One of his earliest movies was "Little Lord Fauntleroy". He was like 16, and he was confrontational and combative.
I think pugilistic is pretty common among men with small man syndrome.
Posted on 10/21/2015 9:15:48 AM PDT by Signalman
He was one of Hollywood's greatest actors, someone whose estate could have been worth hundreds of millions when he died in summer 2014. Instead, he endured beatings, humiliation and poverty at the hands of his eighth wife and one of her sons, both accused today of elder abuse and destroying a legend.
Mickey Rooney shrieks in pain. Is he OK? "No, I'm not," he says, choking back tears. It's July 2010, inside The Grill on the Alley in Thousand Oaks, and in the midst of an interview with one of the authors of this piece, the diminutive 89-year-old has been kicked under the table by his eighth wife, Jan, as confirmed by his stepson, Chris Aber, who also is at the table. "She kicked him real hard," says Chris with a laugh. Rooney's offense? Rambling in his answers.
This meeting took place because the interviewer (who, as a then-freelance writer, was gathering material for a book) agreed to requirements set forth by Jan and Chris and conveyed to him over the phone by Kevin Pawley, Rooney's Kentucky-based manager: Bring a check for $200 and slip it to Chris when Rooney wasn't paying attention (ostensibly because financial transactions make him uncomfortable) and treat the three of them to lunch at the restaurant (Jan later ordered dinners to go for each of them).
A flip cam at the end of the table rolls as Jan, theatrically seeking the source of what caused her husband's pain, peers under the table for a moment and then turns to Chris and scolds him for confirming, in part, what the general public only would learn later: In his final years, Rooney was the victim of ongoing elder abuse.
(Excerpt) Read more at hollywoodreporter.com ...
“Along” with it. No matter how I think I edit, the spellcheck betrays.
Of course, what is always simultaneously fascinating and sickening are all the leeches grabbing for the dough while the star is alive and after he or she is dead.
YOU!!! ought to write a book about these things. You seem to have met everybody in show biz who passed through NYC.
He may have wanted to but was literally a prisoner in fear for his life. Now we know why we are commanded to honor our father and mother and then in Leviticus
9 ‘If there is anyone who curses his father or his mother, he shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother, his bloodguiltiness is upon him.
I wonder what Freud said to God when he was face down in front of the throne?
My family are Hollywood comedy writers and my husband and I are in theater. Believe me, we haven’t met everybody but we have met people who have met everybody so I pass on their memories. I just had lunch with a relative and the subject of Mickey came up because of this new book. Neither of us believe he was a victim of elder abuse - more likely his poor kids were victims!
One of his earliest movies was "Little Lord Fauntleroy". He was like 16, and he was confrontational and combative.
I think pugilistic is pretty common among men with small man syndrome.
I don’t think we should get all weepy over Mickey. He was a degenerate gambler who went through fortune after fortune, was married something like 8 times, had one of the worst tempers in the business and solicited oral sex from a fourteen year old Elizabeth Taylor. Even he admitted he was a creep in his many autobiographies which I devoured as a kid. Hilariously awful books, btw, which I recommend to anyone who is a fan of camp.
That said, he was a performing genius. An absolute idiot savant of the performing arts. Could do almost anything with great passion and truth.
I ran into Mickey Rooney in a hotel in Philadelphia. He was sitting all by himself in the lobby (his feet didn’t reach the floor). I was on my way to a meeting but I stopped and offered my hand. He waved me off like I had the plague, telling me he was waiting for someone. I would have thought he’d be flattered that anyone even recognized him.
I don’t know what kind of person he was but he was kind of a douchebag to me that morning.
You might want to read this book - which documents his physical abuse. What kind of a tv set are you talking about? He was in his dressing room in NYC in the 1980s - these rooms are not big and neither are the tv sets (think rabbit ears) that go into them. Also, he was in top physical shape during that time - ever see Sugar Babies or any of his musicals??? He was athletic and strong, despite his height. Just look at Babes in Arms!
Since the stage manager went to Actors’ Equity, you might actually be able to do a google search on it. I don’t know if it was settled out of court.
Although he was in the occasional flick (It’s A Mad...World”) and tv show, it seemed like his big days of stardom were pretty much finished when I was growing up in the fifties and sixties. He used to do occasional (unfunny) appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, but for the most part almost disappeared from show biz until Sugar Babies.
Those stories are legion about him. It’s one of the reason I hate approaching famous people - you never know how they’ll react!
I guess I'll have to demur. But chacon a son gout.
He made a great splash in The Black Stallion as well. An absolutely gem of a performance and unlike most of his exhuberant work. He worked continually in tv during the 50s and 60s. Episodes of Twilight Zone and Naked City and Run For Your Life. Really, he had the most amazing career. I love his performance in It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
He was on The Simpsons years ago and said he was the top box office draw in 1939 and 1940. Bart replied, "Spanning two decades!"
Mickey Rooney was offered the role of “The Penguin” on the 1960s Batman TV series, but turned it down. The part, of course, then went to Burgess Meredith. He was also considered for the role of Archie Bunker on “All In The Family.”
Boys Town doesn’t need any money.
Meh...too late anyway.
I want a trophy wife. Do you think I could get a head mount of my Ex?
Very sad but usually it’s the children who commit elder abuse. We went through it with Hubby’s dad and sister. Never thought she would do it but she moved in with dad and it bagan. He had slight dementia and with no one knowing she took him to his attorney and changed the trust from Hubby’s name to hers. When she started stealing from him and being mean to him we called her on it and she threw him in a home, stole all his money, and moved. Our only option was to hire an attorney and go to court. When we did that the stupid judge put him under the sis who did all this as his conservator. We were in court for 3 years. 2 1/2 years in Dad died and the only thing left to fight over was the money. The judge insisted they reach an agreement and they did. She wound up with about 4/5 of Dad’s money. Our attorney put together an open and shut case of bank records, etc absolutely showing she had stolen all his money (while he was alive), and turned in dozens of fraudulent documents to the court and turned it in to the DA’s office who never did a thing about it. The witch got away with every fraudulent, thieving thing she did, even to the court itself.
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