Longtime '60 Minutes commentator Andy Rooney dies at 92
Andy Rooney, the “60 Minutes” essayist whose curmudgeonly commentaries at the end of each broadcast made him one of the most popular, and parodied, figures on network television, died Friday night in New York. He was 92. Mr. Rooney died from complications from a recent surgery.
For 33 years, Mr. Rooney’s three-minute segment, “A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney,” was a mainstay of “60 Minutes,” making him as much of a celebrity as his colleagues Mike Wallace and Morley Safer. The commentaries ran from 1978 to 2011.
"Andy Rooney is Everyman," Walter Cronkite once remarked, "articulating all the frustrations with modern life that the rest of us ... suffer with silence or mumbled oaths."
Commenting on everything from the peculiarity of men wearing neckties to the even greater peculiarity of how banks choose their names, Mr. Rooney was a “homespun Homer” and “America’s Bard of Banality,” Newsweek declared. The magazine went on to suggest that “Not, perhaps, since Job has so much attention by reaped by lamentations.”
Mr. Rooney was an unlikely television personality. He had a chunky build and squashed-in face. His floppy forelock and bushy brows gave the appearance of being out of control. He had a perpetually put-upon look, something contributed to by his rumpled clothes and the aggressive disarray of his office, which provided the "set" for his "60 Minutes" segments.
Completing the effect was Mr. Rooney’s squawky voice, which seemed made for complaint. An advertising agency once contacted him about doing the voiceover for a headache-remedy commercial. "Told me a lot about my voice," said Mr. Rooney, who declined the offer.
Mr. Rooney, who considered himself a writer rather than performer, looked askance at what he disparagingly called "my well-knownness." "I spent 50 years of my life working to become well-known as a writer," he wrote in his 1989 book "Not That You Asked ..". and I've spent the last 10 hiding from strangers who recognize me."
Mr. Rooney refused to promote his books and made a point of not giving autographs. "I just have the feeling that I don't owe anybody anything except writing as well as I am able," he said in a 1989 Newsday interview.
Mr. Rooney's willingness to affront extended to his employers. When the Writers Guild of America went on strike against CBS in 1987, he refused to appear on “60 Minutes" and wrote in his syndicated newspaper column, "CBS, which used to stand for the Columbia Broadcasting System, no longer stands for anything. They’re just corporate initials now."
What made Mr. Rooney’s crankiness so appealing was his wry humor and keen eye for social observation. From niggling mundane details of dailiness he extracted ephemeral epiphanies and nuggets of moral philosophy.
"I'd like to be rich enough so I could throw soap away after the letters are worn off.”
"Nothing in fine print is ever good news."
"A bank has to have a name that sounds important and honest, otherwise people would keep their money under the mattress where it belongs.”
“If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it.”
MORE OF THE STORY
Andy Rooney, the “60 Minutes” essayist whose curmudgeonly commentaries at the end of each broadcast made him one of the most popular, and parodied, figures on network television, died Friday night in New York. He was 92. Mr. Rooney died from complications from a recent surgery.
For 33 years, Mr. Rooney’s three-minute segment, “A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney,” was a mainstay of “60 Minutes,” making him as much of a celebrity as his colleagues Mike Wallace and Morley Safer. The commentaries ran from 1978 to 2011.
"Andy Rooney is Everyman," Walter Cronkite once remarked, "articulating all the frustrations with modern life that the rest of us ... suffer with silence or mumbled oaths."
Commenting on everything from the peculiarity of men wearing neckties to the even greater peculiarity of how banks choose their names, Mr. Rooney was a “homespun Homer” and “America’s Bard of Banality,” Newsweek declared. The magazine went on to suggest that “Not, perhaps, since Job has so much attention by reaped by lamentations.”
Mr. Rooney was an unlikely television personality. He had a chunky build and squashed-in face. His floppy forelock and bushy brows gave the appearance of being out of control. He had a perpetually put-upon look, something contributed to by his rumpled clothes and the aggressive disarray of his office, which provided the "set" for his "60 Minutes" segments.
Completing the effect was Mr. Rooney’s squawky voice, which seemed made for complaint. An advertising agency once contacted him about doing the voiceover for a headache-remedy commercial. "Told me a lot about my voice," said Mr. Rooney, who declined the offer.
Mr. Rooney, who considered himself a writer rather than performer, looked askance at what he disparagingly called "my well-knownness." "I spent 50 years of my life working to become well-known as a writer," he wrote in his 1989 book "Not That You Asked ..". and I've spent the last 10 hiding from strangers who recognize me."
Mr. Rooney refused to promote his books and made a point of not giving autographs. "I just have the feeling that I don't owe anybody anything except writing as well as I am able," he said in a 1989 Newsday interview.
Mr. Rooney's willingness to affront extended to his employers. When the Writers Guild of America went on strike against CBS in 1987, he refused to appear on “60 Minutes" and wrote in his syndicated newspaper column, "CBS, which used to stand for the Columbia Broadcasting System, no longer stands for anything. They’re just corporate initials now."
What made Mr. Rooney’s crankiness so appealing was his wry humor and keen eye for social observation. From niggling mundane details of dailiness he extracted ephemeral epiphanies and nuggets of moral philosophy.
"I'd like to be rich enough so I could throw soap away after the letters are worn off.”
"Nothing in fine print is ever good news."
"A bank has to have a name that sounds important and honest, otherwise people would keep their money under the mattress where it belongs.”
“If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it.”
MORE OF THE STORY
Comment