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Veteran actor Mickey Rooney dies aged 93

He first hit the screens during the silent era – and his last film was in 2011.

BELOVED US CHILD star and comic actor Mickey Rooney, one of Hollywood’s most enduring denizens whose career began in the silent film era, died yesterday. He was 93.

PA-8670191 AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

Rooney’s son Michael Joseph Rooney confirmed the actor’s death to the New York Times. The celebrity website TMZ said that Rooney died of natural causes.

Rooney rose to fame as the plucky diminutive lad in the successful “Andy Hardy” film series of the late 1930s and early 1940s.

He also had notable turns as Puck in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (1935) and in “National Velvet” (1944), opposite fellow child actor, 13-year-old Elizabeth Taylor.

PA-8649360 AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

More recently Rooney appeared in the 2006 comedy “Night at the Museum,” and in the 2011 movie “The Muppets.”

Credited with performances in more than 200 films, Rooney was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1982 for lifetime achievement.

While professionally successful, Rooney had a rocky personal life — married eight times, he legally separated from his last wife, Jan, in June 2012.

PA-8681381 Actress Martha Vickers and Actor Mickey Rooney pose together in Hollywood after his engagement, and just before his divorce from Betty Jane Rase became final. AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

A lifetime of acting

The son of vaudeville performers who divorced when he was three, Rooney was born Joe Yule Junior on September 23, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York.

He went on the road with his parents’ act at just two weeks old and accidentally became part of the act at 17 months.

Legend has it that a spotlight found the infant crouching underneath a shoeshine stand in the theater where his father was performing after he sneezed and blew his father’s cover.

Obit Mickey Rooney AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

Startled, the toddler stood up and blew into a toy instrument attached to a string around his neck, and peals of laughter broke out in the audience.

Rooney made his big screen debut a few years later, in the 1926 film “Not to Be Trusted,” and from 1927 to 1933, he went on to make about 50 silent comedies playing the comic-strip character Mickey McGuire.

Later, after meeting Judy Garland at an acting class, he appeared with the popular young actress in a string of successful films, including the “Andy Hardy” series.

“The audience and I are friends,” Rooney once said. “They allowed me to grow up with them. I’ve let them down several times, they’ve let me down several times. But we’re all family.”

Obit Mickey Rooney June 26, 1963: Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney put their heads together over a television script for their first onstage reunion in 18 years. AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

Having been the number-one US box office draw from 1939 to 1941, Rooney found it difficult to relaunch his career when he returned to Hollywood after being drafted during World War II.

But he eventually landed his own television show, “The Mickey Rooney Show,” in 1954, and in the 1960s, he made the rounds of nightclubs and the theater circuit.

He was also nominated for a Tony Award for best actor in 1980 for his Broadway role in “Sugar Babies.”

Film - Pulp - Michael Caine and Mickey Rooney PA Archive / Press Association Images PA Archive / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

Eight marriages

Speaking in an interview once about his multiple marriages, which included a trip down the aisle with sultry Hollywood legend Ava Gardner, Rooney quipped: “When I say ‘I do,’ the Justice of the Peace replies, ‘I know, I know.’ I’m the only man in the world whose marriage license reads, ‘To Whom It May Concern.’”

“I had bad luck in marriage,” Rooney said in a 2003 interview with a Florida newspaper, “but I’m grateful that they left me with seven sons and four daughters and seven grandchildren.”

Obit Mickey Rooney AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

His final wife, Jan Chamberlin Rooney, told the Florida paper she “didn’t want to marry him because of his track record, but I really fell in love with him. We’ve been married 30 years, and it’s the ups that count.”

That fairy tale marriage however also ended in acrimony when the couple separated in 2012.

MINNELLI MARRIES AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

In March 2011 Rooney traveled to Washington DC, where he testified to a US Senate committee on elder abuse.

A few months later he filed elder abuse and fraud charges against stepson Christopher Aber, the son of his last wife, and Aber’s wife. A court issued a restraining order against the Abers, and the case was settled in 2013 in Rooney’s favour.

- © AFP, 2014

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    Mute 1 Human Being
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    Apr 7th 2014, 7:23 AM

    Rest In Peace Mickey Rooney a true Hollywood legend.

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    Mute Brian Farrell
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    Apr 7th 2014, 7:38 AM

    “Always get married in the morning. That way if it doesn’t work out, you haven’t wasted the whole day”

    Mickey Rooney

    After 8 marriages I suppose it might have worked for him. RIP

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    Mute Dean Warner
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    Apr 7th 2014, 7:32 AM

    A legend he is BOYS TOWN one of the greats

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    Mute Tom Fennelly
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    Apr 7th 2014, 7:55 AM

    “There may be a little snow on the mountain, but there’s a lot of fire in the furnace.” M.R.
    Some man for one man !

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    Mute Dave Rooney
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    Apr 7th 2014, 8:16 AM

    Before the bloody footballer came along, it was nice to have your name associated with a real legend. RIP Mr Rooney.

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    Mute Dingleberrycity
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    Apr 7th 2014, 7:35 AM

    Legend !!!!

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    Mute Stu Clancy
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    Apr 7th 2014, 9:40 AM

    Jiminy Jillickers!

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    Mute Jane Travers
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    Apr 7th 2014, 8:16 AM

    What a legend, what a life! RIP Mickey Rooney.

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    Mute Debi-Nikita Rathbone-Rentzke
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    Apr 7th 2014, 8:22 AM

    I really loved his character in movies…a real legend of a man who has seen so much during the film industry. What an incredible journey he had.

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    Mute brian
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    Apr 7th 2014, 7:54 AM

    Married 8 times….an eight times Marital legend. RIP Mickey Rooney.

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    Mute C C
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    Apr 7th 2014, 7:34 AM

    I wonder if he kept a cat? Who’ll look after it now?
    So many questions left unanswered…

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    Mute John Waters
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    Apr 7th 2014, 8:22 AM

    We will never see the likes of him again R.I.P

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    Mute Elaine Donegan
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    Apr 7th 2014, 8:53 AM

    Rip, brilliant actor hope they show all his movies on tv now.

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    Mute Mad Mike
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    Apr 7th 2014, 10:21 AM

    Ah, Mickey Rooney. I’ll always remember you and Kim Basinger in 9 1/2 weeks.

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    Mute Tony
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    Apr 7th 2014, 10:21 AM

    Bad luck in marriages but great luck with longevity genes .

    A great legend , RIP

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    Mute Jean Martin
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    Apr 7th 2014, 1:29 PM

    ave gardner and Mickey rooney…….naw, just can’t see it!

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    Mute Tinker Taylor
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    Apr 7th 2014, 12:08 PM

    Mickey Rooney, what a legend. The scope and depth of his acting history is unparallelled. RIP

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