Legendary Actor Mickey Rooney Has Passed Away at Age 93 … Rest in Peace

Another one of our great actors from the Golden age of Hollywood has passed away …

Mickey Rooney, the iconic actor whose prolific career on stage and screen that spanned eight decades, has died at the age of 93 on Sunday.  Rooney died Sunday of natural causes at age 93 surrounded by family at his North Hollywood home. He was born Joseph Yule, Jr. on September 23, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York and began his acting career shortly after his first birthday, appearing on vaudeville stages with his parents. Rooney’s career is a who’s who of movies such as Boy’s Town, Babes in Arms, National Velvet, The Bold and the Brave, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Bill and of course his role in numerous films as the original Andy Hardy with actress Judy Garland. EIGHT DECADES!!!  They do not make them like this anymore.

Mickey Rooney:  September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014, Rest in Peace

Mickey Rooney and Judy-Garland from ‘Babes on Broadway’ together again in Heaven

As adept at comedy as drama and an excellent singer and dancer, Rooney was regarded as the consummate entertainer. During a prolific career on stage and screen that spanned eight decades (“I’ve been working all my life, but it seems longer,” he once said), he 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.

He also appeared on series and TV and in made for television movies, one of which, “Bill,” the touching story of a mentally challenged man, won him an Emmy. He was Emmy nominated three other times. And for “Sugar Babies,” a musical revue in which he starred with Ann Miller, he was nominated for a Tony in 1980.

‘Yankee Doodle Boy’

Both in his professional and personal life Rooney withstood many peaks and valleys. He was married eight times — first and most famously to his MGM co-star Ava Gardner — and filed for bankruptcy in 1962, having gone through the $12 million he had earned. And until middle age, he was never able to quite cast off his popularity as a juvenile. Nonetheless, Rooney’s highs more than compensated for his lows. Via his “Andy Hardy” series of films, the five-foot-three Rooney came to embody the virtues of small-town American boyhood. Those films and a series of musicals in which he co-starred with Judy Garland made him the nation’s biggest box office attraction for three years running.

From Hollywood.com – The Tributes pour in for acting icon, Mickey Rooney.

Tributes are flooding in from celebrities following the death of Hollywood actor Mickey Rooney on Sunday (06Apr14). The acting veteran, whose career spanned over nine decades, passed away aged 93. His cause of death has not been released. Stars took to their Twitter.com pages to mourn the actor and pay their respects on Sunday. Oscar-winning actress Marlee Matlin wrote, “A lovely man, talented actor & friend, Mickey Rooney has passed at 93. He is with his dear friend Judy Garland putting on shows in heaven”. Star Trek actor William Shatner adds, “My thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Mickey Rooney.