franklin's developing sound.
Her next single, "Respect", written and originally recorded by Otis Redding, firmly launched Franklin on the road to superstardom. Franklin's feminist version of the song became her signature tune for life, reaching #1 on both the R&B and the Pop charts—holding the top spot on the former chart for a record 8 weeks—and helping her Atlantic debut album, I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You, reach million-seller status. In the next ten months, Franklin released a number of top ten hits including "Baby I Love You", "Chain of Fools" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman".

In early 1968 Franklin won her first two Grammies (for "Respect"), including the first Grammy awarded in the "Best Female R&B Vocal Performance" category. She went on to win eight "Best Female R&B Vocal Performance" awards in a row.[4] Over the next seven years, Franklin continued to score hit singles including "Think", "The House That Jack Built", "I Say a Little Prayer" (a cover of Dionne Warwick's hit), "Call Me" and "Don't Play That Song (You Lied)". "Spanish Harlem" reached #2 on Billboard's Hot 100 and even gave Aretha her first Top 10 Adult Contemporary (at the time labeled Easy Listening) hit.

By the end of the 1960s, Franklin's position as The Queen of Soul was firmly established. Her albums were also hot sellers; one in particular, 1972's Amazing Grace, eventually sold over two million US copies, becoming "the best-selling gospel album of all time".[5] Franklin's hit streak continued into the mid-1970s. 1973's emotional plea "Angel", produced by Quincy Jones and written by Franklin's sister Carolyn, was a stand-out single that became yet another #1 on the R&B chart, although the subsequent album Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky) was not successful.

1974's gold-certified single "Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)" hit #1 R&B and #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. By 1975, however, with the expanding exposure of Disco and the popularity of fellow Atlantic artist Roberta Flack, relations between Franklin and Atlantic Records were starting to strain. As a result, Aretha was recording poor material such as 1975's listless You album, and her record sales declined dramatically. Franklin had peaked, and the music industry was moving on to younger black female singers such as Natalie Cole, Chaka Khan and Donna Summer.


In 1976, Franklin's Curtis Mayfield-produced soundtrack of the film, Sparkle, brought Franklin another hit. It was her first album to reach gold status since the landmark Amazing Grace. The suggestive "(Giving Him) Something He Can Feel" became a number-one R&B smash and reached #28 on the Pop side. However, it was Aretha's only Pop Top 40 appearance during the second half of the 1970s. Her later period Atlantic albums including Sweet Passion, Almighty Fire and La Diva were critical as well as sales failures and to top it off Franklin owed major debts to the IRS for failure to pay back taxes. Her recording contract with Atlantic ran out at the end of 1979, and neither Aretha nor the company had any desire to renew it. On June 10, 1979, Franklin's father, the Rev. C.L. Franklin, was seriously wounded during what was said to be an attempted robbery at his Linwood Avenue home in Detroit, leaving him in a comatose state in which he remained until his death in the summer of 1984.

In 1980, Franklin's career was given a much-needed boost by a cameo performance as Mrs. Matt Murphy in

The Blues Brothers, singing Think.

That same year, Clive Davis signed Aretha to his Arista Records. The singles "United Together" and "Love All The Hurt Away"—a duet with George Benson—returned her to the Top 10 on the Billboard R&B Singles chart.

But it was the spectacular 1982 album, Jump To It, produced by longtime admirer Luther Vandross, and the title-track single that gave Aretha her first R&B chart-topping and pop success since "(Giving Him) Something He Can Feel". The album enjoyed a long run at #1 on Billboard's R&B Albums chart (even the Zoomin' album only reached #3). It won an American Music Award, was nominated for a Grammy and was certified gold in early 1983 - Aretha's first gold disc since the 1976 Sparkle album.

The following year Franklin and Vandross collaborated again on the disappointing Get It Right. But in 1985, Franklin's sound was commercialized into a glossy pop sound as she experienced her first-ever

Platinum-certified album, Who's Zoomin' Who?. Yielding smash hits like the Motown-influenced "Freeway of Love" (#3 Pop/#1 R&B), the title track (#7 Pop/#2 R&B), and her duet with rock duo Eurythmics, "Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves" (#18 Pop/#66 R&B), the album became the first Platinum certification of Aretha's entire career, introducing her sound to a younger generation of fans.

In 1986, Franklin did nearly as well with an album simply titled Aretha, which yielded her first number-one pop single in two decades with the George Michael duet, "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)". The album is noteworthy for the striking cover which was Andy Warhol's last work before his death. Other hits included her cover of The Rolling Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and the girl group-inspired "Jimmy Lee". When Aretha was taken out of print, it had sold over 900,000 US copies.

Aretha returned to gospel in 1987 with her album One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism which was recorded live at her New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit. However, the disc was a far cry from her 1972 effort Amazing Grace and had middling sales. Follow-ups such as 1989's Through The Storm and 1991's What You See Is What You Sweat sold poorly and failed to produce any major mainstream hits—other than the former album's Elton John-featured title track—but her career got a slight boost in 1993 when she scored a dance-club hit with "Deeper Love" from the Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit soundtrack.

In 1994, she scored another hit with the Babyface-produced ballad, "Willing To Forgive", which hit the Top 5 of Billboard's R&B chart and #26 on the Hot 100.
Franklin returned to prominence with her 1998 album, A Rose Is Still A Rose. The album's mixture of urban contemporary, hip-hop soul and soul was a departure from Franklin's previous material. The title track, produced by Lauryn Hill, gave her a smash hit on the R&B and Pop charts and earned a gold single while the album was certified gold also, the first time since 1986's Aretha that any of the singer's albums went gold.

That same year, with less than twenty-four hours to prepare, Franklin stepped in for Luciano Pavarotti to sing "Nessun Dorma" at the 1998 Grammy Awards. (Pavarotti, who was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award that night, was too sick to attend.) She gave a soulful and highly improvised performance in the aria's original key, while firmly stamping out the year with a captivating performance during VH-1's "Divas Live" telecast.

Following the success of A Rose Is Still A Rose, Franklin has continued recording if only sporadically. Her most recent full studio release was 2003's critical and commercial failure So Damn Happy, which included the Grammy-winning track "Wonderful". Shortly after its release, Franklin left Arista Records after twenty-three years with the company. She has since started her own label, Aretha Records, and plans to issue her long-delayed new album, A Woman Falling Out Of Love in 2009. She is also coaching young actors during auditions for a musical based on her autobiography, From These Roots.
In 1998, Franklin also took again her role of Mrs. Murphy in Blues Brothers 2000, this time singing her old hit "Respect". Like in the 1980 movie, she plays the possessive wife of the lead guitarist of the Blues Brothers Band, singing the song during a row with her husband about his joining his former band.
In 2007, Arista Records released a duets compilation album entitled, "Jewels In The Crown: All-Star Duets With The Queen." The disc features duets performed with Mariah Carey, Luther Vandross, Whitney Houston, Richard Marx, Annie Lennox, John Legend, Mary J. Blige, Frank Sinatra, George Michael, Christina Aguilera, George Benson, Fantasia, and Gloria Estefan.

A duet with Faith Hill has been recorded but it's not on the album.

The album includes two new recordings with Fantasia, on the lead single "Put You Up On Game" and John Legend.

The lead single "Put You Up On Game" hit radio on October 1, 2007 and became the number one most added song on Urban AC radio the following week. The album also includes Aretha's historic rendition of "Nessun Dorma" from the 1998 Grammy telecast.

In 2008, Franklin was honored as MusiCares "Person of the Year," two days prior to the 50th Annual Grammy Awards, where she was awarded her 18th career Grammy. Post-Grammy's, Miss Franklin enterted into a feud with both Beyonce and Tina Turner. This was due to the fact that Beyonce introduced Turner as 'The Queen' prior to their show-stealing duet of Proud Mary.
Franklin sang at the inauguration concert for Bill Clinton in 1993. In 2009, she sang "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" at the inauguration ceremony for Barack Obama.

[
Twice divorced, Franklin is the mother of four grown sons. Two of them, Kecalf and Teddy, are active in the music business.

Teddy is the musical director and guitarist of Franklin's touring band.

From 1961 to 1969, Aretha was married to her manager and co-writer Ted White.

In 1978 she married Cooley High actor Glynn Turman. While White had been a decade older than Aretha, Turman was four years younger. The marriage lasted until late 1982 when Franklin and her family returned permanently to Detroit. She and Turman divorced in early 1984.

She is the godmother of Whitney Houston, who also grew up to be a R&B star, rising to fame in the mid-1980s. A still image of Franklin was shown in the closing scene of Houston's 1985 video for the single How Will I Know.

Aretha Franklin wipes a tear after being honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 9, 2005, during ceremonies at the White House. Looking on are fellow recipients Robert Conquest, left, and Alan Greenspan.
In 1985, then-Gov. James Blanchard of Michigan declared her voice “a natural resource” during a ceremony that marked her 25 years in show business

On January 3, 1987, she became the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In May 1987, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Musicology degree from the University of Detroit.
In September, 1999, she was awarded The National Medal of Arts by President Clinton.
In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked her #9 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[6] To give perspective to this honor, only the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, and Little Richard finished ahead of her on this list. Ray Charles finished at number ten, right behind Franklin.
In 2005, she was awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush.
In 2005, she became the second woman (Madonna being the first, a founding member) to be inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame.
On February 6, 2006, she performed, along with Aaron Neville, the Star-Spangled Banner at Super Bowl 40
On May 13, 2006, she was presented with an honorary Doctor of Music degree by the Berklee College of Music.
On April 1, 2007 Aretha sang "America the Beautiful" at Wrestlemania 23.
On May 14, 2007, she was presented with an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
Is an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
She is the youngest recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor.
First black woman to appear on the cover of Time magazine.
On February 8, 2008, Franklin was honored as MusiCares "Person of the Year".
On February 14, 2008, Franklin was given the Vanguard award at the NAACP Image awards.
On May 4, 2008, Franklin was given the Key to the City of Memphis at the 2008 "Memphis in May International Music Festival" by Mayor Dr. Willie Herenton during her performance onstage
On September 13, 2008, Franklin was ranked #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists list by Billboard Magazine.[7]
November 2008, Franklin was named by The Rolling Stone magazine. as the #1 all time best singer of the rock era. She came in ahead of Ray Charles at No. 2, Elvis Presley at No. 3, Sam Cooke at No. 4 and John Lennon at No. 5, according to the magazine's survey of 179 musicians, producers, Rolling Stone editors, and other music-industry insiders.[8]

On January 20, 2009, Franklin performed "My Country 'Tis of Thee" during the inauguration ceremony of Barack Obama.

Franklin has won twenty one (21) Grammy Awards in total during her nearly half-century long career (she first charted in 1961), and holds the record for most Best Female R&B Vocal Performance award with eleven to her name (including eight consecutive awards from 1968 to 1975 - the first eight awarded in that category).

Aretha Franklin's Grammy Award Wins

1
1968
Best Rhythm And Blues Recording
R&B Respect
2
1968
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
R&B Respect
3
1969
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
R&B Chain Of Fools
4
1970
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
R&B Share Your Love With Me
5
1971
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
R&B Don't Play That Song For Me
6
1972
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
R&B Bridge Over Troubled Water
7
1973
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
R&B Young, Gifted and Black (album)
8
1973
Best Soul Gospel Performance
Gospel Amazing Grace (album)
9
1974
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
R&B Master Of Eyes
10
1975
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
R&B Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing
11
1982
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
R&B Hold On...I'm Comin' (album track)
12
1986
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
R&B Freeway Of Love
13
1988
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
R&B Aretha (album)
14
1988
Best R&B Performance - Duo Or Group with Vocals
R&B I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) (with George Michael)
15
1989
Best Soul Gospel Performance - Female
Gospel One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism (album)
16
1991
Living Legend Award
Special
17
1994
Lifetime Achievement Award
Special
18
2004
Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance
R&B Wonderful
19
2006
Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance
R&B A House Is Not A Home
20
2007
Golden Grammy Awards
Special
21
2008
Best Gospel-Soul Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group
Gospel Never Gonna Break My Faith (with Mary J. Blige)
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Who is Philip Andre Rourke, Jr.?

Who is Philip Andre Rourke, Jr? [1] Mickey Rourke is an American actor, who has appeared primarily as a leading man in action, drama and thriller films.
Trained as a boxer in his early years, Rourke had a short stint as a pro fighter in the 1990s. He won a Golden Globe award and is nominated for a SAG award, a BAFTA award, and an Academy Award Nomination for his work in the film The Wrestler.[2]

Rourke was born September 16, 1952 in Schenectady, New York[1] to a family of Irish and French descent.[3] His father, Philip Andre Rourke, Sr., an amateur body builder, left the family when Mickey was six years old.[4] After his parents divorced, his mother, Ann, married a police officer with five sons and moved Rourke, his younger brother and their sister to southern Florida, where he attended Miami Beach Senior High School.[5]

During his teenage years, Rourke focused his attention mainly on sports. He took up self-defense training at the Boys Club of Miami. It was there that he learned boxing skills and decided on an amateur career. At the age of 12, Rourke won his first boxing match as a 118-pound bantamweight. Some of his early matches were fought under the name Andre Rourke. He continued his boxing training at the famed 5th Street Gym in Miami Beach, Florida, where Muhammad Ali began his career. In 1969, Rourke, then weighing 140 lbs., sparred with former World Welterweight Champion Luis Rodríguez. Rodriguez was the number one rated middleweight boxer in the world, and was training for his match with world champion Nino Benvenuti. Rourke claims to have received a concussion in this sparring match.[6]
At the 1971 Florida Golden Gloves, he received another concussion in a boxing match. After being told by doctors to take a year off and rest, Rourke temporarily retired from the ring. From 1968 to 1973, he compiled an amateur record of 20-7 (17 knockouts), which included wins over Ron Carter, Charles Gathers, and Joe Riles. At one point, he reportedly scored 12 consecutive first-round knockouts.
Soon after he temporarily gave up boxing, a friend at the University of Miami told Rourke about a play he was directing, Deathwatch, and how the man playing the role of Green Eyes had quit. Rourke got the part and immediately became enamored of acting. Borrowing $400 from his sister, he went to New York in order to take private lessons with an acting teacher from the Actors Studio.[6]
Rourke's film debut was a small role in Steven Spielberg's film 1941. However, it was his portrayal of an arsonist in Body Heat that garnered significant attention, despite his modest time onscreen. He mostly appeared in television movies in his early career. During the early 1980s, Rourke starred in the cult classic Diner, which also starred Paul Reiser, Daniel Stern, Steve Guttenberg, Tim Daly and Kevin Bacon. Soon after, Rourke starred in Francis Ford Coppola's follow-up to The Outsiders, the coming-of-age tale, Rumble Fish. Playing the enigmatic older brother of Matt Dillon's character, he was praised as a standout in a film that also featured such talents as Dennis Hopper, Vincent Spano, Diane Lane, Nicolas Cage, Chris Penn, Laurence Fishburne and Tom Waits.

Rourke's performance in the film The Pope of Greenwich Village alongside Daryl Hannah and Eric Roberts also caught the attention of critics. While the film was a box office flop during its initial release, it has become something of a minor cult hit.
In the mid-1980s, Rourke earned himself additional leading roles. His role alongside Kim Basinger in the controversial, panned, sexually-themed box-office hit 9½ Weeks helped him gain "sex symbol" status. He received critical praise for his work in Barfly as the alcoholic writer Henry Chinaski (the literary alter ego of Charles Bukowski) and in the Oliver Stone-penned Year of the Dragon. In 1987, Rourke appeared in Angel Heart. The film, which also stars Robert De Niro, was directed by Alan Parker and nominated for several awards.

It was seen as controversial by some due to a sex scene involving Cosby Show cast member Lisa Bonet, who won an award for her part in the film.[7] Although some of Rourke's work was viewed as controversial in the U.S., he was well-received by European, and especially French, audiences, who loved the "rumpled, slightly dirty, sordid ... rebel persona"[8] that he projected in Year of the Dragon, 9½ Weeks, Angel Heart, and Desperate Hours.

In the late 1980s, Rourke performed with musician David Bowie on the Never Let Me Down album. Around this same time, he also wrote his first screenplay, Homeboy, a boxing tale in which he starred. In 1989, Rourke starred in the docu-drama Francesco, portraying St. Francis of Assisi. In 1991, he starred in the box office bomb Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man as Harley Davidson, a biker whose best friend, Marlboro, was played by Miami Vice star Don Johnson. This was followed by Wild Orchid, another critically panned film, which gained him a nomination for a Razzie award (also for Desperate Hours).
Rourke's acting career eventually became overshadowed by his personal life and seemingly eccentric career decisions. Directors such as Alan Parker found it difficult to work with him. Parker stated that "working with Mickey is a nightmare. He is very dangerous on the set because you never know what he is going to do".[8] He is alleged to have turned down a number of high-profile acting roles, including Eliot Ness in The Untouchables, Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop, Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs, Tom Cruise's role in Rain Man, Nick Nolte's part in 48 Hrs., Christopher Lambert's part in Highlander and a part in Platoon. In a documentary on the special edition DVD of Tombstone, actor Michael Biehn, who plays the part of Johnny Ringo, mentions that his role was first offered to Rourke.[9]

In 1991, Rourke decided that he "…had to go back to boxing" because he felt that he "… was self-destructing … (and) had no respect for myself being an actor." Rourke was undefeated in 8 fights, with six wins (4 by knock-out) and two draws. He fought as far afield as Spain, Japan and Germany.[10] He never achieved national prominence and he suffered a number of injuries, including a broken nose, toe, ribs, a split tongue, and a compressed cheekbone. His trainer during his boxing career was Hells Angels member Chuck Zito and his entrance song was Guns N' Roses' Sweet Child o' Mine.[11]
Boxing promoters stated that Rourke was too old to do well against top-level fighters. Indeed, Rourke himself admits that entering the ring was a sort of personal test: "(I) just wanted to give it a shot, test myself that way physically, while I still had time (interview in The Gate with Christopher Heard)." In 1995, Rourke retired from boxing and returned to acting.


In the early 1990s, Quentin Tarantino offered Rourke the part of Butch Coolidge in Pulp Fiction. Rourke declined, and the role eventually was offered to Matt Dillon and Sylvester Stallone, before Bruce Willis invested in the film and was given the part. After his retirement from boxing, Rourke did accept supporting roles in several 1990s films, including Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of John Grisham's The Rainmaker, Vincent Gallo's Buffalo '66, Steve Buscemi's Animal Factory, Sean Penn's The Pledge and Sylvester Stallone's remake of Get Carter. Rourke also has written several films under the name "Sir" Eddie Cook, including Bullet, in which he co-starred with Tupac Shakur.

While Rourke was also selected for a significant role in Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line, Rourke's part ended up on the editing room floor. Rourke also played a small part in the film Thursday, in which he plays a crooked cop. He also had a lead role in 1997's Double Team, which co-starred martial arts actor Jean-Claude Van Damme. It was Rourke's first over-the-top action film role, in which he played the lead villain. During that same year, he filmed Another 9½ Weeks, a sequel to 9½ Weeks, which only received limited distribution. He ended the 1990s with the direct-to-video films Out in Fifty, Shades and television movie Shergar, which is about kidnapping of Epsom Derby winning thoroughbred racehorse Shergar.

In 2001, he appeared as the villain in Enrique Iglesias's music video for Hero which also featured

Jennifer Love Hewitt.

In 2002, Rourke took the role of The Cook in Jonas Åkerlund's Spun, teaming up once again with Eric Roberts.

His first collaborations with directors Robert Rodriguez and Tony Scott in Once Upon a Time in Mexico and Man on Fire, were for smaller roles. Nonetheless, these directors subsequently decided to cast Rourke in lead roles in their next films.
In 2005, Rourke made his comeback in mainstream Hollywood circles with a lead role (Marv) in Robert Rodriguez's adaptation of Frank Miller's Sin City. Rourke received awards from the Chicago Film Critics Association, the IFTA and the Online Film Critics Society, as well as "Man of the Year" from Total Film magazine that year. Rourke followed Sin City with a supporting role in Tony Scott's Domino alongside Keira Knightley, in which he played a bounty hunter.
Rourke played the role of The Blackbird in an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's Killshot, the role of "Darrius Sayle" in an adaptation of the Alex Rider novel Stormbreaker. He will also appear alongside Ray Liotta in John McNaughton's The Night Job, as well as reprising the role of "Marv" in the Dame to Kill For segment of Sin City 2.

In addition, in 2003, Rourke provided the voice for "Jericho" in the third installment of the Driver video game series. Rourke also recently appeared in a 40-page story by photographer Bryan Adams for Berlin's Zoo Magazine. In an article about Rourke's return to steady acting roles, entitled Mickey Rourke Rising (from The Gate), Christopher Heard stated that actors/musicians Tupac Shakur, Johnny Depp, Sean Penn and Brad Pitt have "…animated praise for Rourke and his work."
Despite having withdrawn from acting at various points, and having made movies that he now sees as a creative "sell-out" (the action film Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man), Rourke has stated that "…all that I have been through…[has] made me a better, more interesting actor." Rourke's renewed interest in pursuing acting can be seen in his statement that "…my best work is still ahead of me" (article in The Gate).

In November 2006, during an interview, he called Tom Cruise "a cunt" for his attacks on Brooke Shields and psychiatry. In February 2007 he was in South Beach, Florida, protesting against a puppy store he claims sells dogs with parvo. He wanted the store to shut down, claiming a puppy he bought for his friend at the store died. He was supported with other activists.
Mickey signed up to act in the movie version of the The Informers in the role of Peter, an amoral former studio security guard who plots to kidnap a small child.

Mickey is the lead in The Wrestler, winner of the Golden Lion Award for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival, about washed-up professional wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson. For the part, Mickey trained under former WWE wrestler Afa the Wild Samoan. Rourke has been nominated for best actor for the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards with fellow actors Sean Penn of Milk, Jeremy Renner of The Hurt Locker, along with Javier Bardem, and Richard Jenkins.[12] He received his first Golden Globe for best actor for his role. He has also received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

Rourke's political views came under fire when he claimed to have donated part of his salary from the 1989 film Francesco to the Provisional Irish Republican Army. He later retracted the statement, although he has an IRA symbol tattoo.[13] Rourke is a Roman Catholic.[14]
Regarding his views on President George W. Bush and the September 11 Attacks, Rourke stated in an interview, "President Bush was in the wrong place at the wrong time, I don't know how anyone could have handled this situation." He went on to say, "I don't give a fuck who's in office, Bush or whoever, there is no simple solution to this problem... I'm not one of those who blames Bush for everything. This shit between Christians and Muslims goes back to the Crusades, doesn't it."[15]

Rourke has dated several celebrities including Terry Farrell and

Sasha Volkova.

He has been married twice. In 1981 he married Debra Feuer, whom he met on the set of Hardcase (1981) and who co-starred with him in Homeboy (1988) as his love interest. The marriage ended in 1989.

Wild Orchid co-star Carré Otis was briefly a cause célèbre following the release of Wild Orchid due to rumors she and then-lover Rourke filmed an unsimulated sex scene. She married Rourke on June 26, 1992. In 1994 Rourke was arrested for spousal abuse. The charges were dropped after the couple reconciled. They gave their relationship another chance and also starred together in Exit in Red but their marriage ended in December 1998.

In November 2007, Rourke was arrested again, this time on DUI charges in Miami Beach.[16]

Rourke is a motorcycle enthusiast and uses motorcycles in some of his films. He used to own a gym in West Hollywood called Shapiro and was a close friend of Bullet co-star Tupac Shakur. He has written or co-written 6 scripts: Homeboy, The Last Ride, Bullet, Killer Moon, Penance and the latest, Pain. Of these only the first three have been produced as movies.
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Who is Mira Katherine Sorvino?

Who is Mira Katherine Sorvino? Sorvino is an Academy Award winning American actress.

Sorvino was born September 28, 1967 in Tenafly, New Jersey, the daughter of Lorraine Davis, a drama therapist for Alzheimer's disease patients and former actress, and

Paul Sorvino, an Italian American character actor and director.[1][2] She has two siblings, Michael, and Amanda, a playwright.
Her father did not want his children to become actors; at a young age, however, Sorvino wrote and acted in backyard plays with her childhood friend Hope Davis, in theater productions at Dwight-Englewood High School, and at Harvard University, where she graduated magna cum laude in East Asian Studies. Her thesis was on anti-African sentiment in China. While at Harvard, she helped found the Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones, one of Harvard's premier co-ed a cappella groups. Her solo piece was Yaz/Yazoo's "Only You".


Sorvino spent the next three years in New York City, trying to make a name for herself as an actress. When the 1993 film Amongst Friends entered pre-production, she was hired as third assistant director, then was promoted to casting director, then to assistant producer, and was finally offered a lead role. Positive reviews[3][4] opened doors for her.

After small but showy roles in Robert Redford's Quiz Show and Whit Stillman's Barcelona, her portrayal of a squeaky-voiced, foul-mouthed prostitute in Woody Allen's 1995 film Mighty Aphrodite won her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Other credits include Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (opposite Lisa Kudrow) and At First Sight with Val Kilmer. She portrayed Marilyn Monroe for the 1995 HBO film Norma Jean & Marilyn.
In recent years, Sorvino has starred in lower budget and independent films. In 2005, she received a Golden Globe nomination for her role as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in the Lifetime film Human Trafficking.
In February 2008 she guest starred in an episode of the medical television drama House. There was talk of making her character, psychiatrist Cate Milton, a recurring character; however, the writers strike put a temporary freeze on such discussions.[5]


Sorvino is 5'10" tall. She met actor Christopher Backus at a friend's charades party in August 2003: "He walked into the kitchen looking for silverware. We saw each other and something made us want to talk to each other more," she told People.[6] They were engaged within a month. On June 11, 2004, they married in a private civil ceremony at a Santa Barbara, California courthouse, then later had a hilltop ceremony in Capri, Italy. Their daughter, Mattea Angel, was born on November 3, 2004[7] and their son, Johnny Christopher King, was born on May 29, 2006.

She has also dated director Quentin Tarantino and

French actor Olivier Martinez. [8]

She is affiliated with Amnesty International, and has been among the many Hollywood celebrities calling for United Nations action in Darfur. She spent a year of study in Beijing while attending Harvard. She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, and also speaks French.[9]
In October 2006, she was evicted from her rent-stabilized one-bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan near Central Park when her landlord claimed that it was not her primary residence. She told New York magazine, “My landlords are selling the building, and they want the units cleared so they can turn it into a luxury rental, even though it’s a one-bedroom. I mean, it’s 600 square feet! No great digs, but I loved it and now it’s probably going to go for $4,000 a month ... I’m a little bitter! Can you tell?”
In honor of Sorvino's role as Dr. Susan Tyler, an entomologist who was investigating deadly insect mutations in the feature film, Mimic, mirasorvone[10] was the name given to a compound excreted by the sunburst diving beetle as a defensive mechanism.

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