The Mickey Rooney Role Nobody Wants to Talk Much About

blogs.wsj.com ^ | Apr 8, 2014 | Jeff Yang or Tao Jones

[BBell]

At the age of 93, actor Mickey Rooney has passed away. As his many lengthy eulogies have made abundantly clear, his was a life of stratospheric highs and humiliating lows. He was one of the biggest stars in the world as a teen; he fell into bankruptcy and irrelevancy as an adult. He reinvented himself and rebounded. He crashed and burned. Few lives have had as many epic twists and turns, making his obituaries obsessively engrossing reading.

[forgotten man]

Mickey Rooney is entitled to a free grave in a veterans cemetery. It would be nice to see him buried with military honors.

[colorado tanker]

It was a different era, a different time. It's plain idiotic to judge people's actions 60 years ago by today's standards.

I'm following Homer Simpson's WWII by day threads and within the last month saw a racist joke reprinted in a 1944 N.Y. Times story about the murder of a black man. Picket the Times?

In Bringing Up Baby, Cary Grant has a line, "Say that's pretty white of Mr. Peabody, isn't it?" (Mr. Peabody was thinking about donating a million dollars to the museum.) So, do we denounce Cary Grant as racist?

In Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World there is a scene where the treasure hunters run a black couple off the road and they are depicted very stereotypically, in a way that would be considered racist today. Stanley Kramer of Judgment at Nuremberg fame a racist?

Time to give it a rest and be glad times have changed instead of being perpetually aggrieved.

[Calusa]

I think folks that just have to constantly vilify America’s cultural heritage deserve the desolation they may be leaving for themselves and those coming after: A paradise lost.

[Kirkwood]

Waiting for the writer to condemn stereotypical caricatures of English twits, cowardly French, fighting Irish, militaristic Germans, dumb Polish, gangster Italians, thieving Romanians, drunken Russians, and fat Americans.

[dennisw]

What a load. I have never even heard of this "toxic character" in this long ago film. It contributed to ethnic stereotypes in what? 1% of today's American population?

Once again we have anti-racism meaning anti-white people. The real meaning and intent of so called anti-racism,

[Fledermaus]

That’s racist of him! lol

[colorado tanker]

I’m sure this writer is just fine with the stereotypical way white, American, adult males are depicted in TV and movies.

[carlo3b]

Why not also blame the director Blake Edwards?

That's a story in itself, that his wife Julie Andrews, won't want any of that to surface..

I worked with him on, "What Did You Do In The War Daddy", and that was worthy of a book in the debauchery category..

So to dredge up a character role that Mickey played in his more than 50 years of service, is outrageous on it's face, and a double standard, in the least..

[sportutegrl]

Maybe white males need to start complaining about Mary Martin and Sandy Duncan playing Peter Pan.

[RightGeek]

Rooney’s part was hilarious. Yang can pound sand.

[MrEdd]

Clearly Jeff Yang is really only upset because Mickey Rooney once acted in a movie based on a novela written by a homosexual.

Jeff isn’t angry about long ago stereotypes.

Jeff is homophobic.

[BBell]

Maybe white males need to start complaining about Mary Martin and Sandy Duncan playing Peter Pan.

Or rachel maddow playing a man.

[BBell]

It’s a wall street journal blog.

[Bogey78O]

Thanks to Notre Dame, I thought all irish people were short red-headed drunkards who liked to fight.

These people are pretending to be offended. Ignore their cries as you would a petulant child.

[skinkinthegrass]

Liberal drivel
(it was a movie script )
..All that needs to be
said..Dumb @$$ liberals..

[tanknetter]

Maybe white males need to start complaining about Mary Martin and Sandy Duncan playing Peter Pan.

The author of this remarkably tasteless hit-piece draws an analogy between the 60 year old racial stereotyping of Asians by Rooney with the current day racial stereotyping of Indians by sports teams.

But no mention, absolutely none, of Johnny Depp's recent portrayal of Tonto in the latest Lone Ranger movie. Which would actually be an apples/apples comparison.

I wonder why the author doesn't do that ...

[bicyclerepair]

BOO FRIKKIN HOO ! God I’m sick of this shiite.

You see Irish people crying after all the St. Patty’s day drunk-Irish jokes?????

[4yearlurker]

What a blah,blah,blah article. David Carridine played a Chinaman. ( A half one anyway) I think Jerry Lewis did too. Who cares???

[onedoug]

“The Bridges At Toko-Ri” and “The Atomic Kid”, are both indicative of his range as an actor. He was in another good film where I think he was a naval corpsman, but I can’t recall it just now.

RIP, Mickey.

[holymoly]

Here's a tip to the malignant, despicable, race-baiters trying to denigrate the memory of the late Mr. Rooney:

Simply because a caucasian actor portrays an asian in a film (even if it's a caricature of an asian), does not make the actor rascist.  I.E.:

Tony Randall played the asian Dr. Lao in "7 Faces of Dr. Lao".

Luise Rainer (French) and Paul Muni portrayed asians in "The Good Earth".

And in 1922, Lon Chaney portrayed an asian in "Shadows".

Mickey Rooney at Archive.org. (Including episodes of his 1954-1955 TV show.)