Mickey Rooney, who starred in many horse racing and horse-related movies and television shows, has died at age 93.
The Associated Press reports that Los Angeles police have confirmed the death of Rooney, who began as a child star in Hollywood and would go on to appear in more than 200 films.
Some of those horse-related movies include "Thoroughbreds Don't Cry" in 1937, the classic "National Velvet" directed by Clarence Brown in 1944, in which he appeared with Elizabeth Taylor. Decades later he was nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar for his role in Francis Ford Coppola's "The Black Stallion." He also starred in several sequels of that film as well as the television show, "Adventures of the Black Stallion."
In 1988 Rooney appeared in the television miniseries, "Bluegrass."
Rooney visited racetracks throughout the world. In 1993 he told the Chicago Tribune that his favorite track is Santa Anita Park and his second favorite is Arlington Park.
"There isn't a racetrack in the world that I have not attended," he says. "I've been to tracks in Beirut before the trouble, to tracks in France and England. Of all the tracks, and I'm not vacillating, Santa Anita is No. 1. Arlington is No. 2."
Read Cot Campbell's rememberance of Mickey Rooney.
