To call him "legendary" would have been an understatement.
His career as an entertainer spanned eight decades. He was one of the last links not only to Hollywood's Golden Age of moviemaking but also to the world of vaudeville and the early days of television.
Incredibly, he first appeared on stage when he was barely a year old. And he has continued working nearly every day since. Most recently he completed work on the movie Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Looking ahead he was set to appear in Fragments From Olympus – The Vision of Nikola Tesla and possibly in Old Soldiers.
He sang. He danced. He mugged and emoted. And he coaxed love out of every audience he ever performed for either in person or on the silver screen. No less a personage than Lord Laurence Olivier called him "the greatest actor ever."
But America simply knew him as Mickey Rooney, a name that was synonymous with entertainment. Rooney, 93 who died yesterday surrounded by his family in North Hollywood said he was "born to perform. This is who I am; it's in my blood," he added. This pint-sized entertainment dynamo proved that the best things do indeed come in small packages.
Mickey Rooney 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. Along with another great child star, Judy Garland Mickey Rooney helped build MGM Studios into Hollywood's pre-eminent dream machine, a place with "more stars than in all the heavens," as studio boss Louis B. Mayer used to proclaim.
Largely because of his success in playing the title role in the wildly popular Andy Hardy films, Mickey Rooney was America's number one box office draw in the early 1940s. His stellar appearances with Garland included Strike Up the Band, Babes on Broadway and Girl Crazy.
Then, 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.
After the war Rooney worked hard to reinvent himself as an adult star, eventuality breaking away as a remarkably accomplished character actor. And when television beckoned, Rooney was ready.
He was nominated for Emmys for his work on The Comedian, considered a classic and Eddie on Alcoa Theatre.
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 nomination for reprising the role in another CBS television drama two years later.
It was around this time (1978) that we caught up with Mickey. During our first visit to San Francisco we were walking past the Curran Theater when we heard some intoxicating, razzle-dazzle live music from inside. It was a matinee day and the theater marque was blank. This piqued out curiosity.
The theater door was unlocked so we walked in and stood at the back of the house watching Mickey Rooney, then almost 60 dancing rings around an entire chorus of young hoofers. Rehearsing for the musical Sugar Babies, Mickey Rooney was showing them how it's done.
When Sugar Babies (an affectionate ode to vaudeville and burlesque) finally made its way to Broadway in 1979 it took the town by storm. In the late days of the economic drudgery of the Carter years, the toe-tapping, high-stepping, fun-loving syncopation of Mickey Rooney and Ann Miller in this tune filled show was just what Broadway needed. The show ran for three years and then toured nationally and internationally. We saw the show in Philadelphia and enjoyed it almost as much as screen legend Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. who sat directly in front of us in the orchestra. In addition to his success in the musical Sugar Babies, Mickey Rooney made popular stage appearances in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and on Broadway in The Will Rogers Follies.
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. A son, Tim Rooney, died in 2006.
Mickey Rooney was an American treasure.
He did it all for love: Love of his craft; love for the wonderful gifts that God gave him; love for his country; love for his audiences; love for the wide world of entertainment and, most importantly an irrepressible love for life that shined through every day he was with us.
We shall not see his kind again.
Bravo, Mickey, BRAVO!
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