Strangers raised more than $100,000 to keep Mickey Rourke housed. He told them to take it back. Weeks later, a Los Angeles judge ended his lease anyway.

The 73-year-old actor — Golden Globe winner, Oscar nominee, the wrecked heart of The Wrestler — lost possession of his Los Angeles home in March 2026. A county clerk granted his landlord a default judgment, confirming the rental agreement was canceled and the lease forfeited.Rourke had signed a lease on a three-bedroom house on Drexel Avenue, with rent starting at $5,200 and later rising to $7,000 a month. He fell months behind and owed landlord Eric Goldie $59,100, including legal fees, according to court papers.He was served a three-day notice to pay or vacate on Dec. 18 and did not comply. The eviction complaint followed on Dec. 29.
Mickey Rourke’s Lease ‘Forfeited’ in Default Judgment After His Failure to Pay Back Rent +2

The Fundraiser He Never Wanted

In January, his manager of more than a decade, Kimberly Hines, launched a GoFundMe. The campaign, “Support Mickey to Prevent Eviction,” urged fans to help him stay in his home.
The Hollywood Reporter

Donations poured in. The total passed six figures.

Then Rourke went on Instagram and detonated it. “If I needed money, I wouldn’t ask for no fucking charity,” he said, adding a line about a gun that was uglier still. He said he had no knowledge of the campaign.
Rolling Stone

Hines later admitted she had set it up. “If Mickey doesn’t want this help from people that want to support him and his fans, then that money will be returned,” she said.
Rolling Stone

The fundraiser was shut down. Rourke publicly urged donors to seek refunds.
Rolling Stone

Why He Lost Without a Fight

The most striking detail in the record is not the debt. It is the silence.

The judgment was entered by default — Rourke never responded to the lawsuit or appeared to defend himself within the time California law allows. He simply did not show up.
Rolling Stone

“Our client, Eric Goldie, a decorated veteran and Bronze Star medal recipient, waited nearly a year for unpaid rent and made multiple efforts to resolve the matter privately,” the landlord’s attorney said. Only after those efforts failed did he file.Rourke had already left the property. He was reported to be staying in a West Hollywood hotel while waiting on a Koreatown residence.
Rolling Stone
The Hollywood Reporter

The Year That Preceded It

He began renting the house in April 2025 — around the same time he was asked to leave the U.K.’s “Celebrity Big Brother.”ITV said he exited after using inappropriate sexual language toward housemate Ella Rae Wise and behaving aggressively toward Chris Hughes, following a formal warning earlier that week over his conduct toward JoJo Siwa.
Rolling Stone
ITV News

Rourke had told the 21-year-old singer, “If I stay longer than four days, you won’t be gay anymore.” She replied that she would still be gay and still be in a very happy relationship.
NBC News

He apologized. The work offers, notably, did not stop.

What We Know
March 2025: Rourke leases a three-bedroom Los Angeles home, rent later rising to $7,000/month
April 2025: Removed from “Celebrity Big Brother UK” over language and behavior
Dec. 18, 2025: Served three-day notice to pay $59,100 or vacate
Dec. 29, 2025: Landlord files unlawful detainer complaint
Early Jan. 2026: Manager launches GoFundMe; it passes $100,000
Jan. 2026: Rourke disowns the campaign; refunds urged
March 9, 2026: Default judgment entered; lease forfeited
2026: Rourke continues working, with The Roaring Game released and further projects announced
Why This Matters

Strip away the famous name and this is an ordinary American eviction file: back rent, a three-day notice, a default judgment against someone who stopped opening the mail.

That is the part that should land. Rourke’s films have grossed more than $1.9 billion worldwide. He has an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe. None of it insulated him from a $7,000 monthly rent he could not meet at 73.

There is also the harder question underneath the GoFundMe. A hundred thousand dollars from strangers was on the table, and a proud man refused it in the crudest possible terms. Pride is not a character flaw invented by celebrities. Every family that has watched an aging relative refuse help recognizes exactly what happened here.

And it happened in public, in court filings anyone can read.

Rourke is still working. He was on a film set in 2026, still cast for the weathered roles nobody else can play. The comeback he built once may yet hold.

But the house on Drexel Avenue belongs to someone else now — and the money that could have saved it was sent back, dollar by dollar, at his own insistence.