# There's Just Something . . . Creepy About Mickey Rooney **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 9, 2004, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-just-something-creepy-about-mickey-rooney/239068 "2004-04-09T00:16:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2004, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-just-something-creepy-about-mickey-rooney/239068/61 "2004-04-13T21:06:00Z")
Sorry for the hijack, but there’s a really cool 1999 interview with Shaw [here](http://www.laweekly.com/ink/99/51/music-mckenna.php). He discusses Ava (she was terrified of losing her looks and being forgotten), Lana (he calls her an airhead), and accuses John Updike of having a “penis problem”. It’s rare to read the sentence “The Beatles didn’t do much musically.” ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2004, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-just-something-creepy-about-mickey-rooney/239068/62 "2004-04-13T22:38:52Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Not to mention a 19-year-old Lana Turner! What did Artie Shaw do, turn them out of doors when they became 20? Didn’t Artie Shaw, um, compromise Judy Garland when she was, what, 9? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2004, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-just-something-creepy-about-mickey-rooney/239068/63 "2004-04-13T22:40:38Z")
Whoa, that’s what Artie Shaw looks like now? Damn, tough break. Mickey Rooney always just struck me as a cornball. He’s only considered a “classic star” because he’s still around and making movies. Most of which suck. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2004, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-just-something-creepy-about-mickey-rooney/239068/64 "2004-04-13T22:51:26Z")
[Here’s](http://www.avagardner.org/Mickeyvisit.html) an article on Mickey & Number 8’s recent visit to the Ava Gardner Museum. (With his obviously enormous ego, I’m guessing he wasn’t just pretending to take offense to her comment in the video.) ---
**Author:** ![Mrs\_Milburn\_Drysdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@Mrs\_Milburn\_Drysdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrs_Milburn_Drysdale)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2004, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-just-something-creepy-about-mickey-rooney/239068/65 "2004-04-13T23:31:19Z")
I’ve been to the Ava museum a few times, it’s a real fan-made labor of love. She’s buried not too far away. I’m preparing myself to read the article … ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2004, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-just-something-creepy-about-mickey-rooney/239068/66 "2004-04-13T23:41:03Z")
That photo of Mickey Rooney with Ava Gardner leaves me wondering, which one of them made a deal with Satan? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2004, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-just-something-creepy-about-mickey-rooney/239068/67 "2004-04-13T23:49:39Z")
I’m gonna be really catty here-how old is the current Mrs. Rooney? He looks more like her _grandfather_ than her husband! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2004, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-just-something-creepy-about-mickey-rooney/239068/68 "2004-04-15T03:44:36Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > I’m gonna be really catty here-how old is the current Mrs. Rooney? He looks more like her _grandfather_ than her husband! > > :eek: She’s 50-something; he’s in his early 80s. She was actually engaged to Rooney’s son, Mickey Jr., when they met. (If you’re familiar with Martin Short’s character [Jackie Rogers, Jr.](http://sctv.org/characters/jackie/body.htm), the character was developed after watching Mickey Jr. [who’s tried careers in film and music with no success in either] bash his dad on one of the afternoon tabloid shows and promoting his [still unpublished] book _Which One’s Your Mother?_, which Short parodied by a fictional tell-all by JR, Jr. called _Damn You Daddy, Sir!_) ---
**Author:** ![timrs2001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6f9a4e/32.png) [@timrs2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/timrs2001)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2013, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-just-something-creepy-about-mickey-rooney/239068/69 "2013-04-29T18:10:48Z")
I’m listening to a piece on CBC radio [http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/Rewind/ID/2331221204/](http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/Rewind/ID/2331221204/) where the host interviewed Rooney. What a dick he was to the host. Arguing with everything. Just as well I’ve never liked him. ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2013, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-just-something-creepy-about-mickey-rooney/239068/70 "2013-04-29T18:20:55Z")
You must really have a thing against him to go through the hassle of joining a message board and reviving a 9 year old thread just to dis a 9o+ year old actor. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2013, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-just-something-creepy-about-mickey-rooney/239068/71 "2013-04-29T18:34:11Z")
Although I personally approve. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2013, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-just-something-creepy-about-mickey-rooney/239068/72 "2013-04-29T18:44:15Z")
Who would have thought when this thread was new that the troll had another 9 years left in him? Last year he testified before Congress accusing his wife and stepson of elder abuse. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2013, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-just-something-creepy-about-mickey-rooney/239068/73 "2013-04-29T19:18:48Z")
What’s creepier than Zombie Mickey Rooney? I agree that he’s seemed strange in everything I’ve seen him in (I was never a big Rooney/Garland film fan, so I’ve never seen those). His creepiness served him in good stead when he played Puck in _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_ and on _The Twilight Zone_, but those were _supposed_ to be kinda xreepy. I agree that I don’t see the appeal elsewhere. And it seems whenever I hear something about him outside of stage or film he comes off as a Not Very Nice Person. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2013, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-just-something-creepy-about-mickey-rooney/239068/74 "2013-04-29T19:43:20Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Who would have thought when this thread was new that the troll had another 9 years left in him? I think Rooney and George Jones should tell you how much of a crapshoot longevity is. Both of them went through a score of marriages and consumed so much drugs and alcohol over the decades that their livers should’ve turned to pâté at least 30 years ago. And yet, Jones died last week just a few months short of his 82nd birthday and Rooney is surviving well into his 90s. Granted, modern medicine probably has a lot to do with it but that doesn’t account for the fact that they have outlived many people who never smoked, rarely-if ever-drank, regularly exercised, and ate healthy foods their entire lives. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2013, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-just-something-creepy-about-mickey-rooney/239068/75 "2013-04-29T19:53:07Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > I think Rooney and George Jones should tell you how much of a crapshoot longevity is. Both of them went through a score of marriages and consumed so much drugs and alcohol over the decades that their livers should’ve turned to pâté at least 30 years ago. And yet, Jones died last week just a few months short of his 82nd birthday and Rooney is surviving well into his 90s. Granted, modern medicine probably has a lot to do with it but that doesn’t account for the fact that they have outlived many people who never smoked, rarely-if ever-drank, regularly exercised, and ate healthy foods their entire lives. Leon Askin, the character actor who played General Burkhalter on Hogan’s Heroes ([pic](http://www.wearysloth.com/Gallery/ActorsA/tve636-19660415-156.gif)), survived being arrested by the Nazis (he was a Jew and a political cabaret performer) and fleeing to the U.S. (which had to have been, to say the least, stressful), was beyond obese by the time he was middle aged (his roly poliness was a major part of his fame), and smoked on top of that (he has a cigarette or cigar in almost every older picture of him), and not only was he still alive in his 90s he was still _performing in theater_ in his native Austria. I remember watching Eubie Blake perform at a New Year’s Eve special when I was a kid and he was playing piano like a mad man and literally lighting one cigarette off of another when he was in his 90s. Then there are Mick Jagger and Keith Richards who statistically should have been dead at least since the late '80s. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2013, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-just-something-creepy-about-mickey-rooney/239068/76 "2013-04-29T21:07:30Z")
Anybody have Mickey Rooney in the Celebrity Death Pool? ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2013, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-just-something-creepy-about-mickey-rooney/239068/77 "2013-04-29T23:37:59Z")
I saw him live as a kid in a play called Three Goats and a Blanket. All I recall that he spent as much time mugging as he spent delivering his actual lines. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-just-something-creepy-about-mickey-rooney/239068/78 "2013-04-30T02:07:31Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Leon Askin, the character actor who played General Burkhalter on Hogan’s Heroes ([pic](http://www.wearysloth.com/Gallery/ActorsA/tve636-19660415-156.gif)), survived being arrested by the Nazis (he was a Jew and a political cabaret performer) and fleeing to the U.S. (which had to have been, to say the least, stressful), was beyond obese by the time he was middle aged (his roly poliness was a major part of his fame), and smoked on top of that (he has a cigarette or cigar in almost every older picture of him), and not only was he still alive in his 90s he was still _performing in theater_ in his native Austria. I remember watching Eubie Blake perform at a New Year’s Eve special when I was a kid and he was playing piano like a mad man and literally lighting one cigarette off of another when he was in his 90s. Then there are Mick Jagger and Keith Richards who statistically should have been dead at least since the late '80s. And let’s not forget Jerry Lee Lewis. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-just-something-creepy-about-mickey-rooney/239068/79 "2013-04-30T02:21:56Z")
I know someone who was at a Rolling Stones concert and she swore she was close enough to the stage to see the Angel of Death hovering over Keith Richards. And this was a while back. You can never tell, after all. ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-just-something-creepy-about-mickey-rooney/239068/80 "2013-04-30T03:16:53Z")
I know it was 9 years ago but I just had to respond to this: > [@](#): > > Mickey on Ellen Degeneres: Jesus Christ said the effeminate are an abomination to me. We’ll just have to tell Ellen to butch it up a little, then. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-just-something-creepy-about-mickey-rooney/239068.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-just-something-creepy-about-mickey-rooney/239068.md?page=5)