Rooney, Mickey (redirected from Joe Yule, Jr.)

Rooney, Mickey

 orig. Joe Yule, Jr.

(born Sept. 23, 1920, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. film actor. He joined his family in their vaudeville act from the age of 17 months and made his film debut playing a cigar-smoking midget con man in 1926. He starred in 50 RKO short comedies as Mickey McGuire (1927–33) and won praise for his roles in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) and Boys Town (1938). From 1937 he played the cocky, energetic Andy Hardy in a series of popular films, often teamed with Judy Garland. His later film successes include The Human Comedy (1943), National Velvet (1944), Baby Face Nelson (1957), and The Black Stallion (1979). He made a successful Broadway debut in Sugar Babies in 1979, and he continued to perform in popular musical theatre productions, appearing in the title role of The Wizard of Oz in 1998.

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Rooney, Mickey (b. Joe Yule, Jr.) (1920–  ) movie actor; born in New York City. Born to a vaudeville family, he crawled on stage before he was two and made his first movie at age six. He changed his name after starring in a series of short subjects based on a character named Mickey McGuire. He gained serious attention for playing Puck in the motion picture of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935). In 1937 he launched a popular series (15) of feature films in which he played Andy Hardy. In 1938 his role in Boys Town gained him a Special Academy Award and his diminutive size allowed him to play boys until he was about 28 years old. He proved to be multitalented as he moved from musicals to raucous comedy to serious drama. He returned to the stage in 1979 in a long-running tour with Sugar Babes and won an Emmy for his television role in Bill. Married several times, often down but never out, he proved to be one of the most resilient showbiz characters of his era.