Andy Rooney

For over 30 years, Andy Rooney was an integral part of the CBS news magazine "60 Minutes" (1968- ). A veteran journalist and celebrated war correspondent, Rooney's show-closing editorials, entitled "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney," ran the gamut in subject matter from the topical - politics, social ills, the march of time - to the mundane, which took the form of amusing and often curmudgeonly rants on computers, desk clutter, changes in social graces and the foibles of everyday life. His commentary, which was also documented in newspapers, magazines and a number of books, made him among the most popular segments on the program, as well as one of its most parodied. No matter which side of the fence viewers found themselves on in regard to Rooney, there was no denying his position as one of the most well-known and regarded television figures of the late 20th century and into the new millennium.

Born Andrew Aitken Rooney in Albany, NY on Jan. 14, 1919, he attended the Albany Academy and Colgate University in Hamilton, NY, but interrupted his studies after being drafted in 1941. Rooney began his journalistic career during his service in World War II; he was a correspondent for the military broadside Stars and Stripes and was one of six correspondents from the paper to fly with the Eighth Air Force on the first bombing raid over Germany. Rooney later received the Bronze Star for his war reporting, which included the invasion of Normandy on D-Day as well as the U.S. Army's entry into Paris and the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp. Like many WWII veterans, Rooney's war experiences shaped the rest of his life, and he frequently refused to discuss much of what he had seen; one incident, however, was used as the basis for an episode of Steven Spielberg's anthology series "Amazing Stories" (NBC, 1985-87) in which a B-17 bomber was forced to land wheels-up, potentially killing its trapped belly turret gunner. Eventually, Rooney put his memories down on paper in his 1997 book My War. A close friend of the legendary correspondent Ernie Pyle, Rooney later received the National Society of Newspaper Columnists' Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.

After the war, Rooney landed at CBS in 1949 as a writer for the top-rated "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts" (1948-1958). He later wrote for "The Garry Moore Show" (CBS, 1950-58), which also became a smash hit and helped launch the careers of Carol Burnett, Don Adams, Jonathan Winters and others. But Rooney always considered himself a newsman first and foremost, instead focusing his attention on such CBS news and public affairs vehicles as "The Twentieth Century" (1957-1970), "Calendar" (1961-63) and "News of America" (1960) before collaborating with CBS veteran Harry Reasoner on a series of droll news specials for CBS. The idiosyncrasies of life were the focus of "An Essay on Doors" (1964), "An Essay on Bridges" and "The Strange Case of the English Language (1968), though he occasionally turned his attention on more serious matters like 1971's "An Essay on War," which earned him a Writers Guild Award. In 1968, Rooney collaborated with Bill Cosby on "Black History: Lost, Stolen or Strayed," a fairly direct and groundbreaking program that dealt with whites' and blacks' perceptions on race and history. Rooney's script won him an Emmy, and helped to lay the groundwork for his contributions to "60 Minutes."

In 1978, Rooney was brought on board the news magazine as a summer alternative to its established show closer, a debate segment called "Point/Counterpoint." By the fall of that year, Rooney's essays, originally titled "3 Minutes or So with Andy Rooney," were so popular with viewers that they began alternating with its predecessor before replacing it entirely in 1979. His segment led to a regular newspaper column, syndicated out to hundreds of newspapers, and his bromides were compiled into a brace of best-selling books, starting in 1981 with A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney. In later years, Rooney's focus broadened to implicitly political topics, which included such hot-button issues as the 2003 war in Iraq and the shortcomings of President George W. Bush.

Occasionally, Rooney's comments resulted in controversy. He was suspended from "60 Minutes" for three months without pay in 1990 after making a statement that equated homosexual unions with premature death. In 1994, his dismissive comments over the public outpouring of grief over Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain's suicide were deemed insensitive, and on several occasions, he was criticized by media outlets for making racially charged statements in regard to Native Americans, African-Americans and the use of the word "negro" - to say nothing of baseball players of Hispanic and Latin descent, whom he grouped together as "all being [named] Rodriguez to me." Rooney was forced to publicly recant or apologize for his statements in each of these situations.

Despite these setbacks, Rooney's popularity on "60 Minutes" remained as solid as ever, and he eventually settled into a public persona of one of America's favorite, if crankiest, avuncular figures. That perception was highlighted in a variety of ways; some were positive, such as the documentary "I, Curmudgeon" (2004), which placed him in such celebrated and irascible company as writer Harvey Pekar and photographer Fran Leibowitz. Others were less celebratory, such as his 2004 appearance on "Da Ali G Show" (HBO, 2003-04), in which he became so incensed with Sascha Baron Cohen's deliberately witless host that he abandoned the satirical interview only minutes after it began. Throughout it all, he remained remarkably productive on both the series and with countless essays for magazines and newspapers, which numbered at over 1,000. In 2003, his body of work for CBS was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Emmy. Rooney suffered a devastating blow with the loss of his wife of 62 years, Marguerite "Margie" Rooney - a figure who appeared frequently in his writings and on-air essays - due to heart failure in April of 2004. In 2009 he published the anecdotal memoir 60 Years of Wisdom and Wit. Two years later, after 33 years on the program, Rooney delivered his 1,097th and final essay for "60 Minutes" on Oct. 2, 2011, lamenting, "I wish I could do this forever. I can't." Three weeks later, following what was described as minor surgery, the 92-year-old was admitted to an undisclosed hospital for an unspecified, but admittedly serious condition. On Nov. 4, 2011, only a month after his "60 Minutes" sign-off, Rooney passed away from complications from surgery.

By Jerry Renshaw