Hollywood legend Mickey Rooney passes away

Hollywood legend Mickey Rooney, the child actor who became the world's top box-office star in the late 1930s, has died. He was 93.

The actor, who was said to be ill for sometime died on April 6. Rooney's wife, Jan Chamberlin, said that she had not seen her husband since last April and an entertainment website informed her about his death, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Jan said Rooney was living in the Studio City home of her son Mark Aber and his wife.

Born Joseph Yule Jr in Brooklyn New York City on September 23, 1920, Rooney's 87-year cinematic career stretched from 1926 to 2013.

From childhood stardom to Honorary Academy Award for lifetime achievement, four Oscar nominations and one Emmy Award, Rooney had appeared in more than 200 films, of which some of the films turned out to be blockbusters.

Rooney was only 18-month-old when he took the stage in his parents' vaudeville act. After adopting the stage name of Mickey Rooney at the age of seven, he appeared in his first film, launching a career that would span nearly his entire life.

The actor was still a teenager when he played Andy Hardy in the 1937 film A Family Affair.

The actor, whose height was just five feet three inches, starred in films with top actresses including Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet, Judy Garland in Thoroughbreds Don't Cry and Babes In Arms and Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast At Tiffany's.

The actor was also honoured with a special juvenile Academy Award in 1938 after appearing in Boys Town with Spencer

Tracy.

He scored Oscar nominations for his work in Babes In Arms, The Human Comedy, The Bold and the Brave and The Black Stallion.

More recently, he appeared in Night At The Museum (2006) with Ben Stiller, and The Muppets (2011) starring Amy Adams and Jason Segel.

Rooney entered military service in 1944 and served more than 21 months, earning a Bronze Star for entertaining troops in combat zones. When he returned to civilian life, he briefly starred in a CBS radio series, Shorty Bell in 1948 and The Mickey Rooney Show.

In TV, he appeared in dozens of programmes from 1954 to 2009, received two Golden Globe Awards and won an Emmy for his tender performance as a mentally challenged man in the 1981 TV movie Bill.

The actor married eight times.

Image: Mickey Rooney. Photograph: Michael Buckner/Getty Images