Oscar Profile #176: Mickey Rooney

Born Ninian Joseph (Joe) Yule Jr. on September 23, 1920, the son of vaudevillians, the actor would make his stage debut at 17 months and his first film at 5 as Mickey McGuire. Last seen under that name in 1934, Mickey Rooney would continue to be one of the screen’s busiest and most popular child actors well into his teens.

His role as the fairy Puck in 1935’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream co-starring James Cagney, Dick Powell and Olivia de Havilland, proved his could hold his own with some of Hollywood’s brightest stars. His role as Tommy, the younger brother in that same year’s Ah, Wilderness! , proved he was as adept at drama as he was comedy. Major roles in 1936’s Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Devil Is a Sissy led to his being cast as Andy Hardy in the first of the 19 films that comprise the series he would star in through 1946 and reprise in 1958.

Major roles in the two films for which Spencer Tracy would win back-to-back Oscars, 1937’s Captains Courageous and 1938’s Boys Town, along with the continuing Andy Hardy series helped earn him a 1938 Oscar for Best Juvenile Performance, an accolade he shared with box-office phenomenon Deanna Durbin whose films literally saved Universal from bankruptcy. The following year would see Rooney replace Shirley Temple as the no. 1 box-office attraction. 1939’s Babes in Arms, the first of several putting on a show musicals with Judy Garland, earned him his first competitive Oscar nomination as Best Actor over the likes of Charles Laughton in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Henry Fonda in Young Mr. Lincoln.

An occasional Young Tome Edison would break the monotony of the constant stream of Andy Hardy comedies and putting on a show musicals over the next few years. In January, 1942 he married starlet Ava Gardner, a featured player in one of his Andy Hardy films, the first of his eight wives, four of whom would become the mothers of his nine children over a quarter of a century beginning in 1946.

Rooney’s first grown-up role as Homer Macauley in 1943’s The Human Comedy, still considered his greatest performance, earned him his second Oscar nomination. He was a former jockey who helps Elizabeth Taylor train for the Grand National in 1944’s National Velvet; the older brother in 1948’s Summer Holiday, a musical remake of Ah, Wilderness! and a heavily fictionalized Lorenz Hart in that same year’s Words and Music. After that he played the lead in a handful of B pictures, followed by an occasional second lead in a major film such as 1954’s The Bridges at Toko-Ri, but mostly supporting work in B pictures. One of them, 1956’s The Bold and the Brave was seen by enough Academy members to earn him a third Oscar nomination as a fast-talking soldier.

The actor made his first appearance in a major film in some years in 1961’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s in a notoriously bad performance as Audrey Hepburn’s constantly complaining Japanese-American neighbor. He quickly redeemed himself, however, with better received performances in 1962’s Requiem for a Heavyweight and 1963’s It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Mostly on TV and in B films since then, he is still capable of occasionally giving a performance of great distinction such as that of the former jockey who trains 1979’s The Black Stallion for which he received his fourth Oscar nomination.

Mickey Rooney received an Oscar for career achievement, his second honorary win, in 1982. Later that year he won an Emmy for playing the title character, a retarded man, in Bill and two years later received another Emmy nod for the sequel, Bill on His Own. Still active, with 340 acting credits on IMDb., Rooney is currently filming the latest screen version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at the age of 93.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

BOYS TOWN (1938), directed by Norman Taurog

Rooney made four films with Spencer Tracy including both of Tracy’s Oscar winners – Captains Courageous and Boys Town as well as its 1941 sequel Men of Boys Town and Tracy’s next to last, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World. The two even shared a character – Rooney was 1939’s Young Tm Edison while Tracy was that same year’s Edison the Man. Their best film together was this heavily fictionalized account of Tracy’s real-life Father Flanagan’s establishment of the Nebraska home for boys. Rooney is the boy who almost disproves the good priest’s motto that there is no such thing as a bad boy.

THE HUMAN COMEDY (1943), directed by Clarence Brown

Rooney had his first and best mature role as a teenage telegraph boy who doesn’t need to go to war to feel the war’s effects. Frank Morgan in a memorable portrayal of an old telegraph operator, James Craig, Marsha Hunt, Fay Bainter, Butch Jenkins, Van Johnson, Donna Reed, John Craven and an unbilled Robert Mitchum all turn in memorable performances, but aside from Morgan’s classic death scene, it’s Rooney’s show and he’s never been better than in this Oscar winner for Best Original Story by William Saroyan..

SUMMER HOLIDAY (1948), directed by Rouben Mamoulian

Thirteen years after playing the younger brother in Ah, Wilderness!, Rooney returns to the Eugene O’Neill classic in this musical adaptation in the role of the older brother previously played by Eric Linden. Butch Jenkins has Rooney’s role of the younger brother while Walter Huston and Selena Royal play their parents who were Lionel Barrymore and Spring Byington in the earlier version. Frank Morgan and Agnes Moorehead are Dad’s brother Sid and Mother’s cousin’s Lily, played so memorably by Wallace Beery and Aline MacMahon in the previous version. It’s worth seeing but only as a companion to the original which is superior in every way.

BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S (1961), directed by Blake Edwards

Blake Edward’s film of Truman Capote’s novel is fondly remembered for Audrey Hepburn’s brilliant portrayal of Holly Golightly and Henry Mancini’s Oscar winning music, including the Oscar winning song, “Moon River”. Unfortunately it’s also remembered for Rooney’s exaggerated portrayal of Hepburn’s Japanese-American neighbor, Mr. Yunioshi, a character who is only there to yell and scream at Hepburn when the party’s she’s throwing gets too loud. The only good thing to come of it is that it all but permanently ended the practice of non-Asian actors playing Asians on screen.

THE BLACK STALLION (1979), directed by Carroll Ballard

In his 60th year Rooney had his best screen role since his heyday of the mid-1930s through mid-1940s. He plays a former jockey who helps young Kelly Reno train the mysterious Arabian stallion of the film’s title. Rooney had one of his iconic roles as a former jockey, albeit a much younger one, in 1944’s National Velvet in which he helped young Elizabeth Taylor train her horse for the Grand National. His performance here is aided by a superb screenplay by Melissa Mathison (E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial) and the stunning visuals of former cinematographer and first time director Carroll Ballard.