Mickey Rooney’s wife, estate tussle over actor’s remains
LOS ANGELES: The estranged wife of actor Mickey Rooney and his estate are locked in a legal tussle over the remains of the late Hollywood movie star, who left an estate of only US$ 18,000, according to court documents.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Steele will decide at a hearing on Friday whether Rooney’s remains will be released from an area mortuary to his wife, Janice Rooney, or to his conservator.
The versatile character actor, who was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars in the 1930s, died at age 93 on Sunday from natural causes. He disinherited his wife and all his children in a will dated Mar 11, leaving his estate to stepson Mark Rooney, who with his wife served as Rooney’s caregiver. Rooney’s conservator, Michael Augustine, was granted a court order on Tuesday stopping Janice Rooney from removing the actor’s remains from a mortuary in Glendale, California.
Augustine said Rooney wanted to be buried at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Forever cemetery, where many Hollywood actors are buried, or at a cemetery for US veterans. Rooney served in the military as an entertainer during World War Two.
He also has a burial plot in Westlake Village, California.
“We think we’ll be able to cut a deal, a deal being between me and her,” Augustine said.
An attorney for Janice Rooney was not immediately available to comment. Rooney wed eight times, including a marriage to actress Ava Gardner. In 2011 he testified before a US Senate committee that he had been emotionally and fi nancially abused by family members, sapping much of his savings. Rooney and his last wife did not live together after 2012. She will receive his Social Security and some of his pension benefits, which will total about US$ 8,400 a month, Augustine said. — Reuters