Mickey Rooney

born Joseph Yule Jr.
September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014

American actor, producer, radio entertainer and vaudevillian

In a career spanning nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films, and was among the last surviving stars of the silent-film era.

He was the top box-office attraction from 1939 to 1941 and one of the best-paid actors of that era. Rooney performed the role of Andy Hardy in a series of 16 films in the 1930s and 1940s that epitomized mainstream America's self-image.

Rooney was born Joseph Yule Jr. in New York City on September 23, 1920, the only child of Nellie W. Carter and Joe Yule. His dad was from Glasgow, Scotland - born in the Polmadie district of that city, with the given name of Ninian Joseph Ewell.

His mother was an American former chorus girl and burlesque performer from Kansas City, Missouri, while his father was a Scottish-born vaudevillian, who had emigrated to New York from Glasgow with his family at the age of three months.

Rooney's parents separated when he was four years old in 1924, and he and his mother moved to Hollywood the following year. He made his first film appearance at age six in 1926, in the short Not to be Trusted.

in 1927 his mother saw an advertisement for a child to play the role of "Mickey McGuire" in a series of short films. Rooney got the role and became "Mickey" for 78 of the films, running from 1927 to 1936, starting with Mickey's Circus (1927), his first starring role.

In June 1944, Rooney was inducted into the United States Army, where he served more than 21 months entertaining the troops in America and Europe in Special Services.