Word Celebrity Blog

BIOGRAPHY OF MICKEY ROONEY

The following biography (without the graphics) is a copy from the official Mickey Rooney web site.

http://www.mickeyrooney.com/biography.html

Joe Yule Jr., also known as Mickey Rooney, was born September 23, 1920 in Brooklyn, New  York. His parents, chorus girl Nell Carter and comic Joe Yule Sr., were vaudeville performers. Two weeks after Mickey's birth, he was on the road with the circuit traveling throughout North America.

At 17 months old, his talent surfaced by accident. While hiding underneath a shoeshine stand in a Chicago theatre, fascinated by his father's act, he let out a sneeze. The noise caused a spotlight to find him in the crowd. Not knowing what to do he stood up and blew on his tiny toy mouth organ that was hanging on a string around his neck. The audience erupted with laughter. The show's manager got him a pint-sized tuxedo after the incident, and young Mickey began performing small ballads and speeches on stage.

Mickey's parents divorced when he was three. Mickey's mother took him to Kansas City, Missouri so they could live with her sister. The normal way of life they had there was short lived, for in 1924, Mickey's mother decided he would be perfect for Hal Roach's "Our Gang" series. They headed west to Hollywood so Mickey could try out for the role. Once there, however, they realized the pay was insufficient. Penniless, they drove back to Kansas City. 

They returned to California again in 1926. This time Mickey landed his first film role in the movie "Not To Be Trusted," in which he played a midget.

His big break came in 1927 when he was cast for "Mickey 'Himself' McGuire," a series based on a comic strip. His mother wanted to legally change his name to Mickey McGuire for publicity reasons, but the comic's creator did not approve this. Instead she renamed him Mickey Rooney after getting approval from his manager.

In 1934, Mickey was competing in a table tennis tournament in Los Angles and was showing off to the audience. MGM producer David O. Selznick noticed his antics. He told MGM studio chief Louis Mayer that he had found a kid that was a "goldmine" and begged him to sign Mickey to MGM. Mayer was reluctant to do so. Selznick made a role for Mickey in the film "Manhattan Melodrama," which was later made famous when notorious gangster John Dillinger was shot and killed while leaving the theater where he had been watching it. Mickey's work on the film led him to being signed to a long-term contract with MGM. Although he had the reputation of being a troublemaker, he put his all into acting and began to receive rave reviews. Short in stature, but never short in confidence, Mickey was the number one box office actor in the United States from 1939-41. 

He became known for his work on films such as: "A Midsummer Nights Dream," "Boys Town," "Babes In Arms" and the hit "Andy Hardy" series.

He also starred with many Hollywood leading ladies including Lana Turner, Anne Rutherford and Judy Garland.

During the 1950s, he worked on a television series called "Hey Mulligan." It was short-lived and could not compete with the likes of "The Jackie Gleason Show " which was scheduled in the same time slot.

Mickey never was one to settle down, which explains his eight marriages. In 1942, he married Hollywood star Ava Gardner, but they soon divorced. After entering the service for 21 months in 1944 to entertain the troops in WWII, he married Betty Jane Rase. This marriage was followed by similar experiences with Martha Vickers in 1949 and Elaine Mahnken in 1952. In 1958 Rooney married Barbara Ann Thompson, but tragedy struck when she was murdered in 1966. Stumbling into deep depression, he married Barbara's friend, Marge Lane, who helped him take care of his young children. The marriage lasted only 100 days. He married Carolyn Hockett from 1969-1974, but financial instability ended the relationship. Finally, in 1978 Rooney married Jan Chamberlin, his current wife, with whom he lives in Los Angeles, California.

In the early 1970s, Mickey undertook several short-lived financial ventures and acted in various dinner theatres. He reluctantly went back to the stage in the burlesque production of "Sugar Babies" in 1979. The production ended up being a phenomenal success, and his career was reborn.

All in all, Mickey is a man with over 200 films under his belt. He earned an Honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement, a special Juvenile Oscar he shared with Deana Durbin in 1939, five Oscar nominations, one Emmy Award, five Emmy Nominations and two Golden Globes. Mickey's career has extended through many generations and in many different directions.

Mickey Rooney: actor, survivor, inventor and Hollywood living legend.

"People say, 'How can you be married eight times?' But I played the hand dealt me the way I was supposed to. I was friendly with most of my ex-wives. My God, there's a Mickey Rooney's Former Wives Marching Band!" --Mickey Rooney

"The audience and I are friends. 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."   --Mickey Rooney

"I didn't ask to be short. I didn't want to be short. I've tried to pretend that being a short guy didn't matter." --Mickey Rooney

“You always pass failure on the way to success.” --Mickey Rooney

“A lot of people have asked me how short I am. Since my last divorce, I think I'm about  $100, 000 short.” --Mickey Rooney

“I buy women shoes and they use them to walk away from me.” --Mickey Rooney

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

“I'm the only man in the world with a marriage licence made out to whom it may concern.” --Mickey Rooney

“When I say I do, the justice of the peace replies, `I know, I know...' ” --Mickey Rooney

Would he marry all those women again? "Absolutely. I loved every one of them." --Mickey Rooney

“It's confusing. I've had so many wives and so many children I don't know which house to go to first on Christmas.” --Mickey Rooney

"Love wears off too quickly." --Mickey Rooney

"My partners weren`t what we call in horse racing parlance routers. They were sprinters; they went out of the gate, but then they stopped. They couldn`t go the distance. --Mickey Rooney

“I was a thirteen-year-old boy for thirty years” --Mickey Rooney

“Had I been brighter, the ladies been gentler, the Scotch been weaker, had the gods been kinder, had the dice been hotter, this could have been a one-sentence story: Once upon a time I lived happily ever after.” --Mickey Rooney

“Meeting Bob Hope was meeting a champion. He was not only a great star but an entertainer and a friend of the entire world,” --Mickey Rooney

"I just want to be a professional. I couldn`t live without acting."--Mickey Rooney

"The guys with the power in Hollywood today, the guys with their names above the title, are thieves. They don`t make movies, they make deals. Their major function is to cut themselves in for ten per cent of the gross - off the top, of course" --Mickey Rooney

[On his Feud with Ernest Borgnine]: "All the Oscars in the world can`t buy him dignity, class, and talent. I don`t know why he is famous and why he is a star. Talk about a lucky jerk." --Mickey Rooney

"There may be a little snow on the mountain, but there`s a lot of fire in the furnace." --Mickey Rooney

"I`ve been through four publics. I`ve been coming back like a rubber ball for years."  --Mickey Rooney

"I`m in pretty good shape for the shape I`m in." - Mickey Rooney at 58

When he was asked if he had any regrets, he firmly said "None," --Mickey Rooney

"You`ve got to recognize, there will never be another you. It has nothing to do with ego; it happens to be the truth. There will never be another person the same. There`ll never be another you. There`ll never be another me... And there`ll never be another ..." --Mickey Rooney

Upon winning his lifetime achievement Oscar, 1983: "Tonight, I could even kiss Louis B. Mayer!"  --Mickey Rooney

On his life-long friend and frequent co-star, Judy Garland: "Judy turned to drugs because she was in pain and because drugs made her feel good. As one of the MGM kids, she`d been treated for most of her life to magical, instant, solutions to everything......" --Mickey Rooney

"All the muddy waters of my life cleared up when I gave myself to Christ."  --Mickey Rooney

Mickey Rooney's movie appearances stretches from 1926 to 2007. This is a totall of 81 years, He has the longest career in cinema history.

As of 2007, Mickey Rooney is the only surviving screen actor to appear in silent films and still continue to act in movies into the 21st century. His film debut was in the movie "Not to Be Trusted" (1926) at the age of four. He starred in dozens of silent-era comedy shorts, playing (and billed as) "Mickey McGuire".

Mickey earned an Honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement ans a special Juvenile Oscar he shared with Deana Durbin in 1939, as well as five Oscar nominations. one Emmy Award, five Emmy Nominations and two Golden Globes.

Mickey Rooney has starred in more than 200 films. The following list is an incomplete list _ it is only those that I was able to find.  The titles that are in boldface are the those that I personally enjoyed.  

80 Steps To Jonah

A Family Affair
A Midsummer Nights Dream
A Nice Little Bank That Should Be Robbed
A Slight Case Of Larceny
A Yank At Eton
Ah,Wilderness
All Ashore
Andy Hardy Comes Home
Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever
Andy Hardy Meets Debutante
Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble
Andy Hardy's Double Life
Andy Hardy's Private Secretary

Babes In Arms
Babes On Broadway
Baby Face Nelson
Bill
Bill On His Own
Blind Date
Boy's Town
Broadway To Hollywood

Captains Courageous

Death On The Diamond
Donovan's Kid
Down The Stretch
Drive A Crooked Road

Everything's Ducky
Evil Roy Slade

Face On The Barroom Floor
Fast Companions
Francis In The Haunted House

Girl Crazy

Half A Sinner
He's A Cockeyed Wonder
Hide-Out
High Speed
Hold That Kiss
Home For Christmas
Hoosier Schoolboy

I Like It That Way
It Came Upon The Midnight Clear
It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World

Judge Hardy And Son
Judge Hardy's Children

Killer McCoy
King Of The Roaring 20's

Leave Em' Laughing
Life Begins For Andy Hardy
Little Lord Fauntleroy
Little Spies
Lord Jeff
Lost Stallions: The Journey Home
Love Is A Headache
Live, Live & Learn
Love Birds
Love Finds Andy Hardy
Love Laughs At Andy Hardy

Magnificent Roughnecks
Manhattan Melodrama
Men Of Boy's Town
Mr. Broadway
My Outlaw Brother
My Pal, The King

National Velvet
Night At The Museum
Not To Be Trusted

Off Limits
Officer 13
Operation Mad Ball
Orchids & Ermine
Out West With The Hardys

Pete's Dragon
Phantom Of The Megaplex
Pinocchio
Platinum High School

Quicksand

Reckless
Requiem For A Heavyweight
Riff Raff

Sin's Payday
Slave Ship
Sound Off
Stablemates
Strike Up The Band
Summer Holiday

The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn
The Atomic Kid
The Beast Of the City
The Big Cage
The Big Chance
The Big Operator
The Big Wheel
The Black Stallion
The Bold And The Brave
The Bridges At Toko-Ri
The Cockeyed Cowboys Of Calico County
The Comedian
The Courtship Of Andy Hardy
The County Chairman
The Devil Is A Sissy
The Fireball
The First Of May
The Hardys Ride High
The Healer
The Human Comedy
The Life Of Jimmy Dolan
The Last Mile
The Strip
The Twinkle In God's Eye
The World Changes
Thoroughbreds Don't Cry

Young Tom Edison
You're Only Young Once

Words And Music

In the right column under Video & Films you will find Face On The Barroom Floor and other Mickey Rooney videos that you can download under Mickey Rooney.

The following story was printed in "Physical Culture Magazine"  in 1941.

CALIFORNIA COMET
by Ned Brown

A TOW-HEADED youngster was whanging out practice balls near the clubhouse of the  Lake-side Country Club.  A sunlamp-tanned gent drew up in spiffy roadster and called:

“Hey, kid, where’re the other caddies?”  

“I dunno, Mister,” replied the tow-head carelessly, as he whanged out another ball.

“Whaddaya mean, you dunno?  Who are you?” barked the motorist.

“Who me? Oh, I’m just another guy named Joe!”

“Fresh kid,” muttered the now lobster-pink gent as he jerked his car into gear and went way from there.

But the tow-headed kid was simply telling the truth — he was “just another guy named Joe.”

 He was christened Joe Yule, Jr., nineteen years ago in Brooklyn, but his choleric uizzer and the rest of the world might know him better as Mickey Rooney, alias Andy Hardy.  His parents, teamed as Nell Carter and Joe Yule, dancer and comedian respectively, were playing in vaudeville when their son was born on September 23, 1920.

Most everybody knows Mickey Rooney as the Number One box office attraction in the motion picture world.  Only a few hundred know him as the best all-round athlete that has hit Hollywood since the late Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., was in his heyday.  Indeed, when, as and if Mickey gets through with the Andy Hardy roles, he can swing into Frank Merriwell, for apparently there’s no sport at which he is not expert.  Lawn tennis, ping-pong, golf, football, bowling, water-sports, hockey, horseback riding, gymnastic  —  Mickey is more than ordinary at all of these and is a star at most.

He probably excels, however, in tennis, a game he learned when Bill Tilden, Elizabeth Ryan and other net stars visited California on their professional tour some years ago.  Mickey was not content to act merely as a spectator but got into action by balling balls for the stars in their practice games.  Meanwhile he studied their shots and frequently the champions would indulge him by playing a set or two with him, and giving him pointer.  They found him an apt pupil and in 1934 he won the Southwest Junior Championship.  That year and the next, he also won the State Junior Championship at ping-pong, or table tennis, and today his unique serve baffles many of our national stars.

Recently Mickey played a couple of sets of lawn tennis with Bill Tilden.  “Gimme the works,” said Mickey, “I want to see just what sort of a game I can put up against a real player.”  Long William obliged.  He had little Mickey running all over the court, but the kid was fast as a streak and he made some amazing shots and recoveries.  Indeed, he had streaks of brilliance when he took games from the great Tilden, and at the finish of  the match, which Tilden won 6-2, 6-3, the former world’s champion knew he had been in a match.

 “He’s the most amazing little athlete I’ve ever known,” said Bill when he had recovered his breath.  “If Mickey had chosen tennis as a profession he could have been a champion.  I don’t know of anyone in the entertainment world who can take a set from him, playing the way he did today.”

Another time, Mickey played one set against Elizabeth Ryan, the woman professional star, in Honolulu, the first day he got off the boat, losing to her by a 6-4 score.  He still holds the Southern California tennis and ping-pong titles in the division for boys of his age, and in the Pan-Pacific tournament he was runner-up in the finals.

But tennis isn’t the only game in which Mickey has distinguished himself.  In 1936, ’37 and ’38 he had his own M-G-M Lions, and with his team played in many benefit football matches, as well as preliminary and between-halves contests at professional games in Gilmore Stadium in Los Angeles.

Mickey was adept at any position, but he preferred one of the half-back positions, because this game him greater opportunity to carry the ball.  Half-back Rooney emulated the style of the great Red Grange, and when he cut loose with the ball, in an open field, he was almost always in cinch to score a touchdown. It was after one of these spectacular runs, during which Mickey was tackled just enough to spill him headfirst, only to have him turn a somersault, land on his feet and keep going to the goal-line, that the power-to-be in the M-G-M studios tabooed further footballing by young Mickey.

In golf, Rooney consistently drives between 225 and 250 yards, and he shoots in the low 80’s.  On one occasion he scored a 79 and the resultant Rooney “Yip-e-e-e!” and war dance, flabbergasted the clubhouse, devastated the eighteenth green and shocked a patriarchal player on another green to such an extent that he almost holed himself out instead of the ball.

Indeed, if it weren’t for his abundance of energy and enthusiasm, which are at once the delight and despair of his fellow players, Mickey would make a much better score. But he plays what you might call “galloping golf.”  No, that doesn’t mean “shooting craps” in this case; it means that when Mickey socks the ball, he can’t restrain himself, can’t control the urge to gallop after the ball and give it another swat.  He likes action.

In bowling, it’s the same way. Here Mickey’s natural timing and ability to swing a heavy ball enable him to bowl regularity.  There have been occasions when he has done 220, but when he starts knocking over strikes he “presses” in an endeavor to score a “perfect 300” — something he hasn’t given up hope of achieving.

He is an avid horse back rider—as a matter of fact, he once aspired to be a professional jockey, and in several of his pictures where he portrayed jockeys, insisted on doing his own riding.  Somehow, horses seem to have a strange affinity for him, and he can ride with abandon some of the friskiest animals that others find “uncomfortable” to handle.

Tumbling and gymnastic are favorite exercises with Mickey, and on several occasions he has scared W.S. Van Dyke, Norman Taurog and other directors our of their wits by doing a funning front somersault on the set.  Mickey is an expert swimmer and diver, and he has starred as a water polo player in games that were most strenuous.

When he visited Honolulu, Mickey amazed the natives and tourist alike by mastering the tricky surf-board in a few minutes, and before he left he was vying with the Hawaiian experts in performing all sorts of stunts in surf-board riding.  Panama Dave, instructor at Waikiki Beach, declared he had never had a more apt pupil than Mickey.  “I like all kinds of sports,” — Mickey was answering a question — “and it’s hard to say which one is my favorite, because when I’m playing golf I like that, when I’m playing tennis that seems to be my favorite; I’m crazy about swimming and I used to be stuck on baseball.  When I was a kid I played a lot of football. I guess tennis would be my favorite, because I seem to do better on the tennis court than I can on the golf course, although I’m pretty lucky at golf.  In fact I’ve been fortunate in having some of the greatest players in tennis and golf give me a lot of friendly coaching and advice.  But I wouldn’t want to be a pro at any of those things.  I mean I wouldn’t want to make a business of it.  I think sports are games and should be treated as such.

“My ambition is to be a good director.  I think that’s what I’m cut out for, because I’ve been raised on that sort of stuff.  It must be terrible to get old and have to retire.  A director just doesn’t do that, but and athlete does.  However, if a fellow has enough work to keep him busy, he can always find time to indulge in any kind of play he wants to — golf, tennis, swimming, or what-have-you.  There’s nothing more that a fellow needs to keep him happy and content.

“You learn a lot from sports.  In football you learn that one man doesn’t make a team; it takes eleven fellows, all in there “pitching.”  Another thing you learn is that you’ve got to keep plugging if you want to get anywhere.”

Well, Mickey is a plugger all right.

“The kid’s a fountain of enthusiasm,” Director George Seitz told me recently, apeaking of Rooney. “He can become just as excited over a new way to beat a drum as he can over a leading role in the biggest picture of the year.  Enthusiasm drives him to the top in everything he undertakes.  It refuses to be satisfied with half measures; it forces him to occupy every moment of every day.  It defies fatigue.  In fact, he is indefatigable.”

That last is a big word to describe such a little fellow, but it fits Mickey to a T.  On the occasion of his visit to Washington, where he met the President, Mickey happened to spy a hockey game in progress on a frozen pond near the Washington Monument.  A half-hour later he had disappeared.  A “search party” finally discovered him on the frozen pond, skating full speed ahead after the puck.  He had borrowed one of the hockey player’s skates and stick and was in the thick of the game.

I don’t suppose there’s any other young man with as many varied “ambitions” as young Rooney, or as many talents to satisfy them.  His ability as an actor is pretty well proven.  But Norman Taurog, who has directed most of Mickey’s recent pictures, call him the George M. Cohan of the future.  “With his keep analytical mind he would make an excellent director or author,” says Taurog.  When Mickey was rehearsing for “Ah, Wilderness,” director Clarence Brown promised to buy new uniforms for his football team if Mickey mad good in the picture.  Brown bought the uniforms.

Young Rooney is really a skilled musician.  He can play almost any instrument, but he is expert at the piano, and when he travels, always insists on having a tiny “banquet” piano in his room.  His dressing room on the M-G-M set is loaded with all the instruments of a twelve-piece orchestra, and whenever he has a “wait” between shots, he hides himself there, where his “band” is always ready to play under his direction, mostly pieces composed by Mickey himself. He has composed a few minor hits with his friend Sidney Miller — Sid doing the lyrics and Mickey the melody.  Not so long ago Mickey composed a symphony which was considered so good it was scheduled to be played on the Ford Symphony hour, but complications arising out of the ASCAP-B.M.I. conflict prevented this.

Speaking of music, Mickey said: “Lots of older folks think kids nowadays are nutty to go in for swing music and jitterbug dancing. I like swing music.  It’s got rhythm and action, but I don’t like it when it doesn’t make sense.  Lyrics are important too.  Just a lot of words thrown together are the bunk.”

To describe Mickey Rooney physically seems superfluous when one considers that millions have seen him so often on the screen.  But we might say here that he is a powerfully built youngster, standing an even five feet and weighing 125 pounds of compact bone and sinew.  That he is a blue-eyed blond everybody knows.


“It’s NO secret the biggest break I ever got was having Mom,” he’ll tell you.  “She never tried to interfere with a fellow’s work.  She doesn’t come on the set very often and when she does we talk about everything except acting.  She always says to me that she will take care of m clothes and see that I get what I want to eat, but that the acting is up to me.  Of course, she goes with me on trips because I’d get pretty darned
homesick if she didn’t.  Mother doesn’t want me to play football in college because she thinks I’m too light.  But I’m going to try for cheer leader and see all the games free,” he chuckles.

The most embarrassing thing about picture-making is what Mickey called this “puppy love business.”  “It’s just played for laughs,” he says, “but no one wants to have people think he believes himself a Don Juan or something.  As a matter of fact, I never had a date until about a year or so ago.  Girls are not particularly in my line.  Sure, I like them and I have dancing dates from time to time with different girls.  Right now, my Mother is my best girl and that’s the way every boy my age should feel.

“It’s all right for a guy to get married some day,” Mickey opines, then adds naively, “but why should a fellow marry until he is middle-aged, say twenty-five or so.  As long as you’re a bachelor you’re ‘eligible’ and that’s a nice way to be, don’t you think?”

Maybe you’ve got something there, Mickey!