ACTOR Mickey Rooney Jr, who was one of the original Mouseketeers in the Mickey Mouse Club, has died at 77.
The eldest son of screen legend Mickey Rooney died over the weekend at his home in Glendale, Arizona, his pal Paul Petersen confirmed on Facebook.
“Mickey Rooney, Jr peacefully passed away this morning in Arizona,” Petersen, who also appeared with Rooney on the first season of the Mickey Mouse Club, announced.
“For the past many years, he lived with and was in the care of Chrissie Brown and her family.
“I first met Mickey, the oldest of nine siblings sired by his famous father, when he and Timmy were hired by Disney to be Mouseketeers in 1955.
“Mickey Junior was tall and talented. He could sing, dance and act…and get in trouble. We three were fired for Conduct Unbecoming a Mouse!,” he revealed.
Petersen added: “Mickey Junior was the personification of ‘damaged goods.’ He gave all he could. I was born on the same day as Mickey’s father and “The Mic” gave me, unsolicited mind you, the most useful advice I ever got.
“It is one of my greatest sorrows that he didn’t do the same for his son. Mickey Rooney Junior. Rest In Peace at last. We will see to your wishes.”
Rooney Jr’s longtime companion Chrissie Brown also confirmed the news of his passing to The Hollywood Reporter but failed to provide a cause of death.
The actor was the eldest son of film legend Rooney Sr, the top box-office attraction from 1939 to 1941, and one of the best-paid actors of that silent-film era.
Rooney Jr and his brother Tim were hired as backup cast members on ABC’s The Mickey Mouse Club in 1955.
He worked on a handful of episodes before they were fired after some mischief in the Disney paint department.
Ronney Jr later appeared in the 1975 television film Beyond the Bermuda Triangle and the film Honeysuckle Rose in 1980.
He first married in 1972 to former Playboy Playmate Merci Montello.
Over a decade later, he met Laura Hollander in 1986 and married that same year, eventually settling with Brown, a singer and musician, in 2004.
“He was a wonderful man. The last 18 years with me and my family, he’s been an angel,” Brown told THR.
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