They were two of the world's most youngest talents in Hollywood in the 1930's and 40's. This year, we both lost them.
Shirley Temple was 85 years old when she passed away on February 10th and most recently, Mickey Rooney was 93 years old when he died on April 6th.
Temple went into the film business at three years old in 1933 when she first appeared in some short films. The next year, she began doing films for Twentieth Century Fox and instantly became one of the studio's biggest stars. Her noteworthy films include Bright Eyes (1934), The Little Colonel (1935), Curly Top (1935) and Heidi (1937). Before Judy Garland, she was America's perfect image of a cute star. Adorable, bright, very funny and full of grace. She left acting in 1950 and later became an U.S. Ambassador to the countries of Ghana (1974-1976) and Czechoslovakia (1989-1992). She married twice and had three children and survived breast cancer in 1972.
Rooney was born in the heart of Brooklyn in 1920. Like Temple, he began his film career by starring in many short films from 1927 to 1936. During the 1930's, he starred as Andy Hardy in over 15 films (1937-1946, 1958) for MGM. He also made a great and dynamic team with Judy Garland doing films together such as Babes in Arms (1939), Strike Up The Band (1940), and Girl Crazy (1943). His other films of note include Boys Town (1938), The Human Comedy (1943), National Velvet (1943), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) and The Black Stallion (1979). He also appeared on Broadway in Sugar Babies (1979) and The Will Rogers Follies (1993) and provided the voice of Tod in the Disney film, The Fox and the Hound. He continued to act until his death. His last recent films was Night at the Museum (2006) and The Muppets (2011). Rooney won two honorary Academy Awards, two Golden Globes and an Emmy Award.
Like some of today's big stars, Rooney was in the news. He was married eight times (compared to Elizabeth Taylor's seven husbands). He first married to future Hollywood actress Ava Gardner for a year in 1942. His fifth wife, Barbara Ann Thomason (1958-1966) was murdered in 1966. Rooney also had nine children and 19 grandchildren.
The kids stars of this present age and the 2000's such as Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Bynes and Justin Bieber grow up too fast and have too much reckless fun (ex: being drunk, drag racing, lewdless behavior) which leads to a front page photo in the Daily News or Post. But in the 1930's, these two stars didn't get into that kind of trouble. Because they knew right, did no wrong and became two of the nation's brightest stars of their time. They will both truly and sadly be missed.
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