Few Hollywood legends have begun their careers as children and been able to maintain a life-long career. Mickey Rooney, however, first began acting at the age of 6, and remained in the business until he passed away at the age of 93, an 87-year-career! His birth date was on September 23rd, and in recognition, I thought it would be fun to acknowledge his fascinating Disney connections, which go beyond just film and television appearances.
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was a cartoon character originated by Walt Disney, though Disney lost the rights to the character because of a copyright infraction with Universal Studios. Universal began producing “Oswald” shorts in 1928 and they added sound to their cartoons also and even decided Oswald should have a voice. (This, however, was just after Disney had invented “sound within cartoons,” in Steamboat Willie (1928)). Mickey Rooney was fortunate enough to be cast as the voice of goodhearted, but clumsy rabbit, voicing him for two shorts, The Hare Mail and The Fisherman, both were released in 1931. Prior to Rooney’s voice, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was also voiced by Pinto Colvig, Disney’s future voice of Goofy, in 1930.
Mickey Rooney made his official Mouse House debut in the original film version of Pete’s Dragon (1977), starring opposite Sean Marshall, Helen Reddy, and Jim Dale. Rooney also appeared in the Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color television movies “Donovan’s Kid,” and “Little Spies,” which aired on television in 1979 and 1986, respectively. In between those television films, Rooney was cast as the voice of the Adult Tod in The Fox and the Hound (1981) opposite Kurt Russell as the Adult Copper and he even made one guest appearance in the third season of The Golden Girls (1985-1992). Three years before he past away, he also made a cameo in the “Life’s a Happy Song,” sequence in The Muppets (2011).
There also was a rumor that Walt Disney named Mickey Mouse after Rooney (later proven false). It was said that Disney ran into Rooney when he was working on Mickey Mouse’s early drawings and the two introduced one another and Disney also asked for his opinion on the drawings. According to IMDB this was proven false, however, because the name Mickey came from the mind of Walt’s wife, Lilian Bounds Disney, who thought Mickey was a better name for a mouse, as opposed to Walt’s original idea, Mortimer. Mickey Rooney’s eldest son, Mickey Rooney Jr., however, later went on to become one of the original Mouseketeers in The Mickey Mouse Club (1955-1958).
Throughout his career, Rooney garnered four Oscar Nominations, winning an Honorary Oscar in 1983, as well as Two Golden Globe wins. He was also known for acting alongside many other legends in the movie It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) and for voicing Santa Claus in Rankin/Bass’s The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974), a role that he reprised twice. He starred alongside Ben Stiller, Dick Van Dyke, and Robin Williams in Night at the Museum (2006) as Gus the Security Guard, a role that he reprised in the film’s second sequel Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014), which was released posthumously after Rooney’s and Williams’s, on December 19th, 2014.
Mickey Rooney had an incredibly long career in show business—including some great Disney connections. It’s inspiring that he was able to continue doing what he loved over the course of many decades entertaining multiple generations in the process!
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