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Show Mickey Rooney: Stay involved with life it. I play Bill the way Mickey Rooney wants to play him, not according to the way someone else thinks I should play him. I haven't met Bill Sackter. I didn't want to meet him before I played the part. I don't draw on anything, any person, to create a characterization." character-ization." Rooney was very impressed with the story of Bill Sackter and feels "very honored to be playing him on screen. "Bill signed a wonderful photograph of himself and sent it to me, and I consider it priceless," said Rooney. Rooney says that working on behalf of the mentally retarded is a "main cause" in his life. "I do a lot of work for them (the mentally retarded) and have had dealings with them," he said, adding some details of his hopes to be instrumental instrumen-tal in the building of villas for the retarded of all ages. Rooney noted that he has learned many lessons in life, "some of them the hard way," since his early "fun-filled" days on the Hollywood back lots. He considers the most important lesson of all to be: "Stay involved with life." That does not seem difficult for him. But then, he noted, "nothing is." On the Broadway stage, Mickey Rooney has been starring star-ring in "Sugar Babies," playing play-ing himself. On TV this week, the veteran performer will portray a mentally retarded adult in the dramatic special "Bill," a "G.E. Theater" presentation pres-entation to air on CBS, Tuesday, Tues-day, Dec. 22. The drama, based on a true story by Barry Morrow, focuses on Bill Sackter, who, although mentally retarded, tackles life in the world beyond the confines of the institution In which he has spent 44 years. Did Rooney find it difficult to make the daily transition from Bill to "Sugar Babies" in less than two hours, a schedule sched-ule he had to maintain while filming the TV special? "I don't find anything difficult," said Rooney. "I knew before I began what the schedule would be like. It's all under the conduit of show business." Although the role of Bill might prove emotionally draining to some, Rooney considered con-sidered it "fun." "It's not fun the way 'Sugar Babies' is fun," he said. "It's your approach and your attitude atti-tude toward what you do that determines whether or not it's fun. To me, it's fun to fulfill yourself playing a role with an emotional impact such as this." Although Rooney has tackled tac-kled ust about every facet of show business since becoming a motion picture star as a youth as Andy Hardy In "A Family Affair" in 1937 and has amassed a number of dramatic dra-matic acting credits ranging from "The Bold and the Brave," "Boys Town" and "Ah, Wilderness!" to "The Black Stallion," he had never before portrayed a retarded person. "I didn't do anything to prepare pre-pare for the role," he said. I'm an actor. I just go out there and act it the way I feel 1 r. r3 Mickey Rooaey |