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Philip Andre “Mickey” Rourke, Jr. (born September 16, 1952) is an American actor, screenwriter and retired boxer, who has appeared primarily as a leading man in action, drama, and thriller films. [1]

Mickey Rourke was born Phillip Andre Rourke, Jr., in Schenectady, New York in 1952. [2]

Living up to the title, Mickey Rourke will be absent from THE EXPENDABLES 2, the explosive extravaganza currently shooting with CON AIR director Simon West. [3]

Mickey Rourke originally aspired to careers as a pro baseball player and - later - a championship boxer, but did a 180 away from the ring and cut his chops as an actor instead. [4]

But Mickey Rourke is set to embark on what will be his most unusual and challenging role to date - a gay rugby player. [5]

EXCLUSIVE: Mickey Rourke is negotiating to star with Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken in Seven Psychopaths, the next film by In Bruges writer/director Martin McDonagh. [6]

Rourke came up through the prestigious Actor’s Studio in Manhattan and made the most of a small role as a “rock ‘n roll arsonist” in Body Heat (1981, starring William Hurt). [...] When the film was slammed by critics, Rourke defended director Michael Cimino and snubbed all interview requests. [7]

The actor wants to play Wales international Gareth Thomas in film about the story of his life. [5]

The 59-year-old actor - who played the role of Tool in the first Sylvester Stallone-directed action film - will not be taking part in the sequel, with Deadline.com reporting the pay cheque was not big enough for him to be involved in the Simon West-led project. [8]

In its obituary of poet Charles Bukowski, the screenwriter of Barfly (1987), "The New York Post" used a photo of Rourke as Henry Chinaski in the film instead of a photo of the poet himself. [...] Rourke went back to acting, but worked in relative obscurity until he won a Golden Globe Award for his role as Randy "The Ram" Robinson in The Wrestler (2008). [9]

Rourke launched his career with small roles in 1941 (1979) and Heaven’s Gate (1981) before gaining broader notice as a pyro expert in Body Heat (1981) and one of the raunchier leads in Barry Levinson ’s Diner (1982). [7]

A year later, his mother married Eugene Addis, a Miami Beach police officer, and moved to Miami Shores, Florida. [9]

These qualities, however, while career poison in the U.S., did nothing to hurt Rourke’s reputation in France, where filmgoers adored him. [4]

Sources:
[1] Mickey Rourke - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[2] Mickey Rourke - IMDb
[3] Mickey Rourke decides he’s Expendable after all, won’t be back for …
[4] Mickey Rourke | Latest News, Videos, Trailers, Photos, Biography …
[5] Mickey Rourke to take on his toughest role yet - as a gay, British …
[6] No ‘Expendables’ Sequel For Mickey Rourke; He’s In Talks For …
[7] Mickey Rourke: Biography from Answers.com
[8] Mickey Rourke | Mickey Rourke Out Of Expendables 2 | Contactmusic
[9] Mickey Rourke - Biography

Oakland last week wasn’t much of a problem for the Chiefs, who registered their first shutout of the Raiders in a game played in California in a 28-0 victory. [1]

The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. [2]

The San Diego Chargers are banged up heading into their crucial division matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night Football. [3]

The Kansas City Chiefs introduced Todd Haley as head coach on February 6, 2009. [4]

They joined the NFL during the AFL’NFL merger of 1970. [2]

The Chiefs lost that game but the fact that they won as many games in 2010 as they did the previous three years combined shows which direction this team is trending. [5]

In Haley’s first season as a coordinator, the Cardinals finished the season with the 5th ranked passing offense in the NFL and also set a franchise record with 32 passing touchdowns. [4]

Bobby McCray recaps all the NFL action from Week 8. [6]

Jon, Jaws, and Mike preview the Chargers’ trip to Kansas City to face the Chiefs. [7]

Ever since Denver Broncos QB Tim Tebow suddenly dropped to his knee to pray like the huge tool after the Broncos beat the Dolphins, folks have been mocking Tebow by doing their own poses and posting them on the internet. [3]

The Chiefs were the second AFL team (after the New York Jets) to defeat an NFL franchise in an AFL’NFL World Championship Game when they defeated the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV. [2]

Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens finished sixth in the NFC with 85 receptions for 1,180 yards and an NFL leading 13 touchdown receptions while fellow receiver Terry Glenn went over 1,000 yards receiving for the second consecutive season with 70 grabs for 1,047 yards (15.0 yard avg.) and six touchdowns. [4]

It was the next to last game of the 2008 regular season when the Miami Dolphins made their last trip to Arrowhead Stadium to face the Chiefs. [8]

The Monday Night Football game last year between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Diego Chargers at Arrowhead Stadium included a heavy dose of rain midway through the game. [...] The Kansas City Chiefs are exiting the week with one player on the injury report for Monday Night Football while the San Diego Chargers have 11 total players, three of whom have already been ruled out. [5]

Sources:
[1] Kansas City’s source for Chiefs football news | KansasCity.com
[2] Kansas City Chiefs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[3] Arrowhead Addict - A Kansas City Chiefs Fan Site - News, Blogs …
[4] Kansas City Chiefs Team Page at NFL.com
[5] Kansas City Chiefs Schedule, Roster, Stats, Blog Posts - NFL …
[6] Kansas City Chiefs | NFL Football Schedule, Stats, News, Pictures …
[7] Kansas City Chiefs Football Clubhouse - ESPN
[8] Kansas City Chiefs on Yahoo! Sports - News, Scores, Standings …

Straddling the line between fall and winter, plenty and paucity, life and death, Halloween is a time of celebration and superstition. [1]

The largest selection of Halloween costumes, costume accessories and Halloween decorations available anywhere. [2]

The Puritans of New England, for example, maintained strong opposition to the holiday and it was not until the mass Irish and Scottish immigration during the 19th century that the holiday was introduced to the continent in earnest. [3]

From how-to tips for making your own Halloween decorations to Halloween costumes ideas and suggestions, we’ve got a coffin load of information! [4]

Currently you’re able to find the nation’s premier haunted houses, costumes, pumpkins, crafts, monsters, Halloween party information and more. [5]

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes. [1]

Halloween (or Hallowe’en), a contraction of All-Hallows-Even (”evening”), is an annual holiday observed on October 31, which commonly includes activities such as trick-or-treating, attending costume parties, carving jack-o’-lanterns, bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, playing pranks, telling scary stories, and watching horror films. [3]

It is thought to have originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off roaming ghosts. [...] As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups as well as the American Indians meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. [...] In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers than about ghosts, pranks and witchcraft. [1]

Use our RETAIL STORE LOCATOR to check stock availability at your local Halloween Express retail store. [2]

Needless to say, Halloween has always been our favorite holiday and coming up with unique Halloween decorations, tips and ideas is not always that easy. [4]

The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of “bobbing” for apples that is practiced today on Halloween. [1]

As a member of the Halloween Online Family of Web Sites, Halloween Tips was created to be as informative as we could make it. [4]

Whether you’re looking for adult costumes, kids costumes, toddler costumes, teen costumes or Halloween decorations, we have everything you need for your celebration. [2]

Sources:
[1] Halloween ‘ History.com Articles, Video, Pictures and Facts
[2] Halloween Costumes and Costume Accessories for Adults, Teens and Kids.
[3] Halloween - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[4] Halloween Tips - Halloween 2011
[5] Halloween 2011 | Halloween.com

Conan O’Brien, Jack Black, Matthew Broderick, Ben Stiller and Billie Joe Armstrong from the rock band Green Day performed Sunday in Ferrell’s honor, joined by Molly Shannon, Tim Meadows and Andy Samberg from Ferrell’s “SNL” days. [1]

Conan O’Brien was one of several late night hosts who couldn’t wait to make a parody of the thoroughly baffling commercial. [2]

To commemorate his one-year anniversary at TBS, Conan O’Brien is taping his late-night show Conan at New York’s Beacon Theater next week, but that milestone won’t be the only cause for celebration. [3]

Conan O'Brien grew up in a large, Irish Catholic family in Massachusetts. [4]

With that kind of comedy, Ferrell had accomplished something amazing, Ifill said. [1]

Describing itself as a traditional late-night talk show, Conan draws its comedy from recent news stories, political figures and prominent celebrities, as well as aspects of the show itself. [5]

WASHINGTON - Will Ferrell, who refined his impersonation of President George W. Bush on “Saturday Night Live” and later took his presidential act to Broadway, was awarded the nation’s top humor prize Sunday night. [1]

Collect articles and browse other HuffPost members’ collections. [2]

Each episode of Conan is 60 minutes in length, including commercials, and typically features two celebrity interviews and a following musical performance or stand-up comedy act. [5]

Beginning in 1996, O’Brien and the Late Night writing team were nominated annually for the Emmy Award for Best Writing in a Comedy or Variety Series, winning the award for the first and only time in 2007. [6]

Vulture hears that O’Brien will be officiating an on-air wedding during one of those episodes, and it’s the sort of marriage ceremony that couldn’t have taken place back when O’Brien used to tape his show in New York: a legal wedding between two men. [3]

In 1989, O’Brien and his fellow SNL writers received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy or Variety Series. [6]

Andy and the Orange Bullet make it to NYC! [7]

While on a writers’ strike from Saturday Night Live following the 1987′88 season, O’Brien put on an improvisational comedy revue in Chicago with fellow SNL writers Bob Odenkirk and Robert Smigel called Happy Happy Good Show. [6]

Conan is an American late-night talk show airing each Monday through Thursday on TBS in the United States. [5]

Sources:
[1] Conan O’Brien, Jack Black, others salute Will Ferrell as he wins …
[2] Conan Makes Herman Cain’s Campaign Ad Even Better (VIDEO)
[3] Conan O’Brien Will Officiate a Gay Wedding on His Show Next Week …
[4] Conan O’Brien - IMDb
[5] Conan (TV series) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[6] Conan O’Brien - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[7] Conan O’Brien Presents: Team Coco @ TeamCoco.com

Mark Rothko was one of the most highly-regarded painters to emerge from the New York art scene after the end of World War II. [1]

Mark Rothko (Marcus Rothkowitz, Mark Rotkovich) was born in Dvinsk, Vitebsk Province, Russian Empire (now Daugavpils, Latvia). [...] While visiting a friend at the Art Students League of New York, he saw students sketching a model. [2]

Heavily influenced by mythology and philosophy, he was insistent that his art was filled with content, and brimming with ideas. [...] A fierce champion of social revolutionary thought, and the right to self-expression, Rothko also expounded his views in numerous essays and critical reviews. [3]

During his career he became less and less interested in representational art and more drawn to art as a transcendent experience. [1]

Even his self-described “beginning” at the Art Students League of New York was not whole-hearted commitment; two months after he returned to Portland to visit his family, he joined a theater group run by Clark Gable’s wife, Josephine Dillon. [4]

Between the mid-1920s and the end of the 1940s, Rothko’s paintings evolved from distorted figures and pseudo-primitive figures to less distinct figures known as “multiforms,” then finally to the large, rectangular fields of color for which he became famous. [1]

It was due to Weber that Rothko began to see art as a tool of emotional and religious expression, and Rothko’s paintings from this era reveal a Weberian influence. [4]

There he found his niche in a crowd of like-minded artists (sometimes called “the Ten”) and he began painting. [1]

In 1928, Rothko exhibited works with a group of other young artists at the appropriately named Opportunity Gallery. [2]

His academic success in high school led to a scholarship at Yale University, but he dropped out during his second year and moved to New York City in 1923. [1]

Here, amongst other issues, he and many other artists fought for a municipal gallery, which was eventually granted. [3]

In 1928, Rothko exhibited works with a group of other young artists at the appropriately named Opportunity Gallery. [...] Mark Rothko, born Marcus Rothkowitz (September 25, 1903 ‘ February 25, 1970), was a Russian -born American painter. [4]

Sources:
[1] Mark Rothko: Biography from Answers.com
[2] Mark Rothko, his paintings, life, and biography
[3] The Art Story - The Life, Works, and Analysis of Mark Rothko
[4] Mark Rothko - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia