Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire;[1] September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor, producer, radio entertainer, and vaudevillian. In a career spanning nearly nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the silent-film era.[2] He was the top box-office attraction from 1939 to 1941,[3] and one of the best-paid actors of that era.[4] At the height of a career marked by declines and comebacks, Rooney performed the role of Andy Hardy in a series of 16 films in the 1930s and 1940s that epitomized mainstream United States self-image.