Mickey Rooney’s encounter with ‘angel’ led to faith

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By Mark Ellis —

Rooney with Judy Garland
Rooney with Judy Garland

Legendary actor Mickey Rooney, one of Hollywood’s last surviving stars of its classic era, passed away in 2014 of natural causes at the age of 93.

The award-winning actor became the biggest star in the world in his teens when he played the character Andy Hardy in A Family Affair.

The son of vaudevillians, his career started even earlier – as a mere babe. On lunch break when he filmed the Mickey McGuire comedies, five-year-old Rooney walked into an office at Warner Bros. studio, and introduced himself to a cartoonist named Walt Disney.

“Come over and sit on my lap,” Disney told the youngster.

When he sat on his lap, Disney held up a mouse he had drawn. “That’s a good-looking mouse, Mr. Disney,” Rooney blurted out.

“It sure is, Mickey,’ he said, and then paused for a moment. “Mickey, Mickey,” he said with a gleam in his eye. “Tell me something, how would you like me to name this mouse after you?”

“I sure would like that, but right now I got to go and get a tuna sandwich,” Rooney replied, and he jumped off Disney’s lap.

“It’s a true story,” Rooney told Kira Albin, in a 1995 interview.

Sadly, Rooney’s private life was turbulent, and his eight marriages became the fodder for late-night comedians’ jokes. But the challenges he survived –including elder abuse more recently – left him with an uncommon depth of wisdom gained with time.

After the deaths of his mother and fifth wife in 1966, he battled substance abuse and financial problems. In the depths of the valley, Rooney had an unusual encounter that he said changed his life, according to the same interview with Albin.

Over breakfast at a Lake Tahoe casino coffee shop, Rooney was greeted by a busboy with “blond curls, a white-rose complexion, and shining teeth,” he recounted.

When the young man called his name, Rooney started to stand, thinking he had a telephone call. But the busboy leaned toward him and whispered in his ear, “Mr. Rooney, Jesus Christ loves you very much.” Then the mysterious busboy vanished.

When Rooney looked for the young man and gave his description to the manager of the establishment, he was told that no such person worked there. Rooney believed he was visited by an angel.

Even though Rooney veered into the Church of Religious Science – which many evangelicals would label a cult – by the 1990s Rooney boldly proclaimed a very orthodox faith centered on Jesus Christ as his Savior.

In 1995, Albin described Rooney as an “unabashed Christian.”

“I’ve given my life to God,” he told Albin, “and I try and do the right thing, but inevitably, and unfortunately, I do the wrong thing. I suffer from being human.”

Rooney in 2011
Rooney in 2011

Rooney’s oldest child, Mickey Jr., is a born-again Christian and has been involved in evangelical ministry. It may be due to his son’s influence that Rooney found the Truth.

“You should take your children to church and teach them about Jesus Christ and about God, who makes the sunshine and the moon glow and gives us so many blessings,” Rooney said in 2011.

“I talked before the House and Senate about (elder) abuse. No one had more abuse than Jesus Christ.”

“If you go with God and with Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, and leave the troubles and everything to God, everything will work out for you.”

If you want to know more about a personal relationship with God, go here

26 COMMENTS

  1. How wonderful for Mickey’s angel stories to be shared. During the first Gulf War I was with a team of YWAM missionaries in Okinawa, Japan. We were confined one weekend pending Typhoon coming through. Our team of eight…US, Canadians (me) Germany and an Australian couple each shared our angel visitation experiences. They were all very real and tremendously unique and memorable. We don’t have to have all the answers or detailed explanation. We just believe. Angels are real and close, just as Jesus was real and did walk this land….and when he left, the Holy Spirit connects with us…when we believe and not doubt life becomes truly worth living..because we see through new eyes. Mickey was a great guy and I gather God thought so to and wanted Mickey to know how much he was loved.

    • Mickey Rooney has a great testimony of faith once the bus boy/angel told him Jesus loves you…
      That is true for you and me and the whole world…Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save the worldthrough him…we all have free will to choose life or death…choose eternal life and invite Jesus into your heart..

      “We hear about all the abuse people have in their life…no one had more abuse than Jesus Christ”

    • Jesus is STILL real sister. I believe all you say and thank God for the good work YWAM does, but the truth is, too many Christians obsess over angels, it is close to what the Bible warns of “involuntary worship of angels.”
      MAY I PLEASE USE THIS CONVERSATION SISTER, TO HELP THOSE OUT THERE WHO MAY BE IN NEED OF WHAT I AM ABOUT TO SHARE?
      Angels are not people whom we are supposed to be thinking of, (yes they are people in a sense,) and they will never take a command from ANY human being (for those reading this, who “tell” angels to do this or that.) It is not Scriptural.
      Even the Lord Jesus in the days of His flesh NEVER commanded angels to doANYthing.
      When one of his disciples sliced off the ear of the High priests’ servant, Jesus rebuked the disciple and said, “..Don’t you think that I could not pray to the Heavenly Father and that He would not shortly send me twelve legions of angels?!”
      You see? Even Jesus never told angels what to do.

      We might, if in dire straits, ask the Lord to send an angel or as many as He deems needful, but even THEN I never do that (and I have had, in years gone by when evangelizing in tough turf, MANY dire straits! Death threats, house pipe-bombed several times etc.) Rather, I simply ask Jesus to protect me; or to help me out of whatever the situation.
      If He wants to send angels to help me, fine. I don’t NEED to know how He does it, for I still would give ALL the glory to HIM.
      Angels will no doubt receive their rewards from Him for faithful service.
      (When I see them up there, I will smile and shake their hands and thank them.)
      They will NEVER enter into conversation with a person and will never take orders from us. They may on rare occasions, be given a message to deliver to someone though.

      I bet the devil laughs when he sees Christians “ordering angels” to do this or that!
      Holyangels are purely and solely the LORDS’ ministers.

      I said all this, because some may have already had an encounter with “an angel of light,” through being so obsessed about the presence of angels. We are warned in Scripture that satan himself can appear as “an angel of light.”

      God bless you all!

  2. For the record:

    Walt Disney’s wife named Mickey Mouse. That was from Walt himself. I don’t think Mr. Rooney had anything to do with it.

    Disney historians say Walt was already at Hyperion Studios and didn’t have a relationship with Warner Brothers. Since Mr. Rooney was 5 years old (according to his telling), I would say Walt Disney and the Disney historians have it right.

  3. Mickey had a very special message from God.
    I had a major concern in my life. In a dream our Savior Jesus walked past me
    going in a certain direction to answer my dream.

    For one to be saved the Holy Spirit must live within him.

    Praise our Lord and Savior.

  4. Mickey’s testimony goes to show you that the Lord Jesus Christ paid for all our sins…and yes, Mickey’s and the whole human race, past, present and future. Every unbeliever should read and view Mickey’s testimony. If only unbelievers knew what lies ahead for them, they would accept Christ as their personal Saviour. It’s not our righteousness that saves us, it is Christ’s righteousness that saves us…Christ died on the Cross and all mankind’s sin was placed upon Him. He shed His precious blood…for the Scriptures say that without the shedding of blood your sins cannot be forgiven. He died for our sins, was buried, and rose again physically into Heaven where today He sits at the right hand of the Father as our intercessor. He will come back shortly in the clouds and take all born-again believers (dead and alive) to be with Him in glory for all eternity. I pray that whoever reads this, will place their faith in Jesus Christ and accept Him as their personal Saviour, if they haven’t already.
    So regardless of your sins, Christ will save to the uttermost.

  5. What a GREAT story! I love him, as an Actor there was nothing he could/did not do. The people back then men and women were so much more talented than today. One had to sing, dance, be funny, and be serious. Now you never hear of the Actors, and ea one is specialized. Maybe Tom Hanks, but Sidney Poiter was the last one I remember and there is NO one today that can match that man!

  6. Thank You for sharing this information with, Mickey was a friend and fan of mine.
    For a while whatever city I found myself living in Mickey would pop up
    He was here in metro Detroit area a few years ago, more than a few, however I wasn’t in the public so I didn’t see him.
    When I heard he had passed my first question to Abba YAHUHUAH-SH, did Mickey come to see and live in your life Abba.
    I am so filled with joy, I so enjoyed his movies as a child and when living in North Hollywood, had the pleasure of meeting him, that was many moons ago, however he said he would always track me wherever I went and he did.
    I am soo filled with joy that my eyes are welling up from fountains of JOY OF YAHUAH, FULL OF HIS GLORY.I WILL SEE YOU THERE MICKEY, SAVE A PLACE FOR ME AT YOUR TABLE.
    I WATCHED A MICKEY MOVEIE TODAY 04.13.14, “Huckleberry Finn”
    THANKS again
    todah
    scheli.

  7. Mickey Mouse was created in 1928 when Rooney would have been eight years old. Also, the name Disney started with was Mortimer Mouse.

  8. It was so heartwarming to watch the video of Mickey Rooney and to read about his angelic encounter. I loved him as Andy Hardy and loved him in Boys Town and now I will look forward to collecting some of his movies with the very talented and beautiful Judy Garland. I’ve always found him to be so love able and now very excited to know that someday I will meet him in heaven! God bless him and his family!

  9. Disney continues to be heavily implicated in the occult, as well as progressive themes.

    I was redirected here, from a site, which shows Rooney making a hand gesture at a gambling table — just subtle enough to explain away, just pronounced enough to make it seem uncomfortable.

    No matter what these celebrities did in their private lives, they still remind me of nostalgic times, in which people made an effort to seem wholesome in public. So, if you dislike what I’m saying, especially so soon after he had passed, I don’t blame you.

  10. Always a person is never good until he or she realises the need to be unworthy. But the purity of a person remains until the badness looses its position in a person. Am grateful that such life experiences are getting shared with us.

  11. Thank the Lord for Mickey Rooney’s testimony. Lifting Jesus Christ up and honouring the Father and His creation. Saying what is most important in life and telling young people that their education is important.
    His life didnt seem very happy being married so many times but God can change all of us and He does when we accept Him into our lives.
    As this week is so important as a remebrance what Jesus Christ did for all of humanity because of His great love for us all. He went to Jerusalem and became the Passover Lamb and was tortured and His body bruised and mangled for our salvation and on the Cross of Calvary died with huge spikes in His feet and hands and wasnt even recognizable. He did this for our salvation and to redeem us from satans hands to be set free and forgiven of our sins if we ask for forgiveness and believe that Jesus shed His blood and died on the cross and rose again the third day from the dead. We are redeemed to our Father God. Praise the Lord Jesus rose again from the dead and is now sitting at the right hand of the Father interceding for us.

  12. What utter hogwash.

    Rooney was born in 1920. in 1925, There was no Mickey Mouse. He wasn’t conceived until 1928. In 1925, Disney hadn’t even created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, who was stolen from his by Universal in the spring of 1928. Due to the loss of the character, Walt altered Oswald’s appearance and created Mickey Mouse. Rooney had no connection to the mouse’s naming. Originally, Walt called him ‘Mortimer’, but his wife Lilian though ‘Mickey’ sounded friendlier.

    Furthermore, Walt wouldn’t have been in a Warner Brothers studio in 1925, nor would anyone really known who he was, as the only thing he had produced at the time were the Alice Comedies, and though they were well received they were NOT nationally beloved.

    If you start your piece with a bunch of nonsense, none the rest will be believable.

  13. I believe that one real true angel on this earth was Judy Garland. Everything about her, her voice, her passion, her purity, and her love. I believe that Judy was also one of the reasons Mickey became a good Christian, not just the busboy.

  14. Hi, this is my story of an encounter with angels.
    I was born again in 1988 and shortly after had the job I still do now, working shifts as an assistant manager in a sports centre. I was single then and between rented homes so I stayed with my parents a while, 40 miles from my work place. I finished at 11pm and drove on the motorway (freeway) home. I was due in work the following morning at 9am so it would be work- drive home -sleep drive to work with no down time. My old car was again bought for £100 as a go between I had bought the day before. It ran out of gas on the motorway miles from a station. I locked the car and began walking around midnight up the side of the motorway. I decided if there was no station around the next bend I would return, sleep in the car and walk to work in he morning (5 miles or so). I had a white bomber jacket on which I never would put on in work as I had uniform to wear. As I got around the corner there was no garage but a small black car pulled up with two people dressed old fashioned like they were from the 1950s. A man and a woman. I never looked at their faces but they were both with massive shoulders the woman had a hat with a veil and the guy kind of like dick tracey. They filled the front of the small car. The man said they recognised me from the sports centre. I knew everyone there and these I didn’t know. I would’ve noticed them esp with the lady ( and the guy) being so muscular. They took me to the station and offered to take me back which they did. (A massive detour for them). As we approached there were people by my car. I said dont get involved drop me here. They said no and drove straight up. Thankfully it was police. I said thanks and told them I would buy them a drink in the bar next time they were in the sports centre. We parted and I drove home. Then I began thinking. How could they have recognised me. I bought the car yesterday, I had a bomber jacket on. It was dark and I was walking the other way. I never saw their faces and no names were exchanged (very rare in Wales, uk). ANGELS I thought. Oh no I offered them a drink!!! Few days later a guy comes to reception same dick Tracey coat and hat, thrusts a massive hand under the glass and intros himself. I never looked at his face. I said thanks and when I turned he had gone.

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