By Frank Worth

Very young Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jean) with Mickey Rooney.

Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule, Jr. in 1920), is an American film actor whose career began in 1922 at seventeen months and has continued through to 2007.

Entering the movie business in 1926, he made his name as the title character in the Mickey McGuire shorts. These were a series of more than 40 silent, two-reel comedies adapted from the Toonerville Trolley comic strip, in which he starred through 1936. For a time he billed himself as Mickey McGuire, but legally changed his name to Mickey Rooney in 1932.

In 1934 he signed to MGM and was educated at the studio's School for Professional Children.

His role as Andy Hardy in A Family Affair (1937) led to fourteen further films featuring that character from 1938 to 1958. He was married to Ava Gardner from 1941-1943.

He played in 1938's Boys Town opposite Spencer Tracy as Whitey Marsh, which opened shortly before his 18th birthday. His fame peaked in World War II with a string of successful musicals with Judy Garland, including the Oscar nominated Babes in Arms (1939) as well as more serious roles in films such as The Human Comedy (1943) and National Velvet (1944).

Rooney takes the credit for giving rising starlet, Norma Jean Mortenson, her stage name Marilyn Monroe (his co-star in the 1950 film The Fireball).

Mickey Rooney was awarded an Academy Juvenile Award in 1938, and in 1983 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted him their Academy Honorary Award for his lifetime of achievement.

In 2006, he co-starred in Night at the Museum with Dick Van Dyke and Ben Stiller at the age of 86.

Born Norma Jeane Mortenson, Marilyn Monroe (1926 -1962) was a Golden Globe Award-winning American actress, singer, model and pop icon. She was known for her comedic skills and screen presence, going on to become one of the most popular movie stars of the 1950s and early 1960s.

Her first starring role was in 1952 with Don't Bother to Knock followed by Niagara in 1953. Over the following months, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire cemented Monroe's status as an A-list actress and she became one of the world's biggest movie stars. The lavish Technicolor comedy films established Monroe's ‘dumb blonde’ on-screen persona.

The Seven Year Itch was her next big hit in 1955. She was nominated for a Golden Globe for her un-glamourous role in Bus Stop. She starred in The Prince and the Showgirl with Laurence Olivier but she scored the biggest hit of her career when she starred alongside Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Billy Wilder's comedy Some Like It Hot, for which she received a Golden Globe. Her husband Arthur Miller wrote what became her and her co-star Clark Gable's last completed film, The Misfits.

She made her last significant public appearance, singing Happy Birthday, Mr. President at a televised birthday party for President John F. Kennedy.

She has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame 6104 Hollywood Boulevarde and remains one of the 20th century's legendary public figures and archetypal Hollywood movie stars.