--- title: The Night Mickey Rooney Stole the Show at FDR's Birthday Party description: Two photos, made decades apart, capture Mickey Rooney's appeal: the sweet kid who could be tough as nails; and the inveterate goofball. canonical: https://time.com/3763891/mickey-rooney-americas-favorite-actor-steals-the-show-at-fdrs-birthday-party/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-07T17:56:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2024-01-24T14:34:34.000Z og:title: The Night Mickey Rooney Stole the Show at FDR's Birthday Party og:description: Two photos, made decades apart, capture Mickey Rooney's appeal: the sweet kid who could be tough as nails; and the inveterate goofball. og:url: https://time.com/3763891/mickey-rooney-americas-favorite-actor-steals-the-show-at-fdrs-birthday-party/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c8bccc16a140ef5/698785d62dce012e9c9de467/150330-mickey-rooney-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1412 og:image:height: 794 og:image:alt: Mickey Rooney 1938 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Night Mickey Rooney Stole the Show at FDR's Birthday Party twitter:description: Two photos, made decades apart, capture Mickey Rooney's appeal: the sweet kid who could be tough as nails; and the inveterate goofball. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c8bccc16a140ef5/698785d62dce012e9c9de467/150330-mickey-rooney-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Mickey Rooney: America's Favorite Actor Steals the Show at FDR's Birthday Party > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Updated: Jan 24, 2024 2:34 PM UTCPublished: Apr 7, 2014 5:56 PM UTC  Portrait of young Mickey Rooney, 1938. Portrait of young Mickey Rooney, 1938. Rex Hardy Jr. —The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Updated: Jan 24, 2024 2:34 PM UTCPublished: Apr 7, 2014 5:56 PM UTC [Mickey Rooney](http://time.com/51308/mickey-rooney-dead/), who died one year ago at 93, grew up on stage and on the big screen — appearing before an audience for the first time when he was less than two years old, with his parents in their vaudeville act. Few American actors of any era were as well-known to as many generations of moviegoers as the pint-sized kid from Brooklyn with the outsized talent — and the energy to match. To get a sense of how popular Rooney was as a young actor, one need look no further than the Feb. 12, 1940, issue of LIFE, when the magazine ran an article titled, “America’s Favorite Movie Actor Steals the Show at President’s Birthday Ball.” This was the scene, as LIFE reported it to the weekly’s millions of readers: --- > “” --- The photos here, above and below, capture something of Rooney’s appeal: the sweet kid who, at times, could be tough as nails; and the inveterate goofball who seemed to get as much pleasure out of his kooky personae as did the audiences who, for eight decades, made him one of Hollywood’s most enduring stars. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3763891/mickey-rooney-americas-favorite-actor-steals-the-show-at-fdrs-birthday-party/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3763891/mickey-rooney-americas-favorite-actor-steals-the-show-at-fdrs-birthday-party/"},"headline":"Mickey Rooney: America's Favorite Actor Steals the Show at FDR's Birthday Party","datePublished":"2014-04-07T17:56:36.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-24T14:34:34.000Z","description":"Two photos, made decades apart, capture Mickey Rooney's appeal: the sweet kid who could be tough as nails; and the inveterate goofball.","url":"https://time.com/3763891/mickey-rooney-americas-favorite-actor-steals-the-show-at-fdrs-birthday-party/","keywords":["photography","LIFE Magazine","Icons"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c8bccc16a140ef5/698785d62dce012e9c9de467/150330-mickey-rooney-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ben Cosgrove","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c8bccc16a140ef5/698785d62dce012e9c9de467/150330-mickey-rooney-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Mickey Rooney 1938","caption":"Portrait of young Mickey Rooney, 1938.","creditText":"Rex Hardy Jr. —The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3763891/mickey-rooney-americas-favorite-actor-steals-the-show-at-fdrs-birthday-party/","name":"Mickey Rooney: America's Favorite Actor Steals the Show at FDR's Birthday Party"}}]}] ```