38 pistol that Rooney kept for protection. Police judged it a murder-suicide at Milosevic’s hand, using a. Thomason had been shot under the chin, Milosevic in the temple. The next day, when Thomason didn’t respond to knocks on the locked bedroom door, her friend Wilma Catania used a screwdriver to break in. On the floor in the master bath, Milosevic was sprawled atop his lover. They went into the master bedroom together at about 8:30 that night. The Yugoslav was known for a volcanic temper, and no one expected him to leave his lover meekly. But friends who accompanied Thomason home said Milosevic seemed to take the news calmly. Thomason swore she would dump Milosevic, and Rooney surprised everyone by agreeing to reconcile. Barbara then had to break the news to Milosevic, who was still shacked up in the Rooneys’ Brentwood home. 30, 1966, in a hospital room where Rooney was being treated for an intestinal bug. Barbara had second thoughts when she learned that he wanted custody of their children. Rooney returned from the Philippines in November 1965 to discover that the demon had moved in while he was gone. Rooney retreated to a hotel and filed for divorce. He had a bit part in the “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming,” and he played the title demon in “Incubus,” the William Shatner horror film done in the Esperanto language. While Rooney was away, Thomason got cozy with a muscular young actor, a Yugoslav émigré named Milos Milosevic.Īs their affair began, Milosevic’s movie career was taking off. In 1965, Rooney traveled to the Philippines to film Ambush Bay, a war drama costarring Hugh O’Brian. Instead, she was awash in diapers and on a tight budget, keenly aware that her husband had resumed another chronic bad habit: philandering. When she married a movie star, Thomason must have expected a glamorous life. He went bankrupt in 1962 as Uncle Sam dunned him for $100,000 in back taxes. He was broke, despite earning $12 million in hundreds of film roles over 35 years. Whatever joy the children brought was tempered by Rooney’s financial swoon. 13, 1959, and ending with Kimmy Sue on Sept. She delivered four babies in exactly four years, beginning with Kelly Ann on Sept. Thomason gave up her budding career to become a full-time mommy. The union wasn’t legal since Rooney’s fourth divorce wasn’t yet inked, but they fixed that detail with a do-over ceremony five months later in L.A. Later they dumped her at a hospital, where she recovered.Īnd no one was surprised when Thomason became Mrs. After she got woozy, she was stripped naked and dunked in Rooney’s pool by pals trying to revive her. Thomason accidentally took some pills, he said. They were married by the end of the year. Red Doff, Rooney’s flack, said he had a perfectly reasonable explanation - even if it wasn’t.īarbara Thomason passed out at Mickey Rooney's home in August 1958 after taking too many sleeping pills. 12, 1958: “Starlet Takes Sleeping Pills at Mickey Rooney’s Home.” Next came a marquee-topping role in Roger Corman’s cult film “Cry Baby Killer,” the debut of co-star Jack Nicholson.Īs those two B-movies flickered on silver screens, Thomason/Mitchell made another headline, on Aug. In 1955, she made her screen debut (as Carolyn Mitchell) in an episode of “Crossroads,” an ABC morality-play series.Ī few years later, she won a small part in the biker flick “Dragstrip Riot,” with Fay Wray. Thomason won a roomful of beach beauty trophies, and that led to pin-up modeling. She got her first headline after a Santa Monica pageant in June 1954: “Blonde, 17, Chosen Muscle Beach Queen.” She was described as “a bouncy, blue-eyed blonde in a white bathing suit,” with hourglass measurements recorded down to the half-inch. While still in high school in Inglewood, the curvy teen adopted a new name, Barbara Thomason, and began entering bathing suit beauty contests from Hermosa Beach to Palisades Park. And did she ever.īorn with stars in her eyes in Phoenix in 1937, she moved to Los Angeles as a teenager. Carolyn Mitchell was one of those girls who seemed destined to make headlines.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |