I don't know what to write about Mickey Rooney. The man obviously had an impressive body of work at various ages…and of course, we lament the passing of another cast member — the last of the really major players — from It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. The few times I spoke with him, he was unpleasant and not very coherent. Remember the impression that Dana Carvey used to do of him rambling on and on, talking about himself as "The Number One Box Office Star in the World"? Well, he was that but he was also just what the impression said he was.
He was at one point much-loved by his contemporaries but eventually, most of his contemporaries left us and the ones who remained tended to either humor his eccentric jabbering or, more often, avoid him as much as possible. You can forgive a certain amount of that from an aged screen legend and even be amused by some of it. But at some point, it just makes you cringe. He made me cringe a number of times, especially when he started lecturing younger performers about how to run their lives and careers. If ever there was a person unqualified to give such advice…
I was not a fan of his Andy Hardy movies or of those Mickey-and-Judy musicals he made for M.G.M., though you had to admire how hard he worked in them. I did think he was great in Boys Town and some of his later serious roles, like the TV drama, The Comedian. Too often, he was the poster boy for the old adage about how actors need to learn they're allowed to turn things down. It's also not necessary to marry every single woman you meet.
But still, he was Mickey Rooney. He started in films when he was six or seven (historians argue the actual date) and he was on stage before that. He just died at the age of 93 and I believe he'd recently completed a cameo in the currently-filming sequel to the sequel to Night at the Museum. Gotta respect the longevity…and Turner Classic Movies should have no trouble assembling an evening of really good movies he was in. Maybe that's the nicest way to remember the man.