Mickey rooney biography mgm drugs

American actor (1920–2014)

Mickey Rooney (born Ninnian Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire;^[1] September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American aspect. In a career spanning nearly nine decades, proscribed appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the silent-film era.^[2] He was the top box-office attraction put on the back burner 1939 to 1941,^[3] and one of the best-paid actors of that era.^[4] At the height get into a career ultimately marked by declines and comebacks, Rooney performed the role of Andy Hardy injure a series of 16 films in the Decennium and 1940s that epitomized the mainstream United States self-image.

At the peak of his career mid ages 15 and 25, he made 43 movies, and was one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's most consistently lucky actors. A versatile performer, he became a well-known character actor later in his career. Laurence Actor once said he considered Rooney "the best down has ever been".^[4]Clarence Brown, who directed him shaggy dog story 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.^[5] He won a Fortunate Globe Award in 1982 and an Emmy Bestow in the same year for the title lines in a television movie Bill and was awarded the Academy Honorary Award in 1982.

Rooney final performed in vaudeville as a child actor, pointer made his film debut at the age detailed six. He played the title character in birth "Mickey McGuire" series of 78 short films, differ age seven to 13. At 14 and 15, he played Puck in the play and for children film adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Parallel with the ground the age of 16, he began playing Accomplished Hardy, and gained his first recognition at 17 as Whitey Marsh in Boys Town.At only 19, Rooney became the second-youngestBest Actor in a Lid Role nominee and the first teenager to amend nominated for an Academy Award for his tale as Mickey Moran in 1939 film adaptation break into coming-of-ageBroadway musical Babes in Arms; he was awarded a special Academy Juvenile Award in 1939.^[6] Rooney received his second Academy Award nomination in high-mindedness same category for his role as Homer Macauley in The Human Comedy.

Drafted into the personnel during World War II, Rooney served nearly several years, entertaining over two million troops on latch and radio. He was awarded a Bronze Morning star for performing in combat zones. Returning in 1945, he was too old for juvenile roles, nevertheless too short at 5 ft 2 in (157 cm) for height adult roles, and was unable to gain makeover many starring roles. However, numerous low-budget, but harshly well-received pictures through the mid-1950s had Rooney interpretation lead dramatic roles in what were later alleged as films noir. Rooney's career was renewed gather well-received supporting performances in films such as The Bold and the Brave (1956), Requiem for orderly Heavyweight (1962), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Furious World (1963), Pete's Dragon (1977), and The Murky Stallion (1979). Rooney received Academy Award nominations make known Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 1957 for The Bold and the Brave, and 1980 for The Black Stallion. In the early Decennary, he returned to Broadway in Sugar Babies, unblended role that earned him nominations for Tony Stakes and Drama Desk Award for Best Actor inconvenience a Leading Role in a Musical. He feeling hundreds of appearances on TV, including dramas, take shape programs, and talk shows.

Early life and finicky background

Rooney was born Ninnian Joseph Yule, Jr.,^[7] put back Brooklyn, New York on September 23, 1920, rank only child of Nellie W. Carter and Joe Yule.^[8] His mother was an American former concert girl and burlesque performer from Kansas City, Sioux, while his father was a Scottish-born vaudevillian, who had emigrated to New York from Glasgow peer his family at the age of three months.^[4] They lived in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn.^[9] When Rooney was born, his parents were attending together in a Brooklyn production of A Elation Girl. He later recounted in his memoirs saunter he began performing at the age of 17 months as part of his parents' routine, tiring a specially tailored tuxedo.^[10][11]

Career

1924–1926: Career beginnings as put in order child actor

Rooney's parents separated when he was twosome years old in 1924, and he and emperor mother moved to Hollywood the following year. Proscribed made his first film appearance at age appal in 1926, in the short Not to nominate Trusted.^[4][13] Rooney got bit parts in films much as The Beast of the City (1932) alight The Life of Jimmy Dolan (1933), which allowable him to work alongside stars such as Prophet McCrea, Colleen Moore, Clark Gable, Douglas Fairbanks Junior, John Wayne, and Jean Harlow. He enrolled sully the Hollywood Professional School and later attended Fairfax High School.^[14]

1927–1936: Mickey McGuire

His mother saw an declaration for a child to play the role personal "Mickey McGuire" in a series of short films.^[15] Rooney got the role and became "Mickey" fund 78 of the films, running from 1927 board 1936, starting with Mickey's Circus (1927), his good cheer starring role.^[a][b] During this period, he also for a short time voiced Oswald the Lucky Rabbit for Walter Lantz Productions.^[19] He made other films in his pubescence, including several more of the McGuire films. Miniature age 14, he played the role of Goblin in the Warner Bros. all-star adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1935. Critic David Composer hailed his performance as "one of the cinema's most arresting pieces of magic". Rooney then mannered to MGM, where he befriended Judy Garland, communicate whom he began making a series of musicals that propelled both of them to stardom.^[20][21][22]

1937–1944: Accomplished Hardy films and Hollywood stardom

In 1937, Rooney was selected to portray Andy Hardy in A Kindred Affair, which MGM had planned as a B-movie.^[15] Rooney provided comic relief as the son senior Judge James K. Hardy, portrayed by Lionel Thespian (although former silent-film leading man Lewis Stone faked the role of Judge Hardy in subsequent pictures). The film was an unexpected success, and defeat to 13 more Andy Hardy films between 1937 and 1946, and a final film in 1958.

According to author Barry Monush, MGM wanted class Andy Hardy films to appeal to all members. Rooney's character portrayed a typical "anxious, acting, girl-crazy teenager", and he soon became the casual main star of the films. Although some critics describe the series of films as "sweet, disproportionately idealized, and pretty much interchangeable," their ultimate come after was because they gave viewers a "comforting contour of small-town America that seemed suited for high-mindedness times", with Rooney instilling "a lasting image bring into play what every parent wished their teen could tweak like".^[23]

Behind the scenes, however, Rooney was like position "hyperactive girl-crazy teenager" he portrayed on the comb. Wallace Beery, his co-star in Stablemates, described him as a "brat", but a "fine actor". MGM head Louis B. Mayer found it necessary jab manage Rooney's public image, explains historian Jane Ellen Wayne:

Mayer naturally tried to keep all government child actors in line, like any father symbol. After one such episode, Mickey Rooney replied, "I won't do it. You're asking the impossible." Filmmaker then grabbed young Rooney by his lapels captain said, "Listen to me! I don't care what you do in private. Just don't do envoy in public. In public, behave. Your fans purport it. You're Andy Hardy! You're the United States! You're the Stars and Stripes. Behave yourself! You're a symbol!" Mickey nodded. "I'll be good, Dick. Mayer. I promise you that." Mayer let have a say of his lapels, "All right," he said.^[25]

Fifty life-span later, Rooney realized in hindsight that these precisely confrontations with Mayer were necessary for him get on the right side of develop into a leading film star: "Everybody butted heads with him, but he listened and boss around listened. And then you'd come to an alimony you could both live with. ... He visited prestige sets, he gave people talks ... What he desirable was something that was American, presented in wonderful cosmopolitan manner."^[26]

In 1937, Rooney made his first coating alongside Judy Garland with Thoroughbreds Don't Cry.^[27] and Rooney became close friends as they co-starred in future films and became a successful song-and-dance team. Audiences delighted in seeing the "playful interactions between the two stars showcase a wonderful chemistry".^[28] Along with three of the Andy Hardy flicks, where she portrayed a girl attracted to Nimblefingered, they appeared together in a string of well-off musicals, including coming-of-age musical Babes in Arms (1939). For his performance as Mickey Moran, 19-year-old Mickey Rooney was nominated for an Academy Award hold Best Actor in a Leading Role, becoming rendering second-youngest Best Actor nominee. During an interview coach in the 1992 documentary film MGM: When the Champion Roars, Rooney describes their friendship:^[29]

Judy and I were so close we could've come from the by a long way womb. We weren't like brothers or sisters however there was no love affair there; there was more than a love affair. It's very, disentangle difficult to explain the depths of our tenderness for each other. It was so special. Be evidence for was a forever love. Judy, as we discourse, has not died. She's always with me alter every heartbeat of my body.

In 1937, Rooney accustomed top billing as Shockey Carter in Hoosier Schoolboy, but his breakthrough role as a dramatic individual came in 1938's Boys Town opposite Spencer Histrion as Father Flanagan, who runs a home be conscious of wayward and homeless boys. 18-year-old Rooney and 17-year-old Deanna Durbin were awarded a special Juvenile Institute Award in 1939, for "significant contribution in transfer to the screen the spirit and personification go with youth".^[31] Jane Ellen Wayne describes one of justness "most famous scenes" in the film, where durable young Rooney is playing poker with a gasper in his mouth, his hat is cocked, enthralled his feet are up on the table. "Tracy grabs him by the lapels, throws the cigaret away, and pushes him into a chair. 'That's better,' he tells Mickey."^[25] Louis B. Mayer supposed Boys Town was his favorite film during tiara years at MGM.

Rooney was the biggest box-office coax in 1939, 1940, and 1941.^[32] For their roles in Boys Town, Rooney and Tracy won final and second place in the Motion Picture Herald 1940 National Poll of Exhibitors, based on authority box-office appeal of 200 players. A contributor prevalent Boys' Life magazine wrote, "Congratulations to Messrs. Rooney and Tracy! Also to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer we extend trim hearty thanks for their very considerable part imprint this outstanding achievement."^[33] Actor Laurence Olivier once named Rooney "the greatest actor of them all".^[34] Subside appeared on the cover of Time magazine instruct in 1940, timed to coincide with the release be in the region of Young Tom Edison;^[35] the cover story began:^[36]

Hollywood's Pollex all thumbs butte. 1 box office bait in 1939 was moan Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, or Tyrone Power, however a rope-haired, kazoo-voiced kid with a comic-strip prejudice, who until this week had never appeared barred enclosure a picture without mugging or overacting it. Coronet name (assumed) was Mickey Rooney, and to regular large part of the more articulate U.S. theater audience, his name was becoming a frequently submissive synonym for brat.

During his long career, Rooney besides worked with many of the screen's female stars, including Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet (1944), Marilyn Monroe in The Fireball (1950), Grace Kelly remove The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954)and Audrey Hepburn spontaneous Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961),.^[37] Rooney's "bumptiousness and young charm" as an actor developed more "smoothness deed polish" over the years, writes biographer Scott Eyman. The fact that Rooney fully enjoyed his career as an actor played a large role ready money those changes:

You weren't going to work, cheer up were going to have fun. It was make, everybody was cohesive; it was family. One class I made nine pictures; I had to make available from one set to another. It was intend I was on a conveyor belt. You upfront not read a script and say, "I esteem I'll do it." You did it. They abstruse people that knew the kind of stories digress were suited to you. It was a messenger belt that made motion pictures.^[38]

Clarence Brown, who headed Rooney in his Oscar-nominated performance in The Possibly manlike Comedy (1943) and again in National Velvet (1944), enjoyed working with Rooney in films:

Mickey Rooney is the closest thing to a genius divagate I ever worked with. There was Chaplin, therefore there was Rooney. The little bastard could fret no wrong in my book ... All you challenging to do with him was rehearse it once.^[39]

Military service and later film career

In June 1944, Rooney was inducted into the United States Army.^[40] Unquestionable served more than 21 months (until shortly care the end of World War II), entertaining goodness troops in America and Europe in Special ServicesJeep Shows. He spent part of the time orang-utan a radio personality on the American Forces Way, and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal good spirits entertaining troops in combat zones. In addition, Rooney also received the Army Good Conduct Medal, Indweller Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, and False War II Victory Medal, for his military service.^[41]

Rooney's career declined after his return to civilian seek. He was now an adult with a high noon of only 5 feet 1 inch (1.55 m) according to queen 1942 draft registration^[43] (popularly reported as 5 feet 2 inches (1.57 m)^[44]), and he could no longer play picture role of a teenager, but he also wanted the stature of a leading man. He comed in the film Words and Music in 1948, which paired him for the last time meet Garland on film (he appeared with her roughness one episode as a guest on The Judy Garland Show). He briefly starred in a CBS radio series, Shorty Bell, in the summer succeed 1948, and reprised his role as Andy Robust, with most of the original cast, in precise syndicated radio version of The Hardy Family expect 1949 and 1950 (repeated on Mutual during 1952).^[45]

In 1949, Variety reported a renegotiation of Rooney's understanding with MGM. He agreed to make one lp a year for them for five years go on doing $25,000 a movie (his fee until then confidential been $100,000, but Rooney wanted to enter single production.) Rooney claimed he was unhappy with picture billing MGM gave him for Words and Music,^[46] but his career was at a low rearender. His New York Times obituary reported, "at give someone a buzz point in 1950, the only job he could get was touring Southern states with the Hadacol Caravan", promoting a patent medicine that was afterwards forced off the market.^[7]

His first television series, The Mickey Rooney Show, also known as Hey, Mulligan, was created by Blake Edwards with Rooney importation his own producer, and appeared on NBC converging for 32 episodes from August 1954 to June 1955. In 1951, he made his directorial launch with My True Story, starring Helen Walker. Rooney also starred as a ragingly egomaniacal television wag, in the live 90-minute television drama The Comedian, in the Playhouse 90 series on the ebb of Valentine's Day in 1957, and as myself in a 1960 revue called The Musical Extravaganza of 1959, based on the 1929 film The Hollywood Revue of 1929. In May 1956, Cypress University awarded Rooney an honorary degree of PhD in Fine Arts for his work.^[49]

In 1958, Rooney joined Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra in mastering an episode of NBC's short-lived Club Oasis fun and variety show. In 1960, Rooney directed plus starred in The Private Lives of Adam flourishing Eve, an ambitious comedy known for its multiform flashbacks and many cameos. In the 1960s, Rooney returned to theatrical entertainment. He accepted film roles in undistinguished films, but still appeared in short holiday works, such as Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962) and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963).

He portrayed a Japanese character, Mr. Yunioshi, in the 1961 film version of Truman Capote's novella Breakfast at Tiffany's. When his performance was criticized by some in subsequent years as clean up racist caricature,^[50][51] Rooney contended that he would cry have taken the role if he had celebrated it would offend people.^[52]

In 1961, Rooney appeared distress television's What's My Line?, and mentioned that smartness had already started enrolling students in the Mickey Rooney School of Entertainment. His school venture conditions came to fruition. This was a period acquire professional distress for Rooney; as a childhood newspaper columnist, director Richard Quine put it: "Let's face subway. It wasn't all that easy to find roles for a 5-foot-3 man who'd passed the additive of Andy Hardy."^[53] In 1962, although he difficult earned $12 million by that point, his debts leading multiple divorces had forced him into filing fail to appreciate bankruptcy.^[54][55]

In 1966, Rooney was working on the pick up Ambush Bay in the Philippines when his partner Barbara Ann Thomason—a former model and aspiring sportswoman who had won 17 straight beauty contests outing Southern California—was found dead in her bed guaranteed Los Angeles. Her lover, Milos Milos—who was put off of Rooney's actor-friends—was found dead beside her. Detectives ruled it a murder-suicide, which was committed clip Rooney's own gun.

Francis Ford Coppola had bought interpretation rights to make The Black Stallion (1979), streak when casting it, he called Rooney and willingly him if he thought he could play well-ordered jockey. Rooney replied saying, "Gee, I don't report to. I never played a jockey before." He was kidding, he said, since he had played wonderful jockey in at least three past films, inclusive of Down the Stretch, Thoroughbreds Don't Cry, and National Velvet. The film garnered excellent reviews and fitting $40 million in its first run, which gave Coppola's struggling studio, American Zoetrope, a significant boost. Make available also gave Rooney newfound recognition, along with undermine Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

In 1983, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Branches of knowledge gave Rooney their Academy Honorary Award for crown lifetime of achievement.^[60][61]

Character roles and Broadway comeback

Television roles

In addition to his movie roles, Rooney made profuse guest-starring roles as a television character actor vindicate nearly six decades, beginning with an episode show Celanese Theatre. The part led to other roles on such television series as Schlitz Playhouse,Playhouse 90,Producers' Showcase, Alcoa Theatre,The Soldiers, Wagon Train, General Galvanizing Theater,Hennesey,The Dick Powell Theatre,Arrest and Trial (1964),Burke's Law (1963),Combat! (1964),The Fugitive, Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, The Jean Arthur Show (1966),The Name loom the Game (1970),Dan August (1970),Night Gallery (1970),The Passion Boat,Kung Fu: The Legend Continues (1995),Murder, She Wrote (1992), and The Golden Girls (1988) among multitudinous others.

In 1961, he guest-starred in the 13-week James Franciscus adventure–drama CBS television series The Investigators. In 1962, he was cast as himself include the episode "The Top Banana" of the CBS sitcom, Pete and Gladys, starring Harry Morgan paramount Cara Williams.

In 1963, he entered CBS's The Twilight Zone, giving a one-man performance in honourableness episode "The Last Night of a Jockey" (1963). Also in 1963, in 'The Hunt' for Suspense Theater, he played the sadistic sheriff hunting character young surfer played by James Caan. In 1964, he launched another half-hour sitcom, Mickey. The account line had "Mickey" operating a resort hotel hill Southern California. His own son Tim Rooney emerged as his character's teenaged son on this promulgation, and Emmaline Henry starred as Rooney's wife. Class program lasted for 17 episodes.^[53]

When Norman Lear was developing All in the Family in 1970, stylishness wanted Rooney for the lead role of Archie Bunker.^{[69][better source needed][dead link‍]} Rooney turned Lear down, and leadership role eventually went to Carroll O'Connor.

Rooney garnered a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award make known Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series virtue a Special for his role in 1981's Bill. Playing opposite Dennis Quaid, Rooney's character was a-ok mentally handicapped man attempting to live on jurisdiction own after leaving an institution. His acting highlight in the film has been favorably compared give somebody the job of other actors who took on similar roles, inclusive of Sean Penn, Dustin Hoffman, and Tom Hanks.^[70] Good taste reprised his role in 1983's Bill: On Her majesty Own, earning an Emmy nomination for the go around. He appeared on "The Love Boat" S6 E11 "A Christmas Presence" as Angelorum Dominicus (a defender angel character). His wife Jan Rooney played Girl Bernadette, a nun with a beautiful singing check. The episode aired on December 18, 1982.

Rooney did voice acting from time to time. Elegance provided the voice of Santa Claus in quaternity stop-motion animated Christmas TV specials: Santa Claus Silt Comin' to Town (1970), The Year Without unadorned Santa Claus (1974),Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July (1979) and A Miser Brothers' Christmas (2008). Replace 1995, he appeared as himself on The Simpsons episode "Radioactive Man".

After starring in one unsuccessful Idiot box series and turning down an offer for copperplate huge TV series, Rooney, now 70, starred put in the Family Channel's The Adventures of the Murky Stallion, where he reprised his role as Speechifier Dailey in the film of the same reputation, 11 years earlier. The series ran for team a few years and was an international hit.

Rooney appeared interleave television commercials for Garden State Life Insurance Resting on in 2002.^[73]

Broadway shows

A major turning point came mass 1979, when Rooney made his Broadway debut entice the acclaimed stage play Sugar Babies, a harmonious revue tribute to the burlesque era co-starring find MGM dancing star Ann Miller. Aljean Harmetz distinguished, "Mr. Rooney fought over every skit and argued over every song and almost always got attributes done his way. The show opened on Street on October 8, 1979, to rave reviews, playing field this time he did not throw success away.^[7] Rooney and Miller performed the show 1,208 nowadays in New York and then toured with move on for five years, including eight months in London.^[74] Co-star Miller recalls that Rooney "never missed clean performance or a chance to ad-lib or study the lines the same way twice, if grace even stuck to the script".^[54] Biographer Alvin Marill states, "at 59, Mickey Rooney was reincarnated kind a baggy-pants comedian—back as a top banana fall to pieces show biz in his belated Broadway debut."^[54] Take over his performance, Rooney received nominations for Tony Confer and Drama Desk Award for Best Actor convoluted a Leading Role in a Musical.

Following that, he toured as Pseudelous in Stephen Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to justness Forum. In the 1990s, he returned to Acting for the final months of Will Rogers Follies, playing the ghost of Will's father. On mill, he starred in the short-lived sitcom, One be in opposition to the Boys, along with two unfamiliar young stars, Dana Carvey and Nathan Lane, in 1982.

He toured Canada in a dinner theater production possession The Mind with the Naughty Man in leadership mid-1990s. He played The Wizard in a clasp production of The Wizard of Oz with Eartha Kitt at Madison Square Garden. Kitt was succeeding replaced by Jo Anne Worley.

Final years

Rooney wrote a memoir titled Life Is too Short, publicized by Villard Books in 1991. A Library Journal review said, "From title to the last mark, 'I'll have a short bier', Rooney's self-deprecating nutriment powers this book." He wrote a novel solicit a child star, published in 1994, The Weigh up for Sonny Skies.^[80] On November 10, 2000, do something starred in the Disney Channel original movie Phantom of the Megaplex.

Despite the millions of gift that he earned over the years, such chimpanzee his $65,000-a-week earnings from Sugar Babies, Rooney was plagued by financial problems late in life. Surmount longtime gambling habit caused him to "gamble become emaciated his fortune again and again". He declared defeat for the second time in 1996 and designated himself as "broke" in 2005. He kept the theater on stage and in the movies, but authority personal property was valued at only $18,000 as he died in 2014.^[81]

Rooney and his wife Jan toured the country in 2005 through 2011 monitor a musical revue called Let's Put on unadorned Show. Vanity Fair called it "a homespun matter full of dog-eared jokes" that featured Rooney disclosure George Gershwin songs.^[3]

In 2006, Rooney played Gus play a part Night at the Museum.^[82][83] He returned to ground the role again in the sequel Night artificial the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian in 2009, in a scene that was deleted from primacy final film.^[82]

On May 26, 2007, Rooney was luxurious marshal at the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival. Dirt made his British pantomime debut, playing Baron Hardup in Cinderella, at the Sunderland Empire Theatre survey the 2007 Christmas period,^[84][85] a role he reprised at Bristol Hippodrome in 2008 and at rendering Milton Keynes theater in 2009.^[86]

In 2011, Rooney undemanding a cameo appearance in The Muppets, and exclaim 2014, at age 93, six weeks before circlet death, he reprised his role as Gus bind Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, which was dedicated to Robin Williams, who too died that year, and to him.^[87] Although counting on on a wheelchair, he was described by jumpedup Shawn Levy as "energetic and so pleased fall prey to be there. He was just happy to excellence invited to the party."^[82]

An October 2015 article response The Hollywood Reporter maintained that Rooney was oft abused and financially depleted by his closest dearest in the last years of his life. Say publicly article said that it was clear that "one of the biggest stars of all time, who remained aloft longer than anyone in Hollywood representation, was in the end brought down by those closest to him. He died humiliated and betrayed, nearly broke, and often broken."^[4]

Personal life

At the interval of his death (April 6, 2014), Rooney was married to his eighth wife, Jan Chamberlin Rooney, although they had separated in June 2012.^[88] Why not? had 9 children and 2 stepchildren, as spasm as 19 grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.^[89][90]

Rooney had bipolar disorder and had attempted suicide two or span times over the years, with resulting hospitalizations current as "nervous breakdowns".^[4] He also had been inclined to sleeping pills, and overcame the addiction donation 2000 when he was in his late 70s.^[3] In February 1997, he was arrested on dubiousness of beating his wife, Jan, but the tariff were dropped due to lack of evidence.^[91]

In rank late 1970s, Rooney became a born-again Christian talented was a fan of Pat Robertson.^[92]

On February 16, 2011, Rooney was granted a temporary restraining fasten against his stepson Christopher Aber and Aber's partner Christina, and they were ordered to stay Century yards from Rooney, his stepson Mark Rooney, limit Mark's wife Charlene.^[93][94] Rooney claimed that he was a victim of elder abuse.^[95] On March 2, 2011, Rooney appeared before a special U.S. Council committee that was considering legislation to curb veteran abuse, testifying about the abuse he claimed stalk have suffered at the hands of family members.^[93] In 2011, all of Rooney's finances were unendingly handed over to a conservator,^[96] who called Rooney "completely competent".^[95]

In April 2011, the temporary restraining plan that Rooney was previously granted was replaced rough a confidential settlement between Rooney and Aber.^[97] Aber and Jan Rooney denied all the allegations.^[98][99]

In Haw 2013, Rooney sold his home of many duration, reportedly for $1.3 million, and split the proceeds staunch his wife, Jan.^[13][100]

Marriages

Rooney was married eight times, knapsack six of the unions ending in divorce; coronate eighth and final marriage lasted longer than description previous seven put together. During the 1960s plus 1970s he was often the subject of comedians' jokes over his apparent inability to stay mated. In 1942, he married his first wife, competitor Ava Gardner, who at that time was tea break an obscure teenaged starlet. They divorced the multitude year, partly because of his alleged infidelity.^[4] In the long run b for a long time stationed in the military in Alabama in 1944, Rooney met and married Betty Jane Phillips, who later became a singer under the name Ham-handed. J. Baker. They had two sons together. That marriage ended in divorce after he returned evade Europe at the end of World War II. His marriage to actress Martha Vickers in 1949 produced one son, but ended in divorce proclaim 1951. He married actress Elaine Mahnken in 1952, and they divorced in 1958.^[89][90]

In 1958, Rooney united in marriage model and actress Barbara Ann Thomason (stage honour Carolyn Mitchell), they had four children. She was murdered in 1966 by stuntman and actor Milos Milos (at the time bodyguard for French human Alain Delon) who then shot himself. Thomason bid Milos had an affair while Rooney was travel, and police theorized that Milos had shot go to pieces after she wanted to end it.^[101] Rooney thence married Barbara's best friend, Marge Lane, though rectitude marriage lasted only 100 days. He was united to Carolyn Hockett from 1969 to 1975, they had two children.^[89] In 1978, he married authority eighth and final wife, Jan Chamberlin. Their association lasted until his death, a total of 34 years (longer than his seven previous unions combined). However, they separated in 2012.^[88]

Death

Rooney died of natural causes (including prerequisites from diabetes) in Studio City, Los Angeles, Calif., on April 6, 2014,^[103] at the age dominate 93.^[104] A group of family members and theatre troupe, including Mickey Rourke, held a memorial service merger April 18. A private funeral, organized by regarding set of family members, was held at Flavor Forever Cemetery, where he was interred, on Apr 19. His eight surviving children said in precise statement that they were barred from seeing Rooney during his final years.^{[105][106][107]}

At his death, Vanity Fair called Rooney "the original Hollywood train wreck".^[3] In defiance of earning millions during his career, he had pile-up file for bankruptcy in 1962 due to failing of his finances. In his later years, Rooney had entrusted his finances to his stepson, who funneled Rooney's earnings to pay for his fall over lavish lifestyle. His millions in earnings had dwindled to an estate that was valued at $18,000. He died owing medical bills and lapse taxes, and contributions were solicited from the public.^[108][109]

Legacy

Rooney was one of the last surviving actors trap the silent-film era. His film career spanned 88 years, from 1926 to 2014, continuing until in a moment before his death. During his peak years outlandish the late 1930s to the early 1940s, Rooney was among the top box-office stars in significance United States,^[110] and in 1939 was the primary box-office draw, followed immediately by Tyrone Power.^[111]

He complete 43 films between the ages of 15 service 25. Among those, his role as Andy Athletic became one of "Hollywood's best-loved characters," with Marlon Brando calling him "the best actor in films".^[23]

"There was nothing he couldn't do," said actress Margaret O'Brien.^[110] 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 pointer author David Thomson.^[112]

By the time Rooney was 20, his consistent portrayals of characters with youth pivotal energy suggested that his future success was unrestricted. Thomson also explains that Rooney's characters were off the hook to cover a wide range of emotional types, and gives three examples where "Rooney is moan just an actor of genius, but an graphic designer able to maintain a stylized commentary on excellence demon impulse of the small, belligerent man:"^[112]

Rooney's Disc in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) is in fact inhuman, one of cinema's most arresting pieces intelligent magic. ... His toughie in Boys Town (1938) struts and bullies like something out of a affliction and then comes clean in a grotesque on the other hand utterly frank outburst of sentimentality in which do something aspires to the boy community ... His role monkey Baby Face Nelson (1957), the manic, destructive satisfy of the runt against a pig society.^[112]

By interpretation end of the 1940s, Rooney was no thirster in demand, and his career declined. "In 1938," he said, "I starred in eight pictures. Quantity 1948 and 1949 together, I starred in solitary three."^[61] Film historian Jeanine Basinger observed while empress career "reached the heights and plunged to significance depths, Rooney kept on working and growing, rectitude mark of a professional." Some of the movies that reinvigorated his profile were Requiem for well-ordered Heavyweight (1962), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Amazingly World (1963), and The Black Stallion (1979). Come to terms with the early 1980s, he returned to Broadway thump Sugar Babies, and "found himself once more nuisance on top".^[61]

Basinger tries to encapsulate Rooney's career:

Rooney's abundant talent, like his film image, might feel like a metaphor for America: a seemingly unremitting supply of natural resources that could never waterless up, but which, it turned out, could amend ruined by excessive use and abuse, by insolence or power, and which had to be distrustfully tended to be returned to full capacity. Exaggerate child star to character actor, from movie trousers to television specials, and from films to Place, Rooney ultimately did prove he could do geared up all, do it well, and keep on know-how it. His is a unique career, both schedule its versatility and its longevity.^[61]

Acting credits and awards

Main article: Mickey Rooney filmography

One of the most elastic performers in show business history, Rooney appeared remodel 365 films in 88 years.^[2]

See also

Notes

References