"Retire? Why? Why is it everyone wants me to retire? Who cares about age? I don't need to retire."
That's Mickey Rooney, 87, voted by film exhibitors the top box-office star in the United States for three years in a row, 1939–1941.
Why such an enormous success? Well, pictures like Babes in Arms (opposite Judy Garland, and for which he received a best actor Oscar nomination), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Strike Up the Band (also with Garland), and, ahem, Life Begins for Andy Hardy.
Love him or hate him, one must admit that Rooney has lots of stamina, having been putting on a show since the late 1920s. According to Robert C. Lopez's Greensboro News & Record article on Rooney, the veteran performer "keeps in shape by cutting the rug onstage, and Greensboro fans can catch his song-and-dance routine when he and wife Jan Chamberlin hit the Carolina Theatre on Saturday."
Lopez adds, "during his heyday, stars — especially child stars — were held to a strict code of behavior in public. Today's young stars — like Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan — seem more likely to make headlines for run-ins with the law and exposing themselves. Rooney, who admits he had a reputation as a troublemaker in his youth, said he has nothing but sympathy for such troubled performers.
"'I really don't care to comment on them, other than to say we feel very sorry for them,' he said. 'We're all human beings, nobody's perfect.'"
I was in Ireland with my wife a couple of years back on holiday and was delighted to see that Mickey and his wife were giving a show at the National Concert Hall in Dublin as it was across from the hotel, Conrad, where we were staying, so very handy.
It was a good show and there was a big turn out from a lot of Irish people. What sullied the evening was later when Mickey returned to the hotel, which seems to be the meeting place before a show at the NCH as it's known and afterwards; saw him in a very bad mood.
I remember one young woman went over to shake his hand and he pushed her away; she stumbled and fell against the wall in the hotel holding onto the railing. He was so aggressive. I was almost glad that I didn't go over myself to say hello to him and now when I am in LA on business if I see any Hollywood actors, I tend to cross the other side of the street for fear of them been as rude as Mickey was to that woman that night.
Later on, my wife met the young woman in the rest room and she asked if she was okay and she replied that she had better days. She was suffering from multiple bone tumours in her body and was often in a lot pain and that day was the one day she was okay and now she was bruised after her fall. Her husband was furious with Rooney and the woman said. "It's sad to think, I've admired that man's pictures all me life and now if he died tomorrow, I don't think it would bother me as my lasting memory of Mickey Rooney is an old rude aggressive man and I hope he never comes back to Ireland again"
That woman was quite young and was also recovering from a bad stroke she had 9 months prior..
Mickey Rooney, as an actor when he was young; very good very talented – as a person in public, horrible… aggressive and that's the lasting memory I have of him as well.
I WOULD GIVE SO MUCH TO SEE
MICKEY ROONEY PERFORM LIVE.
I am so greatful to him for
the joy he has give me my
family and all my friends.
He is a fabulous talent, actor, singer
dancer, but he is so sincere.
I've never been a Mickey Rooney fan, but I have to say that I admire his hard work.