STAR OF THE MONTH - MICKEY ROONEY (Thursdays)


By MGM - Clarence Bull, photographer - ebay, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29828247

Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire;[1] September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nearly nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the silent-film era.[2] He was the top box-office attraction from 1939 to 1941,[3] and one of the best-paid actors of that era.[4] At the height of a career marked by declines and comebacks, Rooney performed the role of Andy Hardy in a series of 16 films in the 1930s and 1940s that epitomized the mainstream United States self-image.


By Huffington Post, 4/6/2014, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42439114

At the peak of his career between ages 15 and 25, he made 43 films, and was one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's most consistently successful actors. A versatile performer, he became a celebrated character actor later in his career. Laurence Olivier once said he considered Rooney "the best there has ever been". Clarence Brown, who directed him in two of his earliest dramatic roles in National Velvet and The Human Comedy, said Rooney was "the closest thing to a genius" with whom he had ever worked. He won a Golden Globe Award in 1982 and an Emmy Award in the same year for the title role in a television movie Bill and was awarded the Academy Honorary Award in 1982.



Rooney first performed in vaudeville as a child actor, and made his film debut at the age of six. He played the title character in the "Mickey McGuire" series of 78 short films, from age seven to 13. At 14 and 15, he played Puck in the play and subsequent film adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. At the age of 16, he began playing Andy Hardy, and gained his first recognition at 17 as Whitey Marsh in Boys Town. At only 19, Rooney became the second-youngest Best Actor in a Leading Role nominee and the first teenager to be nominated for an Academy Award for his performance as Mickey Moran in 1939 film adaptation of coming-of-age Broadway musical Babes in Arms; he was awarded a special Academy Juvenile Award in 1939. Rooney received his second Academy Award nomination in the same category for his role as Homer Macauley in The Human Comedy.

Drafted into the military during World War II, Rooney served nearly two years, entertaining over two million troops on stage and radio. He was awarded a Bronze Star for performing in combat zones. Returning in 1945, he was too old for juvenile roles, but too short at 5 ft 2 in (157 cm) for most adult roles, and was unable to gain as many starring roles. However, numerous low-budget, but critically well-received films noir had Rooney playing the lead during this period and the 1950s. Rooney's career was renewed with well-received supporting roles in films such as The Bold and the Brave (1956), Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Pete's Dragon (1977), and The Black Stallion (1979). Rooney received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 1957 for The Bold and the Brave, and 1980 for The Black Stallion. In the early 1980s, he returned to Broadway in Sugar Babies, a role that earned him nominations for Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical. He made hundreds of appearances on TV, including dramas, variety programs, and talk shows.

Mickey Rooney December film schedule:

Dec. 5: Beast of the City, The (1932)
Broadway to Hollywood (1933)
Chief, The (1933)
Life of Jimmy Dolan, The (1933)
Death on the Diamond (1934)
Hide-Out (1934)
Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
Down the Stretch (1936)
Riffraff (1936)
Midsummer Night's Dream, A (1935)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The (1939)
Ah, Wilderness! (1935)
Stablemates (1938)
Lord Jeff (1938)
Devil Is a Sissy, The (1936)

Dec. 12: Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936)
Captains Courageous (1937)
Live, Love and Learn (1937)
Love Is a Headache (1938)
Hold That Kiss (1938)
Killer McCoy (1947)
Summer Holiday (1948)
Big Wheel, The (1949)
National Velvet (1944)
Human Comedy, The (1943)
Boys Town (1938)
Men of Boys Town (1941)
Young Tom Edison (1940)
Yank at Eton, A (1942)

Dec. 19: Quicksand (1950)
Strip, The (1951)
Slight Case of Larceny, A (1953)
King of the Roaring 20s: The Story of Arnold
Rothstein (1961)
24 Hours to Kill (1965)
80 Steps to Jonah (1969)
Extraordinary Seaman, The (1969)
Black Stallion, The (1979)
Babes in Arms (1939)
Strike Up the Band (1940)
Babes on Broadway (1941)
Girl Crazy (1943)
Thoroughbreds Don't Cry (1937)
Words and Music (1948)

Dec, 26-27: Family Affair, A (1936)
You're Only Young Once (1938)
Judge Hardy's Children (1938)
Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938)
Out West with the Hardys (1938)
Hardys Ride High, The (1939)
Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever (1939)
Judge Hardy and Son (1939)
Andy Hardy Meets Debutante (1940)
Andy Hardy's Private Secretary (1941)
Life Begins for Andy Hardy (1941)
Courtship of Andy Hardy, The (1942)
Andy Hardy's Double Life (1942)
Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble (1944)
Love Laughs at Andy Hardy (1946)
Andy Hardy Comes Home (1958) (7:15 am ET Dec. 26)

Christmas Marathon highlights
Dec. 21: Tenth Avenue Angel (1948)
Christmas Carol, A (1938)
It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947)
We're No Angels (1955)

Dec. 22: Boys Town (1938)
Holly and the Ivy, The (1952)
Going My Way (1944)
Bells of St. Mary's, The (1945)
Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
Christmas Past (1925)

Dec. 23: Holiday Affair (1949)
Desk Set (1957)
Meet John Doe (1941)
Thin Man, The (1934)
Carol for Another Christmas, A (1964)

Dec. 24: Christmas Eve (1947)
Bundle of Joy (1956)
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947)
Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
Bishop's Wife, The (1947)
Room for One More (1952)
Christmas Carol, A (1938)

Dec. 25: Great Rupert, The (1950)
Holiday Affair (1949)