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.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Drivel.

[Mastador1]

Cry me a river! I guess there aren’t enough of us that remember Charlie Chan for them to drag that out anymore! For the love of God, times were different then, but yeah let’s take the opportunity of a mans death to shovel crap on his memory. Of the portrayal by Rooney or the opportunists sliming his memory, which is actually despicable?

[crz]

Take a look at this. A LOT of stars deserve to be in a military cemetery. The one that got me was Charles Durning-remember him? Him and Lee Marvin.

http://www.wonderfulworldofimages.com/wwii-movie-stars/wwii-movie-stars.html

[crazycatlady]

Well, those were from almost the same era. People had issues with Carradine. Breakfast at Tiffany’s has always been one of my favorite films although I believe that character is unfortunate. His part isn’t big. Some day I will read the Truman Capote novel and see if the character appears in it.
But yes, lots of old movies contain things we wouldn’t do today. Any old star who worked as much as Andy Rooney did will have had some associations with these. Heck, plenty of people have issues with Gone With the Wind.

[publius911]

I can't stand phony arguments. Real Indians don't care. A few of them like militant gays and blacks, exploit the victim card by inferring hurt feelings, whether it is justified or not.
These clowns need to get a life. The vast majority of Indians don't really care!

Same goes for the oriental stereotype. If I didn't have a life, I could go through thousands of oriental films and find a few examples of gratuitous parodies of the stupid white round-eyed occidentals.
Why would I want to do that?

[publius911]

All that aside, I thought his performance is a serious detraction from the movie, which I wasn’t all that crazy about anyway.

You actually saw the film with those resulting thoughts in 1961?

[ohioman]

Where’s the barf alert?

[lee martell]

Just keep fishing. You’ll find something you dislike. Knock yourself out! Well, not literally.

[CaptainK]

Are you insinuating that Blake Edwards is in a Hollywood protected class?

I’ve heard the rumors.

[Cronos]

Not really — white folks are not a specific stereotypical “evil dude” — that’s English accented or German accented or Russian accented folks

[longfellow]

Bugs bunny nips the nips. YouTube it.
Frickin gold.

[carlo3b]

Are you insinuating that Blake Edwards is in a Hollywood protected class?

The Great Wall of China comes to mind.. :)

[MinuteGal]

So much for Al Jolson, a major star of his time, whose songs like "Mammy", done in blackface, were hits then...and even now....and are still of interest to non-PC folks who enjoy the talents of legendary entertainers like Jolson, Rooney and others.

Leni

[socal_parrot]

My fav white dude as asian...

[CaptainK]

I should have said “was in”, since he is deceased.

[Sherman Logan]

nahh. I didn’t actually see the movie till last year on Netflix. Didn’t mean to imply I was properly PC in 1961.

[Sherman Logan]

Wise thoughts.

Those racists, which they indisputably were by today's standards, destroyed a tyranny that would have spread real racism across the entire world.

[MinuteGal]

I vividly remember those every-Saturday movie matinees where we kids breathlessly followed the serial adventures of Flash Gordon in his battles with Ming the Merciless played by (gasp) a white dude with scary Oriental make-up.

Of course, we young'uns were sublimily scarred for life by this unabashed racial travesty.

Will someone hand me another Milk Dud, please?

Leni

[midnightcat]

I never saw that movie. you mean some of the off-camera antics w/the actors were raunchy? aren’t there any normal actors out there who just want to be professional? I don’t get it....

[carlo3b]

aren’t there any normal actors out there who just want to be professional?

Absolutely, there are loads of great folks that work in film and TV, even some of the higher end performers, but the attention they get is negative as a rule..

Aldo Ray, a highly thought of character actor of the time, and I would cook lunch every day together, pasta of course, and sit around with the crew, but the atmosphere was spoiled by the egos of the preferred elites, and their perversions that dominated..

I was a freak in my field, a straight Costume Designer, that was referred to as THAT ONE, as in.. You what to hire THAT ONE, or you mean THAT ONE, the unwanted..

I was young, and the new guy that worked exclusively under Edith Head, in the beginning, who would dole me out when needed.

My big break came when they were auditioning for the designer for the biggest period piece in years, My Fair Lady, with Audrey Hepburn, a job would feature the designer, as the best, that I might have killed for.. LOL

I had big older major stars, that I worked with, that endorsed me and asked the producers to check me out, which helped.. I got the job for 4 hours until they talked to the union and found out I wasn't gay, and a threat to the young Audrey's reputation, in that she might be tempted by my straight Italian charms. REALLY, they said that.. The straw that finally broke the camels back, was my next big break with "Harlow", another period piece that was my forte.

Carroll Baker was cast as the lead, and during the cast party she was introduced to me, and said, What does he know about Women, I've heard about That One, I said I know how much padding I'll need to bring you up to Harlow.. She slapped me, I slapped her back.. bye bye Hollywood..