Mickey Rourke unmasks his demons in new PETA book

From being one of the most popular and in-demand actors of the mid-1980′s, Mickey Rourke saw his whole life dissolve once he got into drugs.

Now, in PETA’s new book ‘One Can Make a Difference,’ the 57-year old, Oscar-nominated actor, and devoted dog lover has shared at least some of the pain that led to his fall.

“My stepfather used to crack my head, just because he felt like it. He was big and mean.” Mickey recalls. “And he was physically abusive to my mother…I hated that man!”

Such childhood oppression, plus some time at a local boxing club tempted Mickey to resolve all his problems with fights. And he freely admits that’s just what he did, “When I was an adult, I would fight anywhere, for anything. Look at me sideways and you’re gone. I was angry and crazy and ashamed of how I’d been treated, so I figured the way to fix this was to lash out.” Fox records him as saying.

Soon, the struggling actor was denied every job, simply because of his bad reputation. Depression set in, and Mickey watched both his life and his marriage [to model, Carre Otis] dissolve, and was considering suicide as the only way out.

“I don’t like to talk about it, ” he admits. “But when my wife walked out, she said ‘You need help!’ and she was right. One day I looked in the mirror and saw myself the way others saw me…and it scared the f*** out of me! I needed a shrink, and I’ve now barely missed therapy in over a decade. And that takes willpower!”

But Mickey credits a lot of his healing to his six rescue dogs, who became his new family;  “I had to look after them and watch out for them, which meant I couldn’t things that were no good for me,” he writes. “It’s not easy not to react to some things like I once did, but I’m a work in progress; Every day I remind myself to keep on that road.”

And that road now leads him to his next steady job — He’ll be co-starring as ‘Wiplash’ [seen here] in Iron Man II, which opens in May of next year.