They had two children and divorced after five years. At 24, he married Betty Jane Phillips, who later became a singer.She later married Artie Shaw and Frank Sinatra. At age 22, Rooney married teenage actress Ava Gardner and she claims that they divorced one year later because he was cheating on her.He gradually became recognized as a character actor, and in 1979, Francis Ford Coppola cast him as an aging jockey in The Black Stallion, which got excellent reviews and a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Rooney. He appeared in various films and made a successful transition into television with The Mickey Rooney Show, but he never again attained the dominating stardom he had enjoyed in his early years. At the end of the war, he went back to Hollywood but found that he was now too old to play a teenager, and at 5’2″, too short to play an adult romantic lead. Rooney was drafted into the Army in 1944 and spent almost two years entertaining troops in combat zones and as a radio personality on the American Forces Network.
ANDY ROONEY HEIGHT SERIES
Later in this series Rooney was paired with Judy Garland and they went on to become an immensely popular song-and-dance duo in several musicals such as Babes in Arms The film was an unexpected hit which led to 13 more Andy Hardy films from 1937 to 1946. His most notable role came in 1937, when he was cast as Andy Hardy, son of Judge Hardy (played by Lionel Barrymore) in A Family Affair. At seven he won the role of Mickey McGuire, which led to a series of 78 short comedy films that ran from 1927 to 1938. There his mother began a campaign to get him into the movies, and he appeared in his first film at age six. His parents separated when he was four years old, and the next year he and his mother moved to Hollywood. Rooney was born Joseph Yule, Jr., in 1920 to parents who were both vaudeville actors, and he started performing at age 17 months as part of their act in Brooklyn, NY. However, when he wasn’t performing, his behavior was so self-destructive that it is hard to believe that he was able to live for 93 years. He starred in 43 films between ages 15 and 25 and was Hollywood’s top box office draw from 1939 to 1941.
ANDY ROONEY HEIGHT TV
He could act seriously, tell jokes and be funny, sing, and dance in his many roles in the theater, Broadway, vaudeville, radio, TV and more than 300 movies over his 90-year career. Mickey Rooney was truly one of the most enduring and talented performers of all time.