Mickey Rooney (born September 23, 1920) is an American film
actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances
span nearly his entire lifetime. During his career 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.
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, and 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]
The Yules separated in 1924 during a slump in vaudeville, and in
1925, Nell Yule moved with her son to Hollywood, 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 movie 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.
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.
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[6]
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).
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.cartoonHollywood Steps Out. As of 2010, Rooney is the only surviving entertainer depicted in the cartoon.
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. 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, also known as Hey Mulligan (which Rooney also produced), appeared on NBC television for 32 episodes from August 1954 through June 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 movie 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 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 movies, 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. Producer Richard Shepherd apologized for this in the 45th
anniversary DVD, though Director Blake Edwards and Rooney himself do
not.
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.
In 1966, while Rooney was working on the film Ambush Bay in the Philippines,
his wife Barbara Ann Thomason (aka 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.
He won a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award for his role in 1981's Bill. Playing opposite Dennis Quaid,
Rooney 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 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.
Rooney 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, where he and his wife Jan
requested the show begin with the singing of the Star Spangled Banner
by Jan off stage 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,[11][12] a role he reprised in 2009 at the Milton Keynes theatre.[13] He appeared on BBC Points West dressed in a pair of shorts and socks.
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. Also, although they have acted together many times before, Lost Stallions: The Journey Home is the first film where Rooney and his real-life wife Jan Rooney portray a married couple on screen.[14]
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, and he joked about it himself ("My marriage contract reads:
'To whom it may concern.'"[citation needed]) But his current marriage has lasted more than 30 years.
In 1942, he married Hollywood starletAva 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 Rase. 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 Thompson, 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 2010[update], they live in Westlake Village, California. Both are outspoken advocates for veterans and animal rights.
Rooney's oldest child, Mickey Rooney, Jr., is also a born-again Christian, and has an evangelical ministry in Hemet, California.[17] 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 at age 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."[18]
On September 23, 2010, Rooney celebrated his 90th Birthday at Fienstein's and 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 Rooney's wife Jan, who threw the party for him. He also put on a show with wife Jan.[19]
Rooney has made countless appearances in TV sitcoms and TV movies.
He has also lent his voice to many animation films. Only his most
important work is listed in this section.
^
"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." -Mickey Rooney, "The Lion Reigns
Supreme", MGM: When the Lion Roars, 1992.
^ "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.
