Mickey Rourke's face surgery nightmare as unrecognisable photos resurface (2025)

Hollywood actor and boxer Mickey Rourke has found himself in trouble already in the Big Brother house - but it's not just his behaviour that's got viewers talking

Mickey Rourke has been making headlines since he entered the Celebrity Big Brother house, but it's not just his actions that have got viewers talking. It's clear the Hollywood star has changed up his appearance throughout his career.

Those who remember the actor from the 80s were left stunned as he looks worlds away from the star they remember. With old photos of Mickey resurfacing, the 72-year-old has had a fair few switch-ups as he quickly becomes a notable figure in the Big Brother house - and he previously revealed why his tweaks went so wrong.

In his prime, during the 80's, Mickey became a Hollywood heartthrob after he switched his career from boxing to acting, starring in iconic films such as 9 1/2 weeks and Body Heat. His toned body and long hair quickly made him become a sex symbol of the decade. But his actions on set with threatening behaviour saw him blacklisted from Hollywood in the early 90's, and he quickly returned to boxing.

Aged just 38 and axed from Hollywood, Mickey was then undefeated in eight of his fights, but it left him with two broken noses, a split tongue, fractured cheekbones, and even the threat of brain damage. To rectify his injured face, he went under the knife, but this led to drastic changes to his appearance.

Mickey made a slow return to acting and made a comeback in 2005 starring in the thriller Sin City, but he wasn't quite the Hollywood hunk he initially was due to his changed face. Even though it was apparent he'd had work done, he didn't confess until 2009 where he said: "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.

"I had my nose broken twice. I had five operations on my nose and one on a smashed 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 haemorrhoids."

But fans had been suspicious over Mickey's face since the 90's. His ex-wife Debra Fuer previously revealed to The Mirror: "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, the boxer and actor posted a photo of himself next to his surgeon, hinting at having more work. He said: "Moments after nose surgery with Dr. Dhir. Now I am pretty again...one more to go."