WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers

Born: 23rd September 1920

Died: 6th April 2014 (age 93)

Child star Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jnr) was born into an acting family, his mother was a former chorus girl and burlesque performer while his father was a vaudevillian. He moved to Hollywood with his mother at the age of four and started acting two years later in the silent short Not to be Trusted – a six year old playing a cigar smoking midget con man would not be acceptable in this day and age! He signed his first contract at the age of 14 with MGM, who cast him in a film called Family Affair which led on to several more films that involved his character, Andy Hardy. In the seventeen years between his first film and joining the US Army he stared alongside such names as Vivien Leigh, John Wayne, Spencer Tracy and Judy Garland. After his return from the army Rooney struggled to find work because of his height – he was 5 foot 2 inches and 25 years old – thus making him too old for juvenile roles but too short for more mature roles. Whilst the studios struggled to cast him he returned to the stage and made television appearances, including his own television series The Mickey Rooney Show. Film work picked up in the 60’s with Requiem for a Heavyweight and It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and a cameo in Breakfast at Tiffany’s but it wasn’t until 1979 when he was asked by Frances Ford Copella to play jockey Henry Dailey in The Black Stallion that work started to pick up again, this was also the year Rooney made his Broadway debut.

Night at the Museum and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb both top Rooney’s five. He is the feisty night guard Gus and has a bigger role in the first film than I remember. Being of diminutive stature he carries off angry and ballsy very well (although I’m sure he wishes he could have done some of the fight scenes in the first film himself considering he was 89 at the time). He has a very small scene in Secret of the Tomb – one line – where he comes across a lot tougher as he ‘spits’ it out while in a wheelchair; the film was released after his death and is dedicated to him and Robin Williams (who died August 2014) with the line “Magic Never Ends”. *Gus does make an appearance in the second film Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian but in a deleted scene only – this film would have completed his top three.  Oh My God! could they pack any more comedy actors into this next film?! It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is full to the brim (even Jerry Lewis and Jack Benny have uncredited cameos) but the one thing it does not do is over load the screen with jokes or slapstick; it is evenly distributed between all the actors making for a very funny film. Rooney is paired with Buddy Hackett for most of the film and the two play off each other like a double act they both understand when to let the other take the limelight and they both understand timing. This is even more apparent when the ensemble join together. Out of the whole cast Rooney probably has the more ‘zany’ elements but he never over plays his role. I hope I will not be judged for what I am about to say about his next film but I was not raised a Disney child nor did I raise my child to be a Disney child but after watching The Fox and the Hound I’ve come to realise that maybe I have missed out on some lovely animations! What I love about animation is that you can cast anyone in any role no matter how they look or their age for example Rooney voices adult Tod but he was 61 years old and yet he still sounded like a youngster. I know that he was a very animated funny man in real life and you could see that in the way he ‘played’ Tod – with today’s animations, with the use of computers, it is easier to make the characters have some of the ‘players’ characteristics so in a hand drawn animation it must have been even more challenging yet the animators did this very well. Before I say anything about Mickey Rooney’s role in The Black Stallion can I just say that this film was probably one of the best pieces of cinematography that I have seen in a long time! Effectively this is a two hour film, with three integral characters, that is split into two parts – the first hour is all about the boy and the horse, the second half is the boy, the horse and Henry Dailey (Rooney’s character). I wasn’t sure what to expect I know Rooney mainly for his singing and dancing or slightly more comedic roles but, I’m not going to say I was surprised by his performance, he did provide a character that I wasn’t expecting from him. I think his past as a child actor helped him connect with the young actor playing Alec as their on screen relationship is very close and extremely tender. And finally we have Pete’s Dragon and one of the things I think Mickey Rooney is quite well known for – singing. He is Lampie, the Lighthouse Keeper and local drunk. He is the first to see Elliot, Pete’s dragon, and surprise, surprise he is not believed nor does he believe it himself until later on in the film. Hat’s off to anyone who acts ‘alongside’ nothing (use of CG to create a character not an actual actor) and Mickey’s first reaction to Elliot is priceless but the scene where he and Hoagy (played by Red Buttons) go to the cave to look for the Dragon is hilarious the two actors play off each other wonderfully as are their reactions to Elliot.

I know I said I wasn’t a Disney child but I have to say I have loved Pete’s Dragon from the first time I saw it on TV as a kid but I don’t think I ever realised the intricacies of the film when I was younger it was just a fun little film about a boy and his friendly the dragon. Watching it again as an adult you realise a lot more not just with the story but the acting too – I probably understood that the dragon wasn’t real when I was little but never thought about the interaction of actors and what is essentially nothing and that is what I love about Rooney’s portrayal of Lampie. He is funny in general but it’s the acting alongside Elliot that really does it, you can almost believe that the dragon is actually there with him every time they interact.

In a career that spanned almost ninety years Mickey Rooney turned his hand to acting, producing and directing, and he was a radio star! He won an honorary Oscar for 50 years in the business and several awards for his career in television. He was also awarded with four stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame – the last was awarded in 2004 for Best Live Performance. Rooney was married eight times, his first was to Ava Gardner, when he was 22 she was 20, lasted a year and his subsequent marriages didn’t last much longer, his sixth wife was found dead in bed shot by her lover and Mickey’s friend, Milo Milos, with Mickey’s gun in what the police classified as a murder-suicide – this was probably his longest marriage (8 years)! In fact his last marriage, to Jan Chamberlain, lasted longer than all his previous marriages put together, they separated after 34 years but were still married when he died in 2014. He died at the age of 93 of natural causes – he had nine children, two step children, nineteen grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.