‘HE’S BEEN AN ANGEL’

Mickey Rooney Jr., Original Mouseketeer and Willie Nelson Bandmate, Dead at 77

He was the first child of the screen legend by the same name.

Mickey Rooney Jr.—son of the screen star by the same name, an original member of the Mickey Mouse Club, and a former bandmate of Willie Nelson—has died at his home in Arizona at the age of 77. No cause of death was given for the actor-musician, who could play five instruments and had small parts in a string of movies. He was fired from his childhood job as a backup Mouseketeer for on-set mischief and later struggled with drugs and alcohol, but his third wife, Chrissie Brown, told The Hollywood Reporter he had turned his life around. “He was a wonderful man,” she said. “The last 18 years with me and my family, he’s been an angel.”