Mickey Rooney appeared in more than 300 films, made numerous television appearances, and starred on Broadway. He was also an avid sports fan, an experienced athlete in multiple sports, and frequently attended collegiate and professional sporting events.
Born Ninnian Joseph Yule Jr. in 1920, Rooney spent his formative years on the West Coast, where he was recognized as a top ping-pong and tennis player, a skill that helped him build early connections with many Hollywood stars.
Beyond ping-pong and tennis, Rooney excelled in several other sports, including swimming, football, baseball, horseback riding, hockey, golf, handball, and basketball.
Rooney was also a dedicated fan and sideline supporter of UCLA Bruins football. For example, Rooney and his first wife, Ava Gardner, hosted a celebration for the team at the Ambassador Hotel’s Cocoanut Grove ballroom after the Bruins made their first Rose Bowl appearance.
Rooney playing in the Bob Hope Desert Classic (photo courtesy of St. Andrews University)
Rooney was also an avid golfer, maintaining a roughly 10 handicap. He was frequently photographed playing golf around Los Angeles and stayed connected to the sport through the former Mickey Rooney’s Motor Inn in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, now part of the Downingtown Country Club golf course.
In 1960, Rooney appeared in an episode of Celebrity Golf facing legendary golfer Sam Snead in a television charity match series. In his 1991 autobiography Life is Too Short (Rooney was 5′ 2″ tall), Rooney suggested bizarre golf ideas, including “Two Ball Golf,” in which players would hit a whiffle ball off the tee, then play a regular ball on the green. In an episode of his sitcom, The Mickey Rooney Show, his character, Mickey Mulligan, enters a company golf tournament with a 35-stroke handicap.
Rooney starred in many sports films. He showcased his versatility by portraying a football player, a horse racing jockey, a race car driver, a boxer, and a boxing trainer in such films as Mickey’s Touchdown (1933), The Big Chance (1933), Down the Stretch (1936), Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry (1937), National Velvet (1944), Killer McCoy (1947), The Big Wheel (1949), Drive a Crooked Road (1954), Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), The Black Stallion (1979), and Lightning, the White Stallion (1986).
Graphic courtesy of IMDb
Rooney starred in many other movies, including Broadway to Hollywood (1933), Manhattan Melodrama (1934), Death on the Diamond (1934), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935), and Ah, Wilderness! (1935), Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936), A Family Affair (1937), Captains Courageous (1937), You’re Only Young Once (1937), Judge Hardy’s Children (1938), Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938), Boys Town (1938), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1939), Babes in Arms (1939), Young Tom Edison (1940), Strike Up the Band (1940), Babes on Broadway (1941), The Human Comedy (1943), Girl Crazy (1943), Summer Holiday (1948), Words and Music (1948), The Big Strip (1951), Sound Off (1952), All Ashore (1953), The Bold and the Brave (1956), Francis in the Haunted House (1956), Baby Face Nelson (1957), The Last Mile (1959), It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World (1963), How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965), Pete’s Dragon (1977), and Night at the Museum (2006).
Rooney guest-starred in many television programs, which include Wagon Train, The Twilight Zone, Rawhide, Combat, Night Gallery, The Love Boat, The Golden Girls, Murder, She Wrote, The Simpsons, and ER. He also appeared in many Broadway productions, which include A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1965), The Odd Couple (1967), Show Boat (1983), The Sunshine Boys (1990), and The Wizard of Oz (1997-1999).
For over half a century, the durable, energetic Mickey Rooney seemed to be everywhere, doing everything, and his constant presence kept him in the public spotlight. He died in 2014 at 93.
