Here's to Mickey Rooney

"Some day you'll learn that greatness is only the seizing of opportunity - clutching with your bare hands 'til the knuckles show white."

- Mi Taylor ("National Velvet" by Clarence Brown)

Like Mi Taylor, a former jockey who turned a spirited gelding into a top horse racer in "National Velvet", Mickey Rooney had seen it all. In fact, he outlived the biggest stars during his time, Hollywood's studio era. He passed away on April 6, at 93.

Rooney may not be tall, dark, and handsome, the likes of Clark Gable were, but there was something special about this fellow. It was that boy-next-door look, which landed him the role of Andy Hardy, a teenager whom parents wanted their (teenage) daughter to go out with. This character made him a superstar, which didn't come as a surprise. (Sixteen films on Andy Hardy!) But he wasn't typecast, as Rooney, who was born in Brooklyn, proved to be a versatile actor. The diminutive star could also sing and dance, which Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM), the largest film studio during his time, noticed right away. He and Judy Garland became an on-screen couple, all of their musicals became box-office hits. Fans were hoping that they could be also be an off-screen couple, but they weren't. It was rather complicated.

"Judy and I were so close, we could've come from the same womb. We weren't like brothers or sisters but there was no love affair there; there was more than a love affair. It's very, very difficult to explain the depths of our love for each other. It was so special. It was a forever love. Judy, as we speak, has not passed away. She's always with me in every heartbeat of my body," Rooney explained.

Rooney have starred in some unforgettable movies. The unshrinking "Captains Courageous". The affecting "Boys Town". The infectious "Thousands Cheer". The poignant "The Bridges at Toko-Ri". The bittersweet "Breakfast at Tiffany's". He also earned an Academy Award nomination in four occasions, for his performance in "Babes in Arms" (1939), "The Human Comedy" (1943), "The Bold and the Brave" (1956), and "The Black Stallion" (1979). But he won a Juvenile Oscar in 1939, in recognition for his body of work during his early years, and then an Honorary Oscar in 1983. He won two Golden Globe Awards, for his performance on the small screen, and a Primetime Emmy Award (for "Bill").

Here is a selected list of his films:

"Broadway to Hollywood" by Willard Mack (1933)

"Riffraff" by J. Walter Ruben (1936)

"Young Tom Edison" by Norman Taurog (1940)

"The Big Wheel" by Edward Ludwig (1949)

"The Atomic Kid" by Leslie H. Martinson (1954)

"The Last Mile" by Howard W. Koch (1959)

"It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" by Stanley Kramer (1963)

"The Extraordinary Seaman" by John Frankenheimer (1969)

"Evil Roy Slade" by Jerry Paris (1972)

"From Hong Kong with Love" by Yvan Chiffre (1975)

"The Fox and the Hound" by Ted Berman, Richard Rich, and Art Stevens (1981)

"Erik the Viking" by Terry Jones (1989)

"My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" by Stuart Rosenberg (1991)

"Revenge of the Red Baron" by Robert Gordon (1994)

"Night at the Museum" by Shawn Levy (2006)

"Lost Stallions: The Journey Home" by David Rotan (2008)

"The Muppets" by James Bobin (2011)

"Last Will and Embezzlement" by Deborah Louise Robinson (2012)