~~April 7, 2014~~

Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule, Jr.; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances spanned nearly his entire lifetime.

He received multiple awards, including a Juvenile Academy Award, an Honorary Academy Award, two Golden Globes and an Emmy Award. Working as a performer since he was a child, he was a superstar as a teenager for the films in which he played Andy Hardy, and he had one of the longest careers of any actor, spanning 92 years actively making films in ten decades, from the 1920’s to the 2010’s. 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.

Until his death in April 2014, Rooney was one of the last surviving stars who worked in the silent film era. He was also the last surviving cast member of several films in which he appeared during the 1930’s and 1940’s.

Early life

Rooney was born Joseph Yule, Jr. in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. His father, Joe Yule (born Ninnian Joseph Ewell), was from Glasgow, 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.

When he was fourteen months old, unknown to everyone, he crawled onstage 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 described it as his mother’s womb. From that moment on, the stage was his home.

While Joe Sr. was traveling, Joe Jr. and his mother moved from Brooklyn to Kansas City to live with his aunt. While his mother was reading the entertainment newspaper, Nellie was interested in getting Hal Roach to approach her son 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, Colleen Moore, Clark Gable, 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.

Read more/Full Article/Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Rooney

~~Obituary~~

Actor Mickey Rooney, one of Hollywood’s brightest stars in the 1930’s and 1940’s, died Sunday in California, the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office said. He was 93.

The diminutive 5-foot, 2-inch Rooney began his acting career shortly after his first birthday, appearing on vaudeville stages with his parents.

He became a star in the 1920’s when he began appearing in dozens of shorts based on the popular “Mickey McGuire” comic strip, but he shot into Hollywood’s stratosphere in his next film series, starting in more than a dozen “Andy Hardy” films between 1937 and 1946.

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Rooney also starred as half of one of the most famous screen partnerships in film history, teaming with actress Judy Garland in a number of the “Andy Hardy” films. He also starred with her in several Busby Berkeley musicals, including 1940’s “Strike up the Band” and “Babes on Broadway” a year later.

From 1939 through 1941, Rooney was the No. 1 box office draw in the United States. He earned an Oscar nomination for his role in the World War II film “The Bold and the Brave” in 1956.

Rooney’s personal life generated almost as much talk as his film career. He walked down the aisle eight times. His first wife was starlet Ava Gardner.

Rooney became a spokesman against elder abuse

Rooney’s financial struggles in his final years came to national attention when he asked a Los Angeles court to appoint a conservator to protect him from his stepson and stepdaughter.

He also took his case to Congress, delivering emotional testimony to a House committee in March 2011 in which he said family members took control of his life, making him “scared, disappointed, yes, and angry.”

Rooney made his audience laugh and cry when he implored senators to stop what experts call chronic emotional, physical, sexual and financial abuse of elderly Americans by family members and other caregivers.

“For years, I suffered silently. I didn’t want to tell anybody. I couldn’t muster the courage, and you have to have courage,” Rooney told Congress. “I needed help, and I knew I needed it. Even when I tried to speak up, I was told to shut up and be quiet.”

Rooney called on Congress to make elder abuse a specific crime. “I’m asking you to stop this elderly abuse. I mean to stop it. Now. Not tomorrow, not next month but now,” he shouted from the witness table.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Reva Goetz appointed attorney Michael Augustine as Rooney’s permanent conservator that month. Augustine immediately began seeking entertainment gigs for the aging performer, telling CNN that he had to revive his show business career quickly or would die “in very short order.”

“He’s available, he’s marketable, and we’re going to get him working,” Augustine said.

“Mr. Rooney’s parents put him on the vaudeville stage when he was 17 months old,” Augustine said in 2011. “Mr. Rooney has had an 88-year career. If Mr. Rooney were to not work, I think we would be attending Mr. Rooney’s funeral in very short order. It’s part of his fiber. He loves it. He is a showman.”

Another urgent reason to get work for Rooney was that he needed money, Augustine said. Once the highest-paid actor in Hollywood, Rooney’s bank accounts were depleted by his 90th birthday, he said.