[Dixielandjazz] R.I.P. Mickey Rooney - Variety, April 6, 2014

[Robert Ringwald]

Not Jazz but I am sure of interest to a lot of List Mates.

Mickey Rooney, Legendary Actor, Dies at 93
by Carmel Dagan
Variety, April 6, 2014
Mickey Rooney, the pint-sized actor who was one of MGM's giant box office attractions
in the late '30s and early '40s, died on Sunday. He was 93.
As adept at comedy as drama and an excellent singer and dancer, Rooney was regarded
as the consummate entertainer. During a prolific career on stage and screen that
spanned eight decades ("I've been working all my life, but it seems longer," he once
said), he was nominated for four Academy Awards and received two special Oscars,
the Juvenile Award in 1939 (shared with Deanna Durbin) and one in 1983 for his body
of work.
He also appeared on series and TV and in made for television movies, one of which,
"Bill," the touching story of a mentally challenged man, won him an Emmy. He was
Emmy nominated three other times. And for "Sugar Babies," a musical revue in which
he starred with Ann Miller, he was nominated for a Tony in 1980.
Both in his professional and personal life Rooney withstood many peaks and valleys.
He was married eight times and filed for bankruptcy in 1962, having gone through
the $12 million he had earned. And until middle age, he was never able to quite cast
off his popularity as a juvenile. Nonetheless, Rooney's highs more than compensated
for his lows. Via his "Andy Hardy" series of films, the five-foot-three Rooney came
to embody the virtues of small-town American boyhood. Those films and a series of
musicals in which he co-starred with Judy Garland made him the nation's biggest box
office attraction for three years running.
Born Joseph Yule Jr. in Brooklyn, Rooney made his stage debut at age 15 months in
his family's vaudeville act, Yule and Carter, as a midget in a tuxedo. His first
film role in the silent "Not to Be Trusted" also found him playing a midget. Even
as a child he demonstrated the ability to be a consummate clown and to move audiences
with his sentimental renditions of songs like "Pal of My Cradle Days." After his
parent's divorce, his mother Nell answered an ad placed by cartoonist Fontaine Fox,
who was looking for a child actor to play the comic strip character Mickey McGuire
in a series of silent comedy shorts. Rooney appeared in almost 80 episodes of the
popular serial, which continued to be churned out by Standard Film Corp. until 1932.
His mother wanted to legally change his name to McGuire, but when Fox objected, she
chose Rooney instead.
As a teenager, Rooney appeared in many popular films including Tom Mix Western "My
Pal the King" and, memorably, as Puck in Max Reinhardt's 1935 adaptation of "A Midsummer
Night's Dream." In 1934, MGM signed him to a week-to-week contract; his first success
was playing Clark Gable as a boy in "Manhattan Melodrama." He slowly climbed up the
star ladder, appearing in an adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's "Ah Wilderness" and in
"Little Lord Fauntleroy," "Captains Courageous" and "Boys Town," the latter two alongside
Spencer Tracy.
But it was "A Family Affair," a B-movie adaptation of the minor Broadway play "Skidding,"
that first brought the world the Hardy family and its irrepressible son Andy, "the
perfect composite of everybody's kid brother," according to critic Frank S. Nugent.
With the surprise success of "A Family Affair," the Hardy family, which included
Lewis Stone (replacing Lionel Barrymore) as Judge Hardy and Spring Byington as his
wife, embarked on a 15-film series of adventures in Americana. As star of one of
the most successful series in film history, Rooney was earning $150,000 a year before
his 20th birthday. In 1939, he was voted a special Oscar by the Academy of Motion
Pictures Arts and Sciences.
The following year he was nominated for best actor in the film musical version of
"Babes in Arms" with Judy Garland. "Mickey Rooney can act the legs off a centipede,"
wrote the critic for the Sunday Times in London. It was the first of several memorable
pairings with Garland including "Strike Up the Band," "Babes on Broadway" and "Girl
Crazy."
His performance in the 1943 version of William Saroyan's "The Human Comedy" brought
a second nomination, and he played his first adult role opposite Elizabeth Taylor
in "National Velvet."
>From 1944-46, Rooney served in the U.S. Army in the Jeep Theater, traveling 150,000
miles entertaining the troops and acting as a radio personality on the American Forces
Network.
But after the war, Rooney's attempt to make the transition from overaged teenager
to full-fledged adult was rocky at best. MGM tried to give him a new image, casting
him as a boxer in "Killer McCoy"; the musical version of "Ah Wilderness," called
"Summer Holiday," also failed to please. The very qualities that had made him an
appealing child star now began to grate. His energetic cockiness seemed forced and
egotistical in an adult. The vaudeville-style humor and sentimentality were deemed
annoying and precious by post-war audiences.
After settling his contract with MGM in a dispute over not being cast in the all-star
war drama "Battleground," Rooney made nightclub appearances as he rebuilt his career.
His freelance movie assignments, such as "Quicksand," sank without a trace. Only
"The Bold and the Brave," a WWII drama that brought him a third Oscar nomination,
met with any success. The final Andy Hardy drama, 1958's "Andy Hardy Comes Home,"
found him as a successful lawyer and new head of the family. It was the final and
least successful film in the series.
Rooney also tried directing, helming 1951's "My True Story," with Helen Walker as
a jewel thief, and 1960's "The Private Lives of Adam and Eve," a complex comedy in
which he also starred.
He experienced somewhat more success in television: He was nominated for Emmys for
dramatic work on "Playhouse 90" effort "The Comedian," considered a classic of golden-era
television, and "Eddie" on "Alcoa Theatre."He also appeared, less felicitously, in
the mid-'50s series "The Mickey Rooney Show: Hey, Mulligan" on NBC and "Mickey,"
which ran for a few months on ABC in 1964-65.
But in 1962, after filing for bankruptcy (the money had dwindled through his many
divorces and because of his fondness for betting on "the ponies"), he embarked on
a career as a character actor in films including "Breakfast at Tiffany's," "Requiem
for a Heavyweight" and "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." His controversial "Breakfast
at Tiffany's" role as Mr. Yunioshi, a buck-toothed broadly comic caricature of a
Japanese man, did not draw much ire when the film was first released but has since
been condemned as racist.
Off the bigscreen, he toured the country on a double bill with singer Bobby Van and
in summer stock.
In 1963, he appeared as the very first guest on "The Judy Garland Show" upon Garland's
insistence. And he appeared occasionally during the '60s on comedy/variety shows
such as "The Dean Martin Comedy Hour," "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" and "The
Carol Burnett Show." He guested on "Hollywood Squares" in 13 episodes between 1969
and 1976, and made 15 appearances on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" from
1970-73.
Norman Lear considered him for role of Archie Bunker, but Rooney rejected the project
just as Jackie Gleason had. Perhaps he felt the role of Santa Claus fit him better:
Rooney did the voices for four Christmas TV animated/stop action specials over the
years. He played Santa in "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) and also played St. Nick in a 1982 episode of "The Love
Boat."
In later years, Rooney continued to work hard and sometimes found notable success.
He received an Oscar nomination for supporting actor in 1980 for "The Black Stallion."
He won an Emmy for "Bill" in 1982 and drew an Emmy nom for reprising the role in
another CBS telepic two years later.
In addition to his success in the musical "Sugar Babies," he made popular stage appearances
in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" and on Broadway in "The Will
Rogers Follies."
In 1982 he starred in a short-lived sitcom, "One of the Boys," with Dana Carvey and
Nathan Lane. He guested on "The Golden Girls" in 1988, on "Murder, She Wrote" in
1993 and on "ER" in 1998; he starred in "The New Adventures of the Black Stallion,"
based on the film, for 57 episodes from 1990-93.
As he approached and then surpassed his 90th birthday, he labored on, appearing in
2006 in "Night at the Museum" and in 2011 in "The Muppets" feature, among several
other films.
In 1993 he published autobiography "Life Is Too Short"; the next year he came out
with a novel, Hollywood murder mystery "The Search for Sonny Skies."
Rooney had battled the major studios and the Screen Actors Guild seeking TV residuals
for his screen appearances before 1960 without success. In 2011 he revealed he had
suffered another form of victimization. He was granted a temporary restraining order
against his stepson, who was accused of withholding food and medicine and interfering
in Rooney's personal finances, which was subsequently replaced by a confidential
agreement.
In March 2011 he testified before a special Senate committee considering legislation
to curb abuses of senior citizens.
Rooney voyaged, as a special guest, as part of the TCM Classic Cruise in January
2013.
Rooney was married eight times, first and most famously to his MGM co-star Ava Gardner.
Son Tim Rooney died in 2006.
Mickey Rooney is survived by wife Jan Chamberlin, a singer he married in 1978; son
Mickey Rooney Jr. from his marriage to singer Betty Jane Rase; son Theodore Michael
Rooney from his marriage to actress Martha Vickers; daughters Kelly Ann Rooney, Kerry
Rooney and Kimmy Sue Rooney and son Michael Joseph Rooney from his marriage to Barbara
Ann Thomason; and daughter Jonelle Rooney and adopted son Jimmy Rooney from his marriage
to Carolyn Hockett.
-30


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www.ringwald.com
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