Mickey Rooney
| Mickey Rooney | ||
 Rooney in 1945 | ||
| Background information | ||
| Born as: | Joseph Yule Jr. | |
| Born | Sep 23, 1920 New York City, U.S. | |
| Died | Apr 6, 2014 - age 94 Los Angeles, California, U.S. | |
| Spouse(s): | Ava Gardner (1942 - 1943) divorced Betty Jane Phillips (1944 - 1949) divorced Martha Vickers | |
| Children: | 9, Tim, Michael, Teddy, and Mickey Jr. | |
| Occupation: | Actor, producer, radio entertainer, vaudevillian | |
| Years active | 1922–2014 | |
| Website: | mickeyrooney.com | |
Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jr.; ✦September 23, 1920 – †April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a nine-decade career, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the silent-film era. He was the top box-office attraction from 1939 to 1941, and one of the best-paid actors of that era. At the height of a career marked by declines and comebacks, Rooney performed the role of Andy Hardy in a series of 16 films in the 1930s and 1940s that epitomized mainstream America's self-image.
At the peak of his career, between ages 15 and 25, he made 43 films and was one of MGM's most consistently successful actors. A versatile performer, he became a celebrated character actor later in his career. Laurence Olivier once said he considered Rooney "the best there has ever been." Clarence Brown, who directed him in two of his earliest dramatic roles in National Velvet and The Human Comedy, said Rooney was "the closest thing to a genius" with whom he had ever worked. He won a Golden Globe Award in 1982 and an Emmy Award in the same year for the title role in the television movie Bill and was awarded Academy Honorary Award in 1982.
Rooney first performed in vaudeville as a child actor and made his film debut at the age of 6. He played the title character in the "Mickey McGuire" series of 78 short films, from age 7 to 13. At 14 and 15, he played Puck in the play and subsequent film adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. At the age of 16, he began playing 'Andy Hardy', and gained first recognition at 17 as Whitey Marsh in Boys Town. At only 19, Rooney became the second-youngest Best Actor in a Leading Role nominee and the first teenager to be nominated for an Academy Award for his performance as Mickey Moran in 1939 film adaptation of coming-of-age Broadway musical Babes in Arms; he was awarded a special Academy Juvenile Award in 1939. Rooney received his second Academy Award nomination in the same category for his role as Homer Macauley in The Human Comedy.
Drafted into the military during World War II, Rooney served nearly two years entertaining over two million troops on stage and radio and was awarded a Bronze Star for performing in combat zones. Returning in 1945, he was too old for juvenile roles but too short at 5 ft 2 in (157 cm) for most adult roles and was unable to gain as many starring roles. However, numerous low-budget but critically well-received noir films had Rooney playing the lead during this period and the 1950s. Rooney's career was renewed with well-received supporting roles in films such as The Bold and the Brave (1956), Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Pete's Dragon (1977), and The Black Stallion (1979). For his roles in The Bold and the Brave and The Black Stallion, Rooney received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 1957 and 1980, respectively. In the early 1980s, he returned to Broadway in Sugar Babies, a role that earned him nominations for Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical. He made hundreds of appearances on TV, including dramas, variety programs, and talk shows.
Early life and acting background
Rooney was born Joseph Yule Jr. in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on September 23, 1920, the only child of Nellie W. Carter and Joe Yule. His mother was an American former chorus girl and burlesque performer from Kansas City, Missouri, while his father was a Scottish-born vaudevillian, who had emigrated to New York from Glasgow with his family at the age of three months. They lived in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn. When Rooney was born, his parents appeared together in a Brooklyn production of A Gaiety Girl. He later recounted in his memoirs that he began performing at the age of 17 months as part of his parents' routine, wearing a specially tailored tuxedo.
Career
- Wikipedia article: Mickey Rooney Career
Personal life
At the time of his death (April 6, 2014), Rooney was married to Jan Chamberlin Rooney, although they had separated in June 2012. He had nine children and two stepchildren, as well as 19 grandchildren and several great-grandchildren. Rooney had been addicted to sleeping pills, and overcame the addiction in 2000 when he was in his late 70s. In 1997, he was arrested on suspicion of beating his wife, Jan, but the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.
In the late 1970s, Rooney became a born-again Christian and was a fan of Pat Robertson.
On February 16, 2011, Rooney was granted a temporary restraining order against his stepson Christopher Aber and Aber's wife Christina. They were ordered to stay 100 yards from Rooney, his stepson Mark Rooney, and Mark's wife Charlene. Rooney claimed that he was a victim of elder abuse. On March 2, 2011, Rooney appeared before a special U.S. Senate committee that was considering legislation to curb elder abuse, testifying about the abuse he claimed to have suffered at the hands of family members.[3] In 2011, all of Rooney's finances were permanently handed over to a conservator, who called Rooney "completely competent".
In April 2011, the temporary restraining order that Rooney was previously granted was replaced by a confidential settlement between Rooney and Aber. Aber and Jan Rooney denied all the allegations.
In May 2013, Rooney sold his home of many years, reportedly for $1.3 million, and split the proceeds with his wife, Jan.
Marriages
Rooney was married eight times, with six of the marriages ending in divorce. In 1942, he married his first wife, actress Ava Gardner, who at that time was still an obscure teenage starlet. They divorced the following year, partly because he had apparently been unfaithful. While stationed in the military in Alabama in 1944, Rooney met and married Betty Jane Phillips, who later became a singer under the name B. J. Baker. They had two sons together. This marriage ended in divorce after he returned from Europe at the end of World War II. His marriage to actress Martha Vickers in 1949 produced one son, but ended in divorce in 1951. He married actress Elaine Mahnken in 1952, and they divorced in 1958.
In 1958, Rooney married model and actress Barbara Ann Thomason (stage name Carolyn Mitchell). She was murdered in 1966 by stuntman and actor Milos Milos, who then shot himself. Thomason and Milos had an affair while Rooney was traveling, and police theorized that Milos had shot her after she wanted to end it. Rooney then married Barbara's best friend, Marge Lane, though the marriage lasted only 100 days. He was married to Carolyn Hockett from 1969 to 1975. In 1978, he married his eighth and final wife, Jan Chamberlin. Their marriage lasted until his death, a total of 34 years (longer than his seven previous unions combined). However, they separated in 2012.
Death
Rooney died of natural causes (including complications from diabetes) in Studio City on April 6, 2014, at the age of 93. A group of family members and friends, including Mickey Rourke, held a memorial service on April 18. A private funeral, organized by another set of family members, was held at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where he was buried, on April 19. His eight surviving children said in a statement that they were barred from seeing Rooney during his final years.
At his death, Vanity Fair called Rooney "the original Hollywood train wreck." Despite earning millions during his career, he had to file for bankruptcy in 1962 due to mismanagement of his finances. In his later years, Rooney had entrusted his finances to his stepson, who funneled Rooney's earnings to pay for his own lavish lifestyle. His millions in earnings had dwindled to an estate that was valued at only $18,000. He died owing medical bills and back taxes, and contributions were solicited from the public.
Legacy
Rooney was one of the last surviving actors of the silent-film era. His film career spanned 88 years, from 1926 to 2014, continuing until shortly before his death. During his peak years from the late 1930s to the early 1940s, Rooney was among the top box-office stars in the United States, and in 1939 was the biggest box-office draw, followed immediately by Tyrone Power.
He made 43 films between the ages of 15 and 25. Among those, his role as Andy Hardy became one of "Hollywood's best-loved characters," with Marlon Brando calling him "the best actor in films".
"There was nothing he couldn't do," said actress Margaret O'Brien. MGM boss Louis B. Mayer treated him like a son and saw in Rooney "the embodiment of the amiable American boy who stands for family, humbug, and sentiment," wrote critic and author David Thomson.
By the time Rooney was 20, his consistent portrayals of characters with youth and energy suggested that his future success was unlimited. Thomson also explains that Rooney's characters were able to cover a wide range of emotional types, and gives three examples where "Rooney is not just an actor of genius, but an artist able to maintain a stylized commentary on the demon impulse of the small, belligerent man:"
Rooney's Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) is truly inhuman, one of cinema's most arresting pieces of magic. ... His toughie in Boys Town (1938) struts and bullies like something out of a nightmare and then comes clean in a grotesque but utterly frank outburst of sentimentality in which he aspires to the boy community ... His role as Baby Face Nelson (1957) the manic, destructive response of the runt against a pig society.
By the end of the 1940s, Rooney was no longer in demand, and his career declined. "In 1938," he said, "I starred in eight pictures. In 1948 and 1949 together, I starred in only three." Film historian Jeanine Basinger observed while his career "reached the heights and plunged to the depths, Rooney kept on working and growing, the mark of a professional." Some of the films that reinvigorated his profile were Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), and The Black Stallion (1979). In the early 1980s, he returned to Broadway in Sugar Babies, and "found himself once more back on top".
Basinger tries to encapsulate Rooney's career:
- Rooney's abundant talent, like his film image, might seem like a metaphor for America: a seemingly endless supply of natural resources that could never dry up, but which, it turned out, could be ruined by excessive use and abuse, by arrogance or power, and which had to be carefully tended to be returned to full capacity. From child star to character actor, from movie shorts to television specials, and from films to Broadway, Rooney ultimately did prove he could do it all, do it well, and keep on doing it. His is a unique career, both for its versatility and its longevity.
Though not talked about openly, many fellow actors, directors and producers considered Rooney one of the most arrogant and self-centered actors in Hollywood, and he was considered very difficult to work with.
External links
- Mickey Rooney at the Internet Movie Database
- Mickey Rooney at the Turner Classic Movie Database
Filmography
- Wikipedia article: Mickey Rooney career
- Wikipedia article: Mickey Rooney
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Note: Mickey Rooney was a volunteer at the Hollywood Canteen |
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Note: Mickey Rooney was a volunteer at the USO |
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