He has 12 hobbies: listening to music, singing, football, dancing, praying, reading the Bible, golfing, travelling, horse racing, spending time with family, swimming, and watching classic movies.
He is most proud of his film The Black Stallion (1979).
He was a close friend of the Reverend Jerry Falwell.
His first of eight marriages was to Ava Gardner but has been married to current wife Jan Rooney longer than all of the other seven wives combined.
His future "The New Adventures of the Black Stallion" (1990) co-star, Richard Ian Cox, was a childhood movie hero of his.
His mother, Nellie W. Carter, hailed from Kansas City, Missouri.
His third child, Teddy Rooney, was born weighing 7 lb. 3 oz. on April 13, 1950, to Martha Vickers.
In 1938, he was severely reprimanded by MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer for having a torrid affair with Norma Shearer. The affair was causing quite a commotion on the set of her film Marie Antoinette (1938), where the two would hole up in her trailer. Mickey was 18 at the time. Shearer was 38 and her husband, MGM studio exec Irving Thalberg, had recently died. Mayer managed to keep the story from going public and it was not revealed until many years later, when Rooney gave the explicit details in his autobiography.
In Guinness book of world records for longest movie career of 86 years (1925-2011).
In his autobiography, he made a passing reference to a brothel called "The T&M Studio," where the ladies were look-alikes for Hollywood starlets. There were rumors of such a brothel, but before Rooney's book no one would ever admit to ever having been there, or even verify its existence. He wrote that Groucho Marx had taken him there (only once), and Groucho appeared to be on a first-name basis with many of the ladies.
Is a Republican.
Is an animal rights activist.
Is best/good friends with actors: Al Pacino, Betty Grable, Judy Garland, Ava Gardner, Dick Van Dyke, Lana Turner, Gloria DeHaven, Linda Darnell and Norma Shearer.
Is best/good friends with former child stars: Bill Mumy, Johnny Crawford, Susan Olsen, Adam Rich, Tony Dow and David Cassidy.
Is of Scottish ancestry.
Is portrayed by Moosie Drier in Rainbow (1978) (TV) and by Dwayne Adams in Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (2001) (TV)
Loves golf and the ponies.
May be the only actor in history to appear in at least one film in ten consecutive decades.
Mickey's son Teddy Rooney appeared with him in Andy Hardy Comes Home (1958), portraying - who else? - Andy Hardy Jr.
Moved with his mother to Hollywood, California, in 1925, when he was five. This was one year after his parents' separation.