Before being booted from the programme, he played in bands with Willie Nelson and was an original (and mischievous) Mouseketeer.
Mickey Rooney Jr., the first of cinematic star Mickey Rooney's nine offspring, died. He was an original Mouseketeer, pianist, and actor. He was 77.
Rooney Jr. died Saturday at his home in Glendale, Arizona, according to his longtime companion Chrissie Brown. She stated that the reason of death was unknown.
Rooney Jr. was in bands with Willie Nelson and co-starred in Jerry Schatzberg's Honeysuckle Rose (1980) and Alan Rudolph's Songwriter (1981). (1984).
He also appeared in John Brahm's Hot Rods to Hell (1966), for which he contributed to the soundtrack, and in the 1975 NBC film Beyond the Bermuda Triangle.
Betty Jane Baker, a singer who won the 1944 Miss Alabama beauty pageant, was his mother.
During World War II, she met Mickey Rooney while he was stationed in the United States Army in Birmingham, Alabama.
She was the second of his eight wives, following Ava Gardner and preceding fellow actress Martha Vickers; they were married from 1944 until their divorce in 1948.
On July 3, 1945, Joseph Yule III (his father's birth name was Joe Yule Jr.) was born in Birmingham.
In 1955, he and his brother Tim Rooney were cast as extras on ABC's The Mickey Mouse Club.
He worked on a few episodes before being sacked due to misbehaviour in the Disney paint department. (Another original Mouseketeer, Paul Petersen, was also dismissed that first season.)