Mickey Rooney

Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney (1945)
Born	Joseph Yule, Jr. September 23, 1920 (1920-09-23) (age 91) Brooklyn, New York, US
Occupation	Actor, comedian, vaudevillian
Years active	1922–present
Spouse	Ava Gardner (1942–43) Betty Jane Rase (aka B.J. Baker) (1944–48) Martha Vickers (1949–1951) Elaine Devry (1952–58) Carolyn Mitchell (1958–66) Marge Lane (1966–67) Carolyn Hockett (1969–75) Jan Chamberlin (1978–present)
Website
mickeyrooney.com

Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule, Jr., September 23, 1920) is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award. Working as a performer since he was a small child, he was a superstar as a teenager for the films in which he played Andy Hardy, and he has had one of the longest careers of any actor, to date spanning almost 90 years actively making films in ten decades, from the 1920's to 2010's. He is the last surviving male star from 1930s Hollywood. For a younger generation of fans, he gained international fame for his leading role as Henry Dailey in The Family Channel's The Adventures of the Black Stallion, as well as the film itself.

Early life

Rooney was born Joseph Yule, Jr. in Brooklyn, New York, to a vaudeville family. His father, Joseph Yule, was from Scotland, and his mother, Nellie W. (née Carter), was from Kansas City, Missouri. Both of his parents were in vaudeville, appearing in a Brooklyn production of A Gaiety Girl when Joseph, Jr. was born. He began performing at the age of 17 months as part of his parents' routine, wearing a specially tailored tuxedo.^[1]

When he was 14 months old, unknown to everyone, he crawled on stage wearing overalls and a little harmonica around his neck. He sneezed and his father, Joe Sr., grabbed him up, introducing him to the audience as Sonny Yule. He felt the spotlight on him and has described it as his mother's womb. From that moment on, the stage was his home.

His father was a womanizer and heavy drinker, leaving the family when Joe Jr. was only three. While Joe Sr. was traveling, Joe Jr. and his mother moved from Brooklyn, New York to Kansas City, Missouri to live with his aunt. While his mother was reading the entertainment newspaper, Nellie was interested in getting Hal Roach to approach the young star to participate in the Our Gang series in Hollywood. Roach offered $5 a day to Joe Jr. while the other young stars were paid five times more.

As he was getting bit parts in films; he was working with other established film stars such as Joel McCrea, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Jean Harlow. While selling newspapers around the corner, he also entered into Hollywood Professional School, where he went to school with dozens of unfamiliar students such as: Joseph A. Wapner, Nanette Fabray, Judy Garland, Lana Turner, among many others, and later Hollywood High School, where he graduated in 1938.

Career

Mickey McGuire

The Yules separated in 1924 during a slump in vaudeville, and in 1925, Nell Yule moved with her son to Hollywood, California, where she managed a tourist home. Fontaine Fox had placed a newspaper ad for a dark-haired child to play the role of "Mickey McGuire" in a series of short films. Lacking the money to have her son's hair dyed, Mrs. Yule took her son to the audition after applying burnt cork to his scalp.^[2] Joe got the role and became "Mickey" for 78 of the comedies, running from 1927 to 1936, starting with Mickey's Circus, released September 4, 1927.^[3] These had been adapted from the Toonerville Trolley comic strip, which contained a character named Mickey McGuire. Joe Yule briefly became Mickey McGuire legally in order to trump an attempted copyright lawsuit (if it was his legal name, the film producers did not owe the comic strip writers royalties). His mother also changed her surname to McGuire in an attempt to bolster the argument, but the film producers lost. The litigation settlement awarded damages to the owners of the cartoon character, as well as compelled the twelve-year-old actor to refrain from calling himself by the name Mickey McGuire on and off screen.^[4]

Rooney later claimed that, during his Mickey McGuire days, he met cartoonist Walt Disney at the Warner Brothers studio, and that Disney was inspired to name Mickey Mouse after him,^[5] although Disney always said that he had changed the name from "Mortimer Mouse" to "Mickey Mouse" on the suggestion of his wife.^{[citation needed]}

During an interruption in the series in 1932, Mrs. Yule made plans to take her son on a ten-week vaudeville tour as McGuire, and Fox sued successfully to stop him from using the name. Mrs. Yule suggested the stage name of Mickey Looney for her comedian son, which he altered slightly to Rooney, a less frivolous version.^[2] Rooney did other films in his adolescence, including several more of the McGuire films, and signed with MGM in 1934. MGM cast Rooney as the teenage son of a judge in 1937's A Family Affair, setting Rooney on the way to another successful film series.

"Andy Hardy" and Judy Garland

Rooney with Judy Garland in Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938)

In 1937, Rooney was selected to portray Andy Hardy in A Family Affair (1937), which MGM had planned as a B-movie.^[2] Rooney provided comic relief as the son of Judge James K. Hardy, portrayed by Lionel Barrymore (although Lewis Stone would play the role of Judge Hardy in later films). The film was an unexpected success, and led to thirteen more Andy Hardy films between 1937 and 1946, and a final film in 1958. Rooney also received top billing as "Shockey Carter" in Hoosier Schoolboy (1937).

Also in 1937, Mickey made his first film alongside Judy Garland with Thoroughbreds Don't Cry. Garland and Rooney became close friends and a successful song and dance team. Besides three of the Andy Hardy films, where she portrayed Betsy Booth, a younger girl with a crush on Andy, they appeared together in a string of successful musicals, including the Oscar-nominated Babes in Arms (1939). During an interview in the documentary film, When the Lion Roars, Rooney describes their friendship:

"Judy and I were so close we could've come from the same womb. We weren't like brothers or sisters but there was no love affair there; there was more than a love affair. It's very, very difficult to explain the depths of our love for each other. It was so special. It was a forever love. Judy, as we speak, has not passed away. She's always with me in every heartbeat of my body."^[6]

Rooney's breakthrough role as a dramatic actor came in 1938's Boys Town opposite Spencer Tracy as Whitey Marsh, which opened shortly before his 18th birthday. Rooney was named the biggest box-office draw in 1939, 1940 and 1941.^[7] Unquestionably a well-known entertainer by the early 1940s Rooney, with Garland, was one of many celebrities caricatured in Tex Avery's 1941 Warner Bros. cartoon Hollywood Steps Out. As of 2011, Rooney is the only surviving entertainer depicted in the cartoon.

After the war

Rooney entertaining troops in 1945

In 1944, Rooney entered military service. He served more than 21 months, until shortly after the end of World War II. During and after the war he helped entertain the troops in America and Europe, and spent part of the time as a radio personality on the American Forces Network and earned the Bronze Star. After his return to civilian life, his career slumped. He appeared in a number of films, including Words and Music in 1948, which paired him for the last time with Garland on film (he appeared with her on one episode as a guest on her CBS variety series in 1963). He briefly starred in a CBS radio series, Shorty Bell, in the summer of 1948, and reprised his role as "Andy Hardy", with most of the original cast, in a syndicated radio version of The Hardy Family in 1949 and 1950 (repeated on Mutual during 1952).^[8]

His first television series, The Mickey Rooney Show: Hey, Mulligan (created by Blake Edwards with Rooney as his own producer), appeared on NBC television for thirty-two episodes between August 28, 1954 and June 4, 1955. In 1951, he directed a feature film for Columbia Pictures, My True Story starring Helen Walker. Rooney also starred as a ragingly egomaniacal television comedian in the live 90-minute television drama The Comedian, in the Playhouse 90 series on the evening of Valentine's Day in 1957, and as himself in a revue called The Musical Revue of 1959 based on the 1929 film The Hollywood Revue of 1929 which was edited into a film in 1960, by British International Pictures.

In 1958, Rooney joined Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra in hosting an episode of NBC's short-lived Club Oasis comedy and variety show. In 1960, Rooney directed and starred in The Private Lives of Adam and Eve, an ambitious comedy known for its multiple flashbacks and many cameos. In the 1960s, Rooney returned to theatrical entertainment. He still accepted film roles in undistinguished films, but occasionally would appear in better works, such as Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), and The Black Stallion (1979). One of Rooney's more controversial roles came in the highly acclaimed 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's where he played a stereotyped buck-toothed myopic Japanese neighbor (Mr. Yunioshi) of the main character, Holly Golightly. Despite Rooney's protests that he was congratulated for the role by Asians, that role would later be held up as one of the most notorious examples of Hollywood's history of stereotypical depictions of that racial group, evidenced in the film Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story when future Asian-American film star, Bruce Lee, was deeply offended seeing the film^{[citation needed]}.

On December 31, 1961, he appeared on television's What's My Line and mentioned that he had already started enrolling students in the MRSE (Mickey Rooney School of Entertainment). His school venture never came to fruition, but for several years he was a spokesman/partner in Pennsylvania's Downingtown Inn, a country club and golf resort.^{[citation needed]}

In 1966, while Rooney was working on the film Ambush Bay in the Philippines, his wife Barbara Ann Thomason (akas: Tara Thomas, Carolyn Mitchell), a former pin-up model and aspiring actress who had won 17 straight beauty contests in Southern California, was found dead in their bed. Beside her was her lover, Milos Milos, an actor friend of Rooney's. Detectives ruled it murder-suicide, which was committed with Rooney's own gun.^[9]

Rooney was awarded an Academy Juvenile Award in 1938, and in 1983 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted him their Academy Honorary Award for his lifetime of achievement. He was mentioned in the 1972 song "Celluloid Heroes" by The Kinks: "If you stomped on Mickey Rooney/ He'd still turn round and smile..."^{[citation needed]}

Character actor

Rooney on The Red Skelton Show, 1962.

In addition to his film roles, Rooney made numerous guest-starring roles as a character actor for nearly six decades, beginning with an episode of Celanese Theatre. The part led to other roles on such television series as Schlitz Playhouse, Playhouse 90, Producers' Showcase, Alcoa Theatre, Wagon Train, G.E. True Theater, Hennessey, The Dick Powell Theatre, Arrest and Trial, Burke's Law, Combat!, The Fugitive, Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, The Jean Arthur Show, The Name of the Game, Dan August, Night Gallery, The Love Boat, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, among many others.

Television, stage and The Black Stallion

Rooney made a successful transition to television and stage work. In 1961, he guest starred in the 13-week James Franciscus adventure–drama television series The Investigators on CBS. In 1963, he even entered The Twilight Zone, giving a one-man performance in the episode "The Last Night of a Jockey". In 1964, he launched another half-hour sitcom, Mickey, on ABC. The story line had "Mickey" operating a resort hotel in southern California. Son Tim Rooney appeared as Rooney's teenaged son on the program, and Emmaline Henry starred as Rooney's wife. It lasted 17 episodes, ending primarily due to the suicide of co-star Sammee Tong in October 1964.^[10]

He won a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award for his role in 1981's Bill. Playing opposite Dennis Quaid, Rooney's character was a mentally challenged man attempting to live on his own after leaving an institution. He reprised his role in 1983's Bill: On His Own, earning an Emmy nomination for the role.^[3]

Rooney did the voices for four Christmas TV animated/stop action specials: Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (1970), The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974), Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July (1979), and A Miser Brothers' Christmas (2008) — always playing Santa Claus. In 1970, he was approached by television producer Norman Lear to consider taking on the role of Archie Bunker in the upcoming CBS series, All in the Family. Like Jackie Gleason before him, Mickey rejected the role,^{[citation needed]} which ultimately went to Carroll O'Connor.

He continued to work on stage and television through the 1980s and 1990s, appearing in the acclaimed stage play Sugar Babies with Ann Miller beginning in 1979. He also starred in the short-lived sitcom, One of the Boys, along with 2 unfamiliar young stars, Dana Carvey and Nathan Lane, in 1982. He toured Canada in a dinner theatre production of The Mind with the Naughty Man in the mid-1990s. He played The Wizard in a stage production of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with Eartha Kitt at Madison Square Garden. Kitt was later replaced by Jo Anne Worley. In 1995 he starred with Charlton Heston, Peter Graves and Deborah Winters in the Warren Chaney docudrama America: A Call to Greatness.^[11] He also appeared in the documentary That's Entertainment! III.

Actor Mickey Rooney speaks at the Pentagon in 2000 during a ceremony honoring the USO.

Rooney voiced Mr. Cherrywood in The Care Bears Movie (1985), and starred as the Movie Mason in a Disney Channel Original Movie family film 2000's Phantom of the Megaplex. He had a guest spot on an episode of The Golden Girls as Sophia's boyfriend "Rocko", who claimed to be a bank robber. He voiced himself in the Simpsons episode "Radioactive Man" of 1995. In 1996–97, Mickey played Talbut on the TV series, Kleo The Misfit Unicorn produced by Gordon Stanfield Animation (GSA). He co-starred in Night at the Museum in 2006 with Dick Van Dyke and Ben Stiller.

After starring in one unsuccessful TV series and for turning down an offer on a huge TV series, Rooney finally hit the jackpot, at 70, when he was offering a starring role on The Family Channel's, The Adventures of the Black Stallion, where he reprised his role as Henry Dailey from the film of the same name, eleven years earlier. The show was based on a novel by Walter Farley. For this role, he had to travel all the way to Vancouver. Just like the film itself, the Black Stallion TV series, Rooney became one of the most beloved stars, that the show itself became an immediate hit with teenagers, young adults and people all over the world. The show was also seen in 70 countries. It also lost out to Harry and the Hendersons, when the show was nominated for a Young Artist Award in the "Best Off-Prime Time or Cable Family Series" category.^{[citation needed]}

Also starring on Black Stallion were Docs Keepin Time who played "The Black Stallion", but did not have a voice part in the series, despite appearing in every episode of the series, with an unfamiliar Canadian high school student, a fan of Rooney's films, a voice-over actor, a future acting instructor, and online radio host, Richard Ian Cox, in the role of Henry's teenaged traveler, Alec Ramsay. The on- and off-screen chemistry between Rooney and Cox was an immediate success story of 1990s television. Richard also had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with Mickey's real-life family, when not filming. For its three seasons on air, Rooney was nominated for a Gemini Award in the category of "Best Performance by an Actor in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role", but didn't win. By the end of the third season, Black Stallion's ratings were declining, the show was cancelled in 1993, after three seasons and 78 episodes.^{[citation needed]}

In December 2009 he appeared as a guest to a dinner party hosted by David Gest on the UK channel 4 show Come Dine With Me.^[12]

Current work

Rooney appeared in television commercials for Garden State Life Insurance Company in 1999, alongside his wife Jan. In commercials shown in 2007, he can be seen in the background washing imaginary dishes.

In 2003, Mickey and Jan Rooney began their association with Rainbow Puppet Productions, providing their voices to the 100th Anniversary production of "Toyland!" an adaptation of Victor Herbert's Babes in Toyland. He created the voice for the Master Toymaker while Jan provided the voice for Mother Goose. Since that time, they have created voices for additional Rainbow Puppet Productions including "Pirate Party" which also features vocal performances by Carol Channing. Both productions continue to tour theaters across the country.

He continues to work in film and tours with his wife in a multi-media live stage production called Let's Put On a Show! His first performance of this show after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack was in Bend, Oregon, in which Mickey and Jan requested the show begin with the singing of the "Star Spangled Banner" by Jan offstage with only the American Flag visible on stage.^{[citation needed]}

On May 26, 2007, he was grand marshal at the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival. Rooney made his British pantomime debut, playing Baron Hardup in Cinderella, at the Sunderland Empire Theatre over the 2007 Christmas period,^[13][14] a role he reprised in 2009 at the Milton Keynes theatre.^[15]

In 2008, Rooney starred as "Chief", a wise old ranch owner, in the independent family feature film Lost Stallions: The Journey Home, marking a return to starring in equestrian-themed productions for the first time since the 1990s TV show Adventures of the Black Stallion. Although they have acted together before, Lost Stallions: The Journey Home is the sole film to date in which he and Jan portrayed a married couple on screen.

Personal life

With wife, Jan, in 2000

Rooney has been married eight times. In the 1950s and 1960s, he was often the subject of comedians' jokes for his alleged inability to stay married. His current marriage, to Jan Chamberlin, has lasted more than 30 years which is longer than his previous seven marriages combined.

In 1942, he married Hollywood starlet Ava Gardner, but the two were divorced well before she became a star in her own right. While stationed in the military in Alabama in 1944, Rooney met and married local beauty queen Betty Jane Phillips. This marriage ended in divorce after he returned from Europe at the end of World War II. His subsequent marriages to Martha Vickers (1949) and Elaine Mahnken (1952) were also short-lived and ended in divorce. In 1958, Rooney married Barbara Ann Thomason, but tragedy struck when she was murdered in 1966. Falling into deep depression, he married Barbara's friend, Marge Lane, who helped him take care of his young children. The marriage lasted only 100 days. He was married to Carolyn Hockett from 1969 to 1974, but financial instability ended the relationship. Finally, in 1978, Rooney married Jan Chamberlin, his eighth wife. As of 2011^[update], they live in Westlake Village, California. Both are outspoken advocates for veterans and animal rights.

After battling drug addiction and a near bankruptcy caused by gambling and bad investments,^[16] Rooney became a born-again Christian in the 1970s, after an alleged unusual encounter with a busboy in a casino coffee shop.^{[dubious – discuss][5]} Rooney shared his religious beliefs on Jim and Tammy Bakker's Christian television show, The PTL Club.^[17]

Rooney's oldest child, Mickey Rooney, Jr., is a born-again Christian and has an evangelical ministry in Hemet, California.^[18] He and several of Rooney's other eight children have worked at various times in show business. One of them, actor Tim Rooney, died in 2006, aged 59.

On September 21, 2005, just days after the death of Liza Minnelli's ex-stepfather, Sid Luft, where he attended his service, Rooney celebrated his 85th birthday at the Regent Theater in Arlington, Massachusetts, where his wife appeared with him in a play titled Let's Put On A Show.

On September 23, 2010, Rooney celebrated his 90th birthday at Feinstein's at Loews Regency in the Upper East Side of New York City. Among the people who were attending the party were: Donald Trump, Regis Philbin, Nathan Lane, Tony Bennett and Jan Rooney, who threw the party for him.^[19] In December 2010 he was honored as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month.^[20]

On February 16, 2011, Rooney was granted a temporary restraining order against Christopher Aber, one of Jan Rooney's two sons from a previous marriage.^[21] On March 2, 2011 Rooney appeared before a special US Senate committee that was considering legislation to curb elder abuse. Rooney stated that he was financially abused by an unnamed family member. On March 27, 2011, all of Rooney's finances were permanently handed over to lawyers over the claim of missing money.^[22]

In April 2011, the temporary restraining order that Rooney was previously granted was voluntarily withdrawn as a result of a confidential settlement between Rooney and his stepson.^[23] Christopher Aber and Jan Rooney have denied all the allegations.^[24][25]

Filmography

Selected films

This is a selected list of Rooney's full-length films, both theatrical and made for television.

Year Title 1927 Orchids and Ermine 1932 The Beast of the City Sin's Pay Day High Speed Fast Companions My Pal, the King Officer Thirteen 1933 The Big Cage The Life of Jimmy Dolan The Big Chance Broadway to Hollywood The Chief The World Changes 1934 Beloved The Lost Jungle I Like It That Way Manhattan Melodrama Love Birds Half a Sinner Hide-Out Chained Blind Date Death on the Diamond 1935 The County Chairman Reckless The Healer A Midsummer Night's Dream Rendezvous Ah, Wilderness! 1936 Riffraff Little Lord Fauntleroy Down the Stretch The Devil is a Sissy 1937 A Family Affair Captains Courageous Slave Ship Hoosier Schoolboy Live, Love and Learn Thoroughbreds Don't Cry You're Only Young Once 1938 Love Is a Headache Judge Hardy's Children Hold That Kiss Lord Jeff Love Finds Andy Hardy Boys Town Stablemates Out West with the Hardys 1939 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The Hardys Ride High Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever Babes in Arms Judge Hardy and Son 1940 Young Tom Edison Andy Hardy Meets Debutante Strike Up the Band

Year Title 1941 Andy Hardy's Private Secretary Men of Boys Town Life Begins for Andy Hardy Babes on Broadway 1942 The Courtship of Andy Hardy A Yank at Eton Andy Hardy's Double Life 1943 The Human Comedy Thousands Cheer Girl Crazy 1944 Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble National Velvet 1946 Love Laughs at Andy Hardy 1947 Killer McCoy 1948 Summer Holiday Words and Music 1949 The Big Wheel 1950 Quicksand The Fireball He's a Cockeyed Wonder 1951 My Outlaw Brother The Strip 1952 Sound Off 1953 Off Limits All Ashore A Slight Case of Larceny 1954 Drive a Crooked Road The Atomic Kid 1955 The Bridges at Toko-Ri The Twinkle in God's Eye 1956 The Bold and the Brave Francis in the Haunted House Magnificent Roughnecks 1957 Operation Mad Ball Baby Face Nelson 1958 A Nice Little Bank That Should Be Robbed Andy Hardy Comes Home 1959 The Big Operator The Last Mile 1960 Platinum High School The Private Lives of Adam and Eve 1961 King of the Roaring 20's – The Story of Arnold Rothstein Breakfast at Tiffany's Everything's Ducky 1962 Requiem for a Heavyweight 1963 It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World 1964 The Secret Invasion 1965 Twenty-Four Hours to Kill How to Stuff a Wild Bikini 1966 The Devil In Love Ambush Bay 1968 Skidoo 1969 The Extraordinary Seaman The Comic 80 Steps to Jonah

Year Title 1970 Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County 1971 Mooch Goes to Hollywood The Manipulator 1972 Evil Roy Slade Richard Pulp 1973 The Godmothers 1974 Thunder County Rachel's Man Journey Back to Oz (voice) The Year Without a Santa Claus 1975 Ace of Hearts From Hong Kong with Love 1976 Find the Lady 1977 The Domino Principle Pete's Dragon 1978 The Magic of Lassie 1979 The Black Stallion Arabian Adventure 1981 The Fox and the Hound (voice) Odyssey of the Pacific 1982 The Emperor of Peru 1983 Bill: On His Own 1984 It Came Upon the Midnight Clear 1985 The Care Bears Movie (voice) 1986 Lightning, the White Stallion 1988 Bluegrass 1989 Erik the Viking Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland 1990 Home For Christmas 1991 My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys 1992 The Milky Life Sweet Justice Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker Little Nemo: Adventures In Slumberland Maximum Force 1993 The Legend of Wolf Mountain 1994 Revenge of the Red Baron The Outlaws: The Legend of O.B. Taggart Making Waves 1995 America: A Call to Greatness 1997 Killing Midnight 1998 The Face on the Barroom Floor Animals and the Tollkeeper Michael Kael vs. the World News Company Sinbad: The Battle of the Dark Knights Babe: Pig in the City 1999 Holy Hollywood The First of May 2000 Internet Love Phantom of the Megaplex 2001 Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure (voice) 2002 Topa Topa Bluffs 2003 Paradise 2005 Strike the Tent A Christmas Too Many 2006 The Thirsting To Kill a Mockumentary Night at the Museum 2007 The Yesterday Pool Bamboo Shark 2008 Lost Stallions: The Journey Home 2010 Gerald 2011 The Muppets

Short subjects

Year Title 1926 Not to Be Trusted 1927 Mickey's Circus Mickey's Pals Mickey's Eleven Mickey's Battles 1928 Mickey's Parade Mickey in School Mickey's Nine Mickey's Little Eva Mickey's Wild West Mickey in Love Mickey's Triumph Mickey's Babies Mickey's Movies Mickey's Rivals Mickey the Detective Mickey's Athletes Mickey's Big Game Hunt 1929 Mickey's Great Idea Mickey's Menagerie Mickey's Last Chance Mickey's Brown Derby Mickey's Northwest Mounted

Year Title 1929 Mickey's Initiation Mickey's Midnite Follies Mickey's Surprise Mickey's Mix-Up Mickey's Big Moment Mickey's Strategy 1930 Mickey's Champs Mickey's Explorers Mickey's Master Mind Mickey's Luck Mickey's Whirlwinds Mickey's Warriors Mickey the Romeo Mickey's Merry Men Mickey's Winners Screen Snapshots Series 9, No. 24 Mickey's Musketeers Mickey's Bargain 1931 Mickey's Stampede Mickey's Crusaders Mickey's Rebellion Mickey's Diplomacy Mickey's Wildcats Mickey's Thrill Hunters Mickey's Helping Hand Mickey's Sideline

Year Title 1932 Mickey's Busy Day Mickey's Travels Mickey's Holiday Mickey's Big Business Mickey's Golden Rule Mickey's Charity 1933 Mickey's Ape Man Mickey's Race Mickey's Big Broadcast Mickey's Disguises Mickey's Touchdown Mickey's Tent Show Mickey's Covered Wagon 1934 Mickey's Minstrels Mickey's Rescue Mickey's Medicine Man 1935 Pirate Party on Catalina Isle 1937 Cinema Circus 1938 Andy Hardy's Dilemma 1940 Rodeo Dough 1941 Meet the Stars #4: Variety Reel #2 1943 Show Business at War 1947 Screen Snapshots: Out of This World Series 1953 Screen Snapshots: Mickey Rooney – Then and Now 1958 Screen Snapshots: Glamorous Hollywood 1968 Vienna 1974 Just One More Time 1975 The Lion Roars Again 2008 Wreck the Halls

Television

Rooney has made countless appearances in TV sitcoms and television films. He has also lent his voice to many animation films. Only his most important work is listed in this section.

Year(s)	Title
1954–1955	The Mickey Rooney Show: Hey Mulligan
1957	The Comedian (on Playhouse 90)
1964–1965	Mickey
1981	Bill (won Emmy, Golden Globe, and Peabody Award for role of Bill)
1982	One of the Boys (canceled after 13 episodes)
1983	Bill: On His Own (sequel to 1981's "Bill" nominated for Emmy)
1990–1993	The Adventures of the Black Stallion

Marriages

“	Always get married early in the morning. That way, if it doesn't work out, you haven't wasted a whole day.	”
—Mickey Rooney[26]

Name	Years	Children
Ava Gardner	1942–1943
Betty Jane Rase	1944–1949	Mickey Rooney, Jr. (born July 3, 1945)
		Tim Rooney (January 4, 1947 – September 23, 2006)
Martha Vickers	1949–1951	Theodore Michael Rooney (born April 13, 1950)
Elaine Devry	1952–1958
Barbara Ann Thomason (akas: Tara Thomas, Carolyn Mitchell)	1958–1966	Kelly Ann Rooney (born September 13, 1959)
		Kerry Rooney (born December 30, 1960)
		Michael Joseph Rooney (born April 2, 1962)
		Kimmy Sue Rooney (born September 13, 1963)
Marge Lane	1966–1967
Carolyn Hockett	1969–1975	Jimmy Rooney (adopted from Carolyn's previous marriage) (born 1966)
		Jonelle Rooney (born January 11, 1970)
Jan Chamberlin	1978–present

References

1. ^ Life Is Too Short. Autobiography (1991). ISBN 978-0-679-40195-7
2. ^ ^{a b c} Current Biography 1942. H.W. Wilson Co. (January 1942). pp704-06. ISBN 99903-960-3-5.
3. ^ ^{a b} Mickey Rooney at the Internet Movie Database
4. ^ Server, Lee, Ava Gardner "Love is Nothing" (2006), St. Martin's Press
5. ^ ^{a b} Albin, Kira. Mickey Rooney: Hollywood, Religion and His Latest Show. GrandTimes.com Senior Magazine. 1995.
6. ^ Rooney, Mickey. "The Lion Reigns Supreme", MGM: When the Lion Roars, 1992 film
7. ^ "In 1939 [Rooney] became the top box-office star in the world, a title he held for three consecutive years." Branagh, Kenneth (narrator). 1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year. Turner Classic Movies, 2009.
8. ^ Dunning, John, On The Air: The Encyclopedia Of Old-Time Radio (1998), Oxford University Press
9. ^ Brockes, Emma. "Murder in Tinseltown". guardian.co.uk. http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2005/oct/17/theatre. Retrieved Wednesday, July 13, 2011. 
10. ^ Marx, Arthur, The Nine Lives Of Mickey Rooney (1986), Stein & Day
11. ^ America: A Call to Greatness at The Internet Movie Database, TV, 1995
12. ^ Come Dine With Me Celebrity Special
13. ^ Mickey Rooney makes panto debut, December 7, 2007
14. ^ "Mickey Rooney: The Mickey show." The Independent. December 14, 2008
15. ^ "West End Whingers". December 6, 2009
16. ^ Wyatt, Petronella (September 12, 2007). "What's 5ft 3in, Has 7 Ex-Wives and a Temper Like a Volcano? Mickey Rooney." Daily Mail.
17. ^ Albert, James A. Jim Bakker: Miscarriage of Justice? Open Court Publishing, 1998, p. 6
18. ^ Sanderson, Nancy. "Legend's Son at Home in Hemet: Mickey Rooney Jr., in Show Business Since Childhood, Is Also Involved in Ministry."The Press-Enterprise (Hemet, California), May 22, 2001
19. ^ "Actor Mickey Rooney Turns 90 With Upper East Side Style"
20. ^ Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month
21. ^ Mickey Rooney granted restraining order against stepson. BBC news. retrieved 2/16/2011
22. ^ BBC News - Mickey Rooney lawyer to control finances
23. ^ "Mickey Rooney drops restraining order against stepson". TMZ news. Retrieved 4/6/2011]
24. ^ "Mickey Rooney Claims Elder Abuse: Actor's testimony to Congress helps spur bill for new crackdown" by Carole Fleck and Talia Schmidt. AARP Bulletin, March 2, 2011
25. ^ "Mickey Rooney: 'Elder Abuse Made Me Feel Trapped'" by Stephen M. Silverman, Thursday, March 3, 2011 12:30 PM EST
26. ^ http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/23571.html

Further reading

• Rooney, Mickey (1991). Life Is Too Short. (New York: Random House)
• Marx, Arthur (1988/reprint). The Nine Lives Of Mickey Rooney. (New York: Berkley Publishing Group)

External links

• mickeyrooney.com, Official Site Of Mickey Rooney
• Mickey Rooney at the Internet Movie Database
• Mickey Rooney at the Internet Broadway Database
• Mickey Rooney at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Mickey Rooney on the Phil Silvers Show
• "Mickey Rooney on America, Christ and Judy Garland: The Hollywood Legend Speaks Out." Montreal Mirror interview 1998

Persondata
Name	Rooney, Mickey
Alternative names	Yule, Joseph, Jr.
Short description	Actor
Date of birth	September 23, 1920
Place of birth	Brooklyn, New York, United States
Date of death
Place of death