Mickey Rooney's height of 1.57 meters and his eternal childish face were not an obstacle to marrying eight times.
Mickey Rooney participated in more than 200 films and was nominated for four Oscars - he only achieved one, honorary - but what Mickey Rooney is remembered for is his conquering facet. His height of 1.57 meters and his eternal childish face were not an obstacle to marrying eight times, one of them with Ava Gardner.
Mickey Rooney was 22 years old and a movie star when he married the young Ava Gardner, 19, who had just been discovered by a talent scout who knew how to see the power of the southern belle of her.
It was 1941, and Mickey Rooney, after an outstanding career as a child star, had moved on to teen cinema at the hands of his best-known professional couple, Judy Garland. With one of his first collaborations, the musical 'Babes in Arms' ('The Children of show business, 1939), he achieved his first Oscar nomination.
Young Mickey Rooney had an immaculate public image, a permanent smile, and radiated contagious charm.
It is not an exaggeration to compare him in terms of fame with Justin Bieber, bridging the gap with the wayward Canadian singer.
Rooney was the ideal son-in-law for the American middle class, and his wedding to Ava Gardner was quite an event for the time. He was marrying the Metro star to a budding actress who would soon be described as "the most beautiful animal in the world."
They had met on the set of 'Babes on Broadway' ('Boys on Broadway'), another of the films starring the duo Rooney-Gardland.
Years later, Rooney would recall that encounter this way: "'Hello,' Ava said. That was it. Just a hello. And without a smile. But she said it with that soft accent of her rural North Carolina, and I was already there." lost. I had met many wonderful women in my life, but this little woman surpassed them all."
"She was 1.55, but she always wore heels, so she was more or less my height when I wore 12-centimeter heels," said Rooney, who at the time of the meeting was disguised as Carmen Miranda due to script requirements.
The insistence of the actor managed to convince the young Ava, who understood that Rooney could help her in her recently started career in the cinema.
A few days later the first marriage proposal arrived, which would be repeated another five times, until Ava gave up. She received a ring with a huge diamond as a gift, but she made it a condition not to sleep with the actor until they were married.
Despite the opposition shown by Louis B. Mayer, who believed that the marriage would end Rooney's adolescent image and, therefore, with his goose that laid the golden eggs, the marriage was finally celebrated on January 10, 1942.
But the relationship barely lasted a year, mainly due to the actor's infidelities, and marked the beginning of Rooney's fame as a conqueror, who married seven more times and had nine children.
"People say, 'How could you have been married eight times?' I just played the hand as it came to me and I maintain a friendly relationship with most of my ex-wives," said the actor in one of his last interviews.
After Ava Gardner would come to Betty Jane Rase (1944-1949); Martha Vickers (1949-1951); Elaine Mahnken (1952-1958); Barbara Ann Thomason (1958-1966); Marge Lane (1966); Carolyn Hockert (1969-1974) and Jan Chamberlin, the country singer he married in 1978 and accompanied him until her death.
But, beyond Ava Gardner, his most popular partner was Judy Garland, with whom he formed one of the most popular duets in the cinema of the forties, with a series of musical and innocent films that did not respond to the real image of the two actors.
"Judy fell into drugs because she was in pain and because drugs made her feel good. As one of MGM's child stars, she had been treated most of her life with magical, instant fixes for everything. She never accepted herself and he was always running away", said the actor of his eternal companion.
Two relationships that marked his biography, as well as the accusations that he launched a few years ago against members of his family, who allegedly abused him emotionally and financially.
Life is full of successes, failures, and personal and economic problems. "I don't regret anything I've done. I just wish I'd done more"
