Photos: Actor Mickey Rooney dies at age 93
Mickey Rooney, the pint-size, precocious actor and all-around talent whose more than 80-year career spanned silent comedies, Shakespeare, Judy Garland musicals, Andy Hardy stardom, television and the Broadway theater, died Sunday at age 93.
Los Angeles Police Commander Andrew Smith said that Rooney was with his family when he died at his North Hollywood home.
Smith said police took a death report but indicated that there was nothing suspicious and it was not a police case. He said he had no additional details on the circumstances of his passing.
Rooney started his career in his parents' vaudeville act while still a toddler, and broke into movies before age 10. He was still racking up film and TV credits more than 80 years later — a tenure likely unmatched in the history of show business.
Mickey Rooney
FILE - Entertainer Mickey Rooney is shown in this May 1987 file photo. Rooney, a Hollywood legend whose career spanned more than 80 years, has died. He was 93. Los Angeles Police Commander Andrew Smith said that Rooney was with his family when he died Sunday, April 6, 2014, at his North Hollywood home. (AP Photo/File)
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney clowns around between rehearsals of "Mr. Broadway" in New York City on April 25, 1957. Rooney has the role of composer George M. Cohan in the show. (AP Photo)
Mickey Rooney
Child star Mickey Rooney poses for a promotional photo at age 5 in this photo dated about 1925. (AP Photo)
Mickey Rooney at 13
Thirteen-year-old actor Mickey Rooney is shown reading his movie contract before signing the document as his manager Harry Weber looks on in Los Angeles, Ca., on Sept. 18, 1934. Rooney will receive $150 per week from the movie studio. (AP Photo)
Mickey Rooney at 18
Mickey Rooney, 18-year-old film actor, singer and dancer, plants his hands into the cement next to his footprint and signature in the forecourt of Grauman's Theater on Hollywood Boulevard during induction ceremonies in Hollywood, Ca., on Oct. 19, 1938. (AP Photo)
Judy Garland Cooper Lewis Rooney
Judy Garland, Jackie Cooper, Diane Lewis and Mickey Rooney, from left to right, attend a ball game in Hollywood, Ca., on July 24, 1936. (AP Photo)
Mickey Rooney, Ava Gardner
Mickey Rooney and wife, Ava Gardner, arrive in New York in January 1942, en route to Boston where Rooney is to appear at a Red Cross benefit. Rooney, a Hollywood legend whose career spanned more than 80 years, has died. He was 93. Los Angeles Police Commander Andrew Smith said that Rooney was with his family when he died Sunday, April 6, 2014, at his North Hollywood home. (AP Photo/File)
Mickey Rooney, Dick Van Patten, Mel Brooks
In this Sunday, March 30, 2014, file photo, entertainment icons Dick Van Patten, left, and Mel Brooks flank Mickey Rooney at Santa Anita Park, in Arcadia Calif. Rooney, a Hollywood legend whose career spanned more than 80 years, has died. He was 93. Los Angeles Police Commander Andrew Smith said that Rooney was with his family when he died Sunday, April 6, 2014, at his North Hollywood home. (AP Photo/Benoit Photo, File)
Mickey Rooney
Actor Mickey Rooney is shown in this file photo as G.I. Dooley in the 1956 Hollywood movie "The Bold and the Brave." Rooney, a Hollywood legend whose career spanned more than 80 years, has died. He was 93. Los Angeles Police Commander Andrew Smith said that Rooney was with his family when he died Sunday, April 6, 2014, at his North Hollywood home. (AP Photo/File)
Mickey Rooney, Jan Rooney
In this Monday, April 26, 2004, file photo, Jan, left, and Mickey Rooney pose for photographs after having unveiled their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles. Mickey Rooney, a Hollywood legend whose career spanned more than 80 years, has died. He was 93. Los Angeles Police Commander Andrew Smith said that Rooney was with his family when he died Sunday, April 6, 2014, at his North Hollywood home. (AP Photo/Ann Johansson, File)
Mickey Rooney
In this Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008, file photo, Mickey Rooney takes the stage to make an award presentation at the 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, in Los Angeles. Rooney, a Hollywood legend whose career spanned more than 80 years, has died. He was 93. Los Angeles Police Commander Andrew Smith said that Rooney was with his family when he died Sunday, April 6, 2014, at his North Hollywood home. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)
Mickey Rooney, Herb Kohl, Bob Corker
In this Wednesday, March 2, 2011, file photo, Senate Aging Committee Chairman Sen. Herb Kohl. D-Wis., center, gets a hug from entertainer Mickey Rooney, right, on Capitol Hill in Washington, as Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., looks on at left, prior to Rooney testifying about elder abuse, before the committee. Rooney, a Hollywood legend whose career spanned more than 80 years, has died. He was 93. Los Angeles Police Commander Andrew Smith said that Rooney was with his family when he died Sunday, April 6, 2014, at his North Hollywood home. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
Mickey Rooney, Raquel Welch
Mickey Rooney points out Raquel Welch, surrounded by chorus line of the Broadway hit “Sugar Babies,” during a backstage visit after performance in New York on Friday, April 5, 1980. (AP Photo/ Ron Frehm)
Mickey Rooney, Sammy Davis jr., Ann Miller
Actor Mickey Rooney, left, gets a hug from entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. backstage during intermission at New York's Mark Hellinger Theatre where Rooney is appearing in the Broadway musical comedy revue "Sugar Babies," Monday night, April 6, 1981. In the background is cast member Ann Miller. (AP Photo/Nancy Kaye)
Mickey Rooney and Elizabeth Taylor
Veteran comic Mickey Rooney is a picture of poise in a Napoleonic era hat as he tapes an “I love New York” television commercial with British-American actress Elizabeth Taylor on Thursday, August 27, 1981 in New York, United States. Rooney is now starring in the review “Sugar Babies” on Broadway while Miss Taylor stars in “Little Foxes.” (AP Photo/GPB)
Mickey Rooney
Actor Mickey Rooney performs in drag at New York State Theater during a benefit show entitled "Broadway Salutes New York City Opera" at Lincoln Center in New York City, Oct. 27, 1981. Rooney is wearing a costume from the musical revue "Sugar Babies." (AP Photo)
Mickey Rooney
Actor Mickey Rooney poses with his Honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement at the 55th Annual Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, Ca., April 10, 1983. Rooney is honored for his 60 years of contribution to the motion picture industry. (AP Photo)
Mickey Rooney
Actor Mickey Rooney, left, salutes the media backstage as his wife Jan, right, looks on, at the 7th Annual American Veteran Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., Friday, Nov. 30, 2001. The Awards promote patriotism and are broadcast to U.S. troops worldwide. (AP Photo/Lucy Nicholson)
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney and his wife, Jan, arrive at the memorial service for Bob Hope at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in the North Hollywood area of Los Angeles Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2003. Hope died July 27, 2003. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland,Ann Rutherford
Mickey Rooney accompanied by Judy Garland and Ann Rutherford arriving at the theatre in the old Jalopy, New York City, he uses in the series on August 17, 1941. As special guests of the theater all of the Hollywood families bearing the name of Hardy were invited as special guests for the evening. (AP Photo)
Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney
Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney put their heads together over a television script for their first on stage reunion in 18 years on June 26, 1963. The occasion was the taping of the first of 32 variety shows which Judy will do for CBS next season. Their last appearance together was in “Ziegfield Follies” in 1945. (AP Photo)
Mickey Rooney, wife Margie Lane
Actor Mickey Rooney and his new wife Margie Lane cut the cake at their wedding reception at the Desert Inn Hotel Casino in Las Vegas, Nev., on September 10, 1966. (AP Photo)
Mickey Rooney, Jan Chamberlain
Actor Mickey Rooney and singer-songwriter Jan Chamberlain arrrive at the Los Angeles Music Center for the 50th Annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles, Ca., April 3, 1978. (AP Photo)
Mickey Rooney with Larry Hagman
Academy Award nominee Mickey Rooney left, stands on his tiptoes next to Larry Hagman, star of TV?s ?Dallas? during a backstage visit during an intermission of the Broadway musical ?Sugar Babies? in New York on Wednesday, March 3, 1980. Rooney, who got the nomination for his role in the film ?The Black Stallion,? is accompanied by co-star Ann Miller. (AP Photo/ Carlos Rene Perez)
Debbie Reynolds 1980
Actress Debbie Reynolds, right, clowns around with "Sugar Babies" stars Ann Miller, left, and Mickey Rooney backstage at New York?s Mark Hellinger Theatre , Sept. 3, 1980. Miss Reynolds will star as the French author Colette in an upcoming Broadway musical ?Door-Ways.? (AP Photo/Steve Sands)
Reagans Visit Broadway 1981
President Ronald Reagan embraces Mickey Rooney while Nancy Reagan chats with Ann Miller during a backstage visit between acts of the Broadway musical “Sugar Babies” in New York, March 14, 1981.
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney holds his autobiography, "Life Is Too Short," during a book signing at a bookstore in New York City on April 1, 1991. Rooney, 70, has been married eight times, appeared on Broadway and has made 150 films. (AP Photo/David Cantor)
Mickey Rooney, wife Jan Chamberlin
Mickey Rooney, right, arrives with his wife Jan Chamberlin, as Mike Meyers and his wife Robin Ruzan, far left, arrive for the 77th Oscars Academy Awards Sunday, Feb. 27, 2005, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)
Mickey Rooney
Actor Mickey Rooney atttends Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell's Inaugural Ball Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2007 in Harrisburg, Pa. (AP Photo/Bradley C Bower)
Mickey Rooney as Pinnocchio
Actor Mickey Rooney as "Pinnochio," September 1957. (AP Photo)
Mickey Rooney
Actor Mickey Rooney wears a microphone on his forehead as he prepares for his opening in the "The Wizard of Oz" at New York's Madison Squre Garden, Friday May 1, 1998. The 77-year-old plays The Wizard, co-starring with Eartha Kitt as The Wicked Witch of the West. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Mickey Rooney in 'The Wizard of Oz'
Mickey Rooney, second from right, joins cast members Dirk Lumbard, Eartha Kitt and Caroline McMahon, left to right, during the opening performance curtain call for "The Wizard of Oz" Friday, May 1, 1998, at New York's Madison Square Garden. Rooney plays the lead role in the stage production. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Mickey Rooney
Dixon Arnett, director of the California Department of Aging, right, laughs as actor Mickey Rooney says he's not old but experienced in love and other matters, during a news conference in Sacramento, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 14, 1998. The 78-year-old actor was at the Capitol as honorary spokesman for the department's campaign to promote expanded services for the elderly. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
Mickey Rooney
Entertainer Mickey Rooney playfully drops the baseball during the ceremonial first pitch for the start of the Chicago Cubs/Arizona Diamondbacks game Monday, June 7, 1999 in Phoenix. The Cubs won 7-6. (AP Photo/Ken Levine)
Body Removed from Mickey Rooney home
Officials remove one of the bodies found in the home of actor Mickey Rooney in Hollywood, Los Angeles, Jan. 31, 1966, where police said the actor's estranged fifth wife, Barbara, was found dead with actor Milos Milocevic. Police said the bodies were found by a house guest, Wilma Catania of New York City. (AP Photo/George Brich)
Mickey Rooney. Bette Davis, Ed Sullivan
Actor Mickey Rooney, left, and actress Betty Davis are presented crowns after being named King and Queen of the Movies by readers of 55 newspapers in Hollywood, Ca., Jan. 25, 1940. Columnist Ed Sullivan, who conducted the poll, is at center. (AP Photo)
Henry Ford, Edsel Ford, Mickey Rooney
Movie actor Mickey Rooney with an armful of millionaires and dancing a jig in Detroit on Feb. 9, 1940. With him are Edsel and Henry Ford. Rooney has the title role in a Thomas Edison film which will have its world premiere Saturday at Port Huron, Mich. Henry Ford and Edison were close friends. Rooney was a guest of the Fords. (AP Photo)
Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney
Judy Garland receives a kiss from Mickey Rooney as she is given a special award Oscar for her outstanding performance as a screen juvenile during the past years at the 1939 Academy Awards presented at the Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles, Ca., Feb. 29, 1940. (AP Photo)
Mickey Rooney celebrates
Film actor Mickey Rooney celebrates his 21st birthday Sept. 23, 1941 at a party in a Hollywood night club. Here he slices his birthday cake with (left to right) Louis B. Mayer, studio head; Mrs. Nell Pankey, his mother, and Miss Ava Gardner. Mickey's father, Joe Yule, is at the right in the background. (AP Photo)
Mickey Rooney And Ava Gardner Wed 1942
Actor Mickey Rooney kisses his new bride actress Ava Gardner after their marriage in a Presbyterian church in rural Ballard, Calif., Jan. 10, 1942. (AP Photo)
Mickey Rooney And Ava Gardner Wed 1942
Actor Mickey Rooney, second from right, is shown with his bride Ava Gardner, second from left, and her sister and maid of honor Beatrice Gardner, far left, and Rooney's best man Leslie Petersen, far right, on their weddding day, Jan. 11, 1942, in a Presbyterian Church in rural Ballard, California. (AP Photo)
Mickey Rooney, Ava Gardner
Movie star Mickey Rooney and his bride Ava Gardner enjoy their honeymoon in Del Monte, Ca. on Jan. 12, 1942. They were married in Ballard on Jan. 10. (AP Photo)
WWII Entertainment Rooney 1942
Hollywood's Mickey Rooney, visiting the giant Army post at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, demonstrates his riding ability aboard one of the Fourth Field Artillery's famous "jar heads" (mule to the city slicker), Jan. 29, 1942. Both Mickey and the officer accompanying him seem to be having usual troubles with the hard-headed mounts trying to make them travel in the designated direction at the designated time. Mickey went through round of entertainment in his honor, in turn furnishing entertainment for the men. (AP Photo)
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney, Hollywood film star (extreme right) comes down off the stage to shake hands with members of the audience after he was introduced before performing with other movie stars in connection with the Third War Loan drive rally held at the Boston Garden on September 10, 1943. War Finance Committee officials who estimated crowd at 20,000 persons said approximately $200,000,000 in war bonds was purchased. (AP Photo/JMH)
Mickey Rooney
Flashing the same smile known to millions of film-goers, Mickey Rooney, 22, year-old film star, steps from the induction station at Fort MacArthur, Los Angeles, California, on June 26, 1944, wearing an army uniform and carrying a duffel bag over his shoulder. “ (AP Photo)
Mickey Rooney
Pvt. Mickey Rooney attends a Hollywood movie premiere with his mother, Nell Pankey, on Aug. 17, 1944. The actor is back in Hollywood after completing three months of basic training at Fort Riley, Kansas. (AP Photo)
Mickey Rooney, Martha Vickers
Actress Martha Vickers and Actor Mickey Rooney pose together in Hollywood, Ca., on January 21, 1949. The couple is engaged, however the bride will not be free to wed until late summer when her divorce from publicist A.C. Lyles is final, while Rooney 's divorce from Betty Jane Rase is scheduled to become final in May. (AP Photo)
Mickey Rooney, Martha Vickers
Actor Mickey Rooney and his bride, actress Martha Vickers, smile happily as they walk down the aisle of a church in North Hollywood, Calif., shortly after their wedding ceremony, June 3, 1949. (AP Photo)
Mickey Rooney
Actor, singer and dancer Mickey Rooney, wearing spats and a pinstriped suit, performs a dance routine during rehearsal for the television show "George M. Cohan Story" in Hollywood, Ca., on March 19, 1957. (AP Photo)
Mickey Rooney, wife Elaine Mahnken
Actor Mickey Rooney is visited on the filmset by his wife Elaine Mahnken, in this March 27, 1958 photograph. (AP Photo)
Kirk Douglas and Mickey Rooney
Actress Ann Miller throws her head back and sighs after a kiss on the hand from Kirk Douglas, left, while visiting her and Mickey Rooney during intermission of the matin?e performance of "Sugar Babies" on Feb. 16, 1980 at New York's Mark Hellinger Theater in New York. (AP Photo)
Mickey Rooney, wife Caroline Hockett
Actor Mickey Rooney and his wife Caroline Hockett pose together shortly after their marriage, on May 28, 1969, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (AP Photo)
Mickey Rooney in character
Mickey Rooney wearing costume for role in movie "The Private Lives of Adam & Eve." Rooney plays the part of the devil. Girl in the tub is British Actress Joan Wilkinson. The movie story is about people stranded by a flood on the way to Reno, Nevada, with bus passengers becoming Adam, Eve, and the devil in a dream. Within the Garden of Eden the story has Vaudevillian skits involving Mickey Rooney as Satan. This photo is dated September 8, 1959. (AP Photo)
Mickey Rooney at March of Dimes tribute
(From left to right) Dr. Jennifer L. Howse, president March of Dimes, Mickey Rooney, his wife Jan and Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, granddaughter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, gathered at the FDR Library and Museum to kick off the March of Dimes year-long tribute for the 50th anniversary of the Salk polio vaccine. (PRNewsFoto/The March of Dimes)
Mickey Rooney with Gerald Ford and Betty Ford
Former President Gerald Ford, second from left, and his wife Betty Ford, right, visit with Mickey Rooney, left, and Larry Gatlin following a Broadway performance of "The Will Rogers Follies," at the Palace Theatre in New York, Friday, July 16, 1993. (AP Photo)
Mickey Rooney, Maximillian Schell
Hollywood actors Natasha Schell, her husband Maximilian Schell, Mickey Rooney and his wife Janice, from left, pose for photographers, Thursday, Feb. 15, 1996 when they arrive for the traditional Viennese Opera Ball, one of the highlights of the Austrian carneval. Person in the background is not identified. (Ap Photo/Martin Gnedt)
Mickey Rooney, Karl Slover, Clarence Swensen
Karl Slover, left, who played a Munchkin trumpeter in the "Wizard of Oz," and Clarence Swensen, center, who played a Munchkin soldier, applaud Mickey Rooney, right, during a stop by several movie star friends and co-stars of Judy Garland in St. Paul, Minn., Thursday, June 20, 2002. The Munchkins, Rooney and Margaret O'Brien stopped in St. Paul on their way to Grand Rapids, Minn., the birthplace of Judy Garland, to celebrate the 27th annual Judy Garland Festival and what would have been Garland's 80th birthday. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)
Mickey Rooney with Dr. Ruth
In this Sunday, Jan. 17, 1993 file photo, actor Mickey Rooney, right, leans in to talk to Dr. Ruth Westheimer, center, as they wait with New York City Major David Dinkins, second from left, at Penn Station New York, headed for Washington aboard a special train to attend festivities surrounded the inauguration of President-elect Bill Clinton. The woman on the left is unidentified. In 1980, Westheimer broke into late-night radio with "Sexually Speaking," launching a career as confider-in-chief. The voice that Westheimer found on radio, and in the books and television shows that followed, pushed the boundaries of popular culture, declaring it not just safe, but healthy, for people to speak explicitly about their sex lives. A generation after the country embraced the Ruthian ethic of sexual honesty and moved on, what's left for Dr. Ruth, now an octogenarian grandmother, to talk about? Plenty, as it turns out. (AP Photo/Teddy Blackburn)
Mickey Rooney
Dresser John Smith, right, helps Micky Rooney with his costume in Rooney's dressing room Friday, May 1, 1998, at New York's Madison Square Garden. The 77-year-old actor plays the lead role in the stage production of "The Wizard of Oz." (AP Photo/Richard Drew)