On this day 100 years ago, Mickey Rooney, the award-winning actor and comedian was born in Brooklyn, New York. In a career spanning nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and played the young ‘ Andy Hardy ’ in 15 films that epitomized American family values. A versatile performer and dancer at age 17, he was celebrated for his performance as a juvenile delinquent in Boys Town , opposite Spencer Tracy. Laurence Olivier once said he considered Rooney “the best there has ever been”. One director called him “the closest thing to a genius I ever worked with”. At 19, he was the first teenager to be nominated for an Oscar (the first of four nominations with 2 wins in his lifetime) for his leading role in Babes in Arms and at the peak of his career—from 1939 to 1941—Rooney was the top box-office attraction and one of the best-paid actors of that era. Drafted into the Army during World War II, he served nearly two years entertaining over two million troops on stage and radio and was awarded a Bronze Star for performing in combat zones. Rooney's popularity was renewed with supporting roles in Breakfast at Tiffany's , Requiem for a Heavyweight, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World , and The Black Stallion in 1979. He won an Emmy in 1982 plus a Golden Globe for his role in Bill CNN and ABC’s obituaries summarizing his brilliant life upon his death at 93... (1920–2014)