page_title: Mickey Rooney
section_title: Personal life
hierarchical_section_title: Mickey Rooney / Personal life
caption_attribution_description: English: Mickey Rooney in Los Angeles
context_page_description: Mickey Rooney was an American actor, vaudevillian, comedian, producer and radio personality. In a career spanning nine decades and continuing until shortly before his death, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the silent-film era.
  At the height of a career marked by declines and comebacks, Rooney performed the role of Andy Hardy in a series of 16 films in the 1930s and 1940s that epitomized American family values. A versatile performer, he became a celebrated character actor later in his career. Laurence Olivier once said he considered Rooney "the best there has ever been". Clarence Brown, who directed him in two of his earliest dramatic roles, National Velvet and The Human Comedy, said he was "the closest thing to a genius I ever worked with".
  Rooney first performed in vaudeville as a child and made his film debut at the age of six. At 14, he played Puck in the play and later the 1935 film adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Critic David Thomson hailed his performance as "one of the cinema's most arresting pieces of magic". In 1938, he co-starred in Boys Town.
context_section_description: At the time of his death, he was married to Jan Chamberlin Rooney, although they had separated in June 2012. He had nine children and two stepchildren, as well as 19 grandchildren and several great-grandchildren. Rooney had been addicted to sleeping pills, and overcame the sleeping pill addiction in 2000 when he was in his late 70s.
  In the late 1970s, Rooney became a born-again Christian and was a fan of Pat Robertson.
  In 1997, Rooney was arrested on suspicion of beating his wife, Jan, but charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.
  On February 16, 2011, Rooney was granted a temporary restraining order against stepson Christopher Aber and Aber's wife, Christina, and they were ordered to stay 100 yards from Rooney, his stepson Mark Rooney and Mark's wife, Charlene Rooney. Rooney claimed that he was a victim of elder abuse.
  On March 2, 2011, Rooney appeared before a special U.S. Senate committee that was considering legislation to curb elder abuse, testifying about the abuse he claimed to have suffered at the hands of family members. In 2011, all of Rooney's finances were permanently handed over to a conservator, who called Rooney "completely competent".
  In April 2011, the temporary restraining order that Rooney was previously granted was replaced by a confidential settlement between Rooney and his stepson, Aber. Christopher Aber and Jan Rooney denied all the allegations.
  In May 2013, Rooney sold his home of many years, reportedly for $1.3 million, and split the proceeds with his wife, Jan.
caption: Rooney in 1986, aged 66
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