[msb-alumni] Film, Stage, Tv Star Mickey Rooney Dies at 93

From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2014 15:27:50 -0400
BlankFilm, stage, TV star Mickey Rooney, 93, dies By Anthony McCartney 
Associated Press LOS ANGELES Mickey Rooney, the pint-size, precocious actor 
and all-around talent whose more than 80-year career spanned silent 
comedies, Shakespeare, Judy Garland musicals, Andy Hardy stardom, television 
and the Broadway theater, died Sunday at age 93. Los Angeles police 
Commander Andrew Smith said Rooney was with his family when he died at his 
North Hollywood home. Smith said there was nothing suspicious and it was not 
a police case. He said he had no additional details on the circumstances of 
his passing. Rooney started his career in his parents' vaudeville act while 
still a toddler, and broke into movies before age 10. He was still racking 
up film and TV credits more than 80 years later. I always say, 'Don't retire 
inspire,'? he told the Associated Press in March 2008. There's a lot to be 
done. Among his roles in recent years was a part as a guard in the smash 
2006 comedy A Night at the Museum. Rooney won two special Academy Awards for 
his film achievements, and reigned from 1939 to 1942 as the No. 1 
moneymaking star in movies, his run only broken when he joined the Army. 
Rooney's personal life matched his film roles for color. His first wife was 
the glamorous and taller Ava Gardner, and he married seven more times, 
fathering seven sons and four daughters. Through divorces, money problems 
and career droughts, he kept returning with customary vigor. I've been 
coming back like a rubber ball for years, he commented in 1979, the year he 
returned with a character role in The Black Stallion, drawing an Oscar 
nomination as supporting actor, one of four nominations he earned over the 
years. That same year he starred with Ann Miller in a revue called Sugar 
Babies, a hokey mixture of vaudeville and burlesque. It opened in New York 
in October 1979, and immediately became Broadway's hottest ticket. Rooney 
received a Tony nomination (as did Miller) and earned millions during his 
years with the show. Rooney was among the last survivors of Hollywood's 
studio era, which his career predated. Rooney signed a contract with MGM in 
1934 and landed his first big role as Clark Gable as a boy in Manhattan 
Melodrama. A loanout to Warner Bros. brought him praise as an exuberant Puck 
in Max Reinhardt's 1935 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which also 
featured James Cagney and a young Olivia de Havilland. Rooney was soon 
earning $300 a week with featured roles in such films as Riff Raff, Little 
Lord Fauntleroy, Captains Courageous, The Devil Is a Sissy, and most 
notably, as a brat humbled by Spencer Tracy's Father Flanagan in Boys Town. 
The big break came with the wildly popular Andy Hardy series, beginning with 
A Family Affair. I knew 'A Family Affair' was a B picture, but that didn't 
stop me from putting my all in it, Rooney wrote. A funny thing happened to 
this little programmer: released in April 1937, it ended up grossing more 
than half a million dollars nationwide. Rooney's peppy, all-American charm 
was never better matched than when he appeared opposite his friend and 
fellow child star Garland in such films as Babes on Broadway and Strike up 
the Band, musicals built around a plot of Let's put on a show! One of them, 
the 1939 Babes in Arms, brought him his first Oscar nomination. He was also 
in such dramas as The Human Comedy, 1943, which gained Rooney his second 
Oscar nomination as best actor, and National Velvet, 1944, with Elizabeth 
Taylor. But Rooney became a cautionary tale for early fame. He earned a 
reputation for drunken escapades and quickie romances and was unlucky in 
both money and love. In 1942 he married for the first time, to Gardner, the 
statuesque MGM beauty. He was 21, she was 19. I'm 5 feet 3, but I was 6 feet 
4 when I married Ava, he said in later years. The marriage ended in a year, 
and Rooney joined the Army in 1943, spending most of his World War II 
service entertaining troops. Over the years, Rooney also made hundreds of 
appearances on TV talk and game shows, dramas and variety programs. He 
starred in three series: The Mickey Rooney Show (1954), Mickey (1964) and 
One of the Boys (1982). In 1983, the Motion Picture Academy presented Rooney 
with an honorary Oscar for his 60 years of versatility in a variety of 
memorable film performances. That matched the 1938 special award he shared 
with Deanna Durbin for bringing to the screen the spirit and personification 
of youth. .
[msb-alumni] Film, Stage, Tv Star Mickey Rooney Dies at 93

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