Don't call it a comeback

Every few years, an A-list actor or actress that had been written off as damaged, worn out, untalented, drug-addled or worse – unattractive – washes up on the shores of Hollywood, poised to reclaim the title that was once effortlessly hoisted atop their head.

The harsh fact that few are able to sustain their comeback kid status is of little matter. Hollywood may be a cruel fantasy-land where lollipop-proportioned waifs, super-sized veneers and taut foreheads reign supreme but its inhabitants do know a thing or two about a second chance. As much as the viewing public loves a meltdown, they’re also at least equally enthusiastic when an actor has the chutzpah to stand up, dust off, call their agent and give it another go.

Below, a list of those who managed to rock our worlds a second time around, if only for a moment.

Mickey Rourke

In a recent New York Times profile of the 50-something actor, Mickey Rourke freely admits that arrogance destroyed his career – one that saw him sitting pretty among the upper-echelon of ‘80s talented and tortured hunks – and he subsequently spent the ‘90s making headlines for sloppy boxing matches and run-ins with the law instead of his acting. But Rourke is now poised, for at least the second time, to redeem himself through his art. Audiences witnessed his first big-screen attempt to get back in their good graces as Marv in Sin City – playing an impossibly square-jawed ex-con out to avenge his lover’s death – to mostly rave reviews. But none of his films since then have amassed as much hype as Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, placing Rourke back in the spotlight as an old-time wrestler at the end of his career who plans to return to the ring for one last fight. The parallels between his own story and that of Randy “The Ram” Robinson are ample, able to infuse the work with an aura of verisimilitude and honesty that could net Rourke his first Academy Award.

Robert Downey Jr.

Crowned this year’s top entertainer by, who else, Entertainment Weekly, the notorious former addict spent the ‘90s popping pills, appearing in court and even landing in jail for truly unhinged behaviour that included wandering into a neighbour’s house and falling asleep in a child’s bedroom and throwing imaginary rats from his car while driving – naked. But clean and sober since 2001, RDJ’s career has been on a steady incline with smaller fare like Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and A Scanner Darkly to David Fincher’s Zodiac. But it wasn’t until he strapped on the jet-powered boots and metal suit that his proper place among Hollywood’s elite was finally re-affirmed. Iron Man opened to a (US) $98.6 million box office haul and catapulted the talented thesp into franchise status – think Johnny Depp and Pirates of the Caribbean – and his bravura performance in Tropic Thunder was easily the best thing about the uneven Ben Stiller comedy. Needless to say, RDJ is back – hopefully for good.

Jean Claude Van Damme

It’s been a long time since the Muscles from Brussels was a full-fledged action hero who packed theatres chock-a-block with eager fans waiting for him to unleash his trademark leaping 360 powerhouse kicks or effortless splits. But it took Algerian director Mabrouk el Mechri to cast Van Damme in the aptly-titled JCVD, an endlessly self-referential film that shares more than a hint of the madcap meta-ness of Being John Malkovich, to prove that he still had some fight left in him. JCVD follows Van Damme, playing himself, natch, a weary, aging has-been actor who’s struggling with money, custody battles and landing film roles – he even loses a part to Steven Seagal – who gets implicated in a bank robbery. In easily his meatiest role yet, Van Damme shows a keen self-awareness and certain bravery in knocking down, or at least poking fun at, his own larger-than-life persona. Time will tell if he can keep up the momentum and translate this clever send-up into a career resurrection.

Diane Lane

The fact that this gifted beauty is the only female that seems to fit the terms of the list is either a reflection of the lack of good roles for women in the second act of their careers or a sign that Hollywood is less forgiving when a woman is trying to claw her way back– or maybe both. Either way, Diane Lane made her mark early, appearing in her first feature film at 13 and singled out as one to watch as far back as 1979 when she landed on the cover of TIME magazine, bearing the weight of the lofty label “Hollywood’s Whiz Kids”. Roles in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders and The Cotton Club confirmed that she was an in-demand talent on her way to the top but after a slew of lackluster, low-profile films, she was nearly forgotten. Fast-forward to 2002, the year Lane starred in the sizzling drama Unfaithful and just like that, she was back. Starring as an adulterous wife who tumbles into bed with Olivier Martinez’s handsome book dealer, she was unbelievably sexy at – gasp – 37, and earned her first Oscar nod. Since then, Lane has gone on to experience a career resurgence few could have predicted, starring in Under the Tuscan Sun, Must Love Dogs, Untraceable, Nights in Rodanthe and the forthcoming thriller Killshot, alongside fellow comeback kid Mickey Rourke.

Darren Aronofsky

This talented director with an ambitious, left-of-centre vision, bowled over audiences and critics with his multiple-award winning 1998 effort Pi, an eerie, labyrinthine thriller that follows a supremely paranoid mathematician as he attempts to figure out the meaning behind a 216-digit number. Darren Aronofsky’s next release, Requiem for a Dream, was an equally jumpy, sporadic effort, though this time he burrowed beneath the surface of addiction and showed an unflinching eye for the horrifying repercussions, leading Ellen Burstyn to a Best Actress Oscar nomination in the process. Quickly being billed as a visionary with only two major successes to show for it, Aronofsky then made The Fountain, a project in the works since 1999, which ultimately collapsed under the weight of its own lofty aspirations in a big way. But two years later, Aronofsky is again a contender, throwing his hat in the ring with The Wrestler, already a Golden Lion winner at the Venice Film Festival, and poised to exonerate the director from his grand flop and make us admire him anew.

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What do you think of this list – agree, disagree? Who came back in 2008 in a big way? Share your choices and discuss below!