Mickey Rooney

Birth Name:

Ninnian Joseph Yule Jr.

Birth Date:

September 23, 1920

Birth Place:

Brooklyn, New York

Death Date:

April 6, 2014

Place of Death:

3522 Wrightwood Court, Studio City, California

Age:

Cause of Death:

Heart disease

Cemetery Name:

Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Claim to Fame:

Show Business

Associates:

Judy Garland

Star of stage, screen and television Mickey Rooney was know for his energy, charisma, versatility and longivity who died with only $18,000 to his name. During his lifetime he racked up over 300 television and movie roles, 8 marriages (including Eva Gardner), 2 bankruptcies, and 1 murdered estranged wife.

Fun Fact

Mickey was the last living actor who had appeared in a movie without sound.

Together, Garland and Rooney made movies at a nonstop pace throughout their teen years. And when we say “nonstop pace,” we mean that they’d finish one movie and start another hours later. The kids were expected to work 18-hour days, six days a week, all while looking so wholesome that you could eat cookies off their foreheads. The problem, as MGM soon figured out, was that children need pharmaceutical help to work those kinds of hours. It wasn’t long before the kids were given amphetamines to keep them going during the day, and sleeping pills to calm them down at night. They were literally given sleeping pills and a cot in the studio lot “hospital” and then woken after 4 hours of sleep to work another 72 hours straight.