Mickey Rooney (1920–2014)

[“Actor Mickey Rooney scowls into telephone while sitting behind new curved desk with shelves containing ceramic animals (Ferdinand the Bull, Pluto, etc.) which his mother gave him as part of new bedroom/office for his birthday.” Photograph by Peter Stackpole. California, 1939. From the Life Photo Archive.]

Mickey Rooney’s came up three times in our household this weekend. We heard a Jeopardy contestant confuse Mickey with Andy Rooney. We talked about a New Yorker article that mentioned Norman Lear’s interest in Rooney for the role of Archie Bunker in All in the Family. Too risky, Rooney thought. And that led us to consider Mr. Yunioshi of Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

I like musicals just fine. But I remember Rooney more for The Comedian (1957), Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), and his strange turn in the Naked City episode “Ooftus Goofus” (1961).

The New York Times has an obituary.