Personal Life
Rooney has been married eight times. In the 1950s and 1960s, he was often the subject of comedians' jokes for his alleged inability to stay married. He is currently married to Jan Chamberlin. He has a total of nine children, as well as nineteen grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.
In 1942, he married Hollywood starlet Ava Gardner, but the two were divorced well before she became a star in her own right. While stationed in the military in Alabama in 1944, Rooney met and married local beauty queen Betty Jane Phillips. This marriage ended in divorce after he returned from Europe at the end of World War II. His subsequent marriages to Martha Vickers (1949) and Elaine Mahnken (1952) were also short-lived and ended in divorce. In 1958, Rooney married Barbara Ann Thomason, but tragedy struck when she was murdered in 1966. Falling into deep depression, he married Barbara's friend, Marge Lane, who helped him take care of his young children. The marriage lasted only 100 days. He was married to Carolyn Hockett from 1969 to 1974, but financial instability ended the relationship. Finally, in 1978, Rooney married Jan Chamberlin, his 8th wife. As of 2012, they live in Westlake Village, California. Rooney is an outspoken advocate for veterans and senior rights.
On September 23, 2010, Rooney celebrated his 90th birthday at Feinstein's at Loews Regency in the Upper East Side of New York City. Among the people who were attending the party were: Donald Trump, Regis Philbin, Nathan Lane and Tony Bennett. In December 2010 he was honored as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month.
On February 16, 2011, Rooney was granted a temporary restraining order against Christopher Aber. Christopher is the oldest of Jan Rooney's two sons from a previous marriage. Many press releases state that the restraining order included Mickey Rooney, Jan's son Mark Rooney, who is currently Mickey's caregiver, and wife Jan Rooney. Public record states that the restraining order in fact included Mickey Rooney, Mark Rooney and Mark's wife Charlene Rooney. Jan Rooney was not included in the restraining order and has publicly denied any abuse in defense of her son Christopher. On March 2, 2011 Rooney appeared before a special US Senate committee that was considering legislation to curb elder abuse. Rooney stated that he was financially abused by unnamed family members. On March 27, 2011, all of Rooney's finances were permanently handed over to lawyers over the claim of missing money.
In April 2011, the temporary restraining order that Rooney was previously granted was replaced by a confidential settlement between Rooney and his stepson. Christopher Aber and Jan Rooney have denied all the allegations.
Read more about this topic: Mickey Rooney
Famous quotes containing the words personal and/or life:
“Wherever the State touches the personal life of the infant, the child, the youth, or the aged, helpless, defective in mind, body or moral nature, there the State enters “woman’s peculiar sphere,” her sphere of motherly succor and training, her sphere of sympathetic and self-sacrificing ministration to individual lives.”
—Anna Garlin Spencer (1851–1931)
“But it is a cold, lifeless business when you go to the shops to buy something, which does not represent your life and talent, but a goldsmith’s.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)