R.I.P. Mickey Rooney (1920-2014)

The film industry has lost one of its last living legends. Mickey Rooney, a multitalented performer whose career spanned from 1926 through 2014, has passed away at the age of 93.

Mickey Rooney began his film career in the silent era with the 1926 short Not to Be Trusted, but quickly became one of the sound era’s biggest stars, headlining a series of short films from 1927-1934 as “Mickey McGuire,” and eventually earning acclaim for his role as Puck in the unforgettable 1935 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and box office success as the character Andy Hardy in a 16 film franchise produced between 1937 and 1958. One of the most prominent child actors of the 1930s, Mickey Rooney won a Juvenile Academy Award for his collected works in 1939, and was declared the biggest box office draw from 1939-1941.

As with many child stars, Mickey Rooney was typecast as a young performer and had difficulty transitioning out of youthful hero roles in films like National Velvet (1944) until much later in his career. Rooney battled bankruptcy during this time period, but remained a constant presence on the big screen and TV series like “The Mickey Rooney Show,” “Mickey,” “The Twilight Zone” and Rankin-Bass’s many stop-motion animated holiday specials, voicing the role of Santa Claus in the TV movies “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” “The Year Without a Santa Claus” and “Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July.” But unfortunately no discussion of Mickey Rooney’s career would be complete without a mention of his performance as “Mr. Yunioshi” in 1961’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s, a racist caricature that has in the decades that followed come to represent one of the low water marks for Hollywood’s representations of minority cultures.

Mickey Rooney’s personal life was nearly as a big as his on-screen performances, serving 21 months in World War II and marrying seven times (including to movie star Ava Gardner, before her own career took off, from 1942-1943). He was awarded many times over the course of his long career, including a lifetime achievement honor from the Academy Awards in 1983. He would go on to act for over 30 years, until the year he died.

Mickey Rooney truly was one of the hardest working actors in show business, working steadily as a child in the silent era through stardom in the 1930s and 1940s through a stream of memorable character roles in the latter half of the 20th Century. In no uncertain terms, the film industry has lost one of its last great legends. He will be missed.

 


William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.

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