You may have been a young boy, but the ageless Mickey Rooney was already a 34-year-old adult when "The Atomic Kid" came out in 1954.

Having found fame as the lovable young troublemaker Mickey McGuire in the '20s, he soon had to find a new character, since the actions of lovable troublemakers, when performed by adults, are more apt to be seen as petty crimes. He did with the Andy Hardy movies that followed (19 in total), but he also did with other pictures, such as "The Atomic Kid" -- light, comedic fare that placed the charming though awkward Rooney in all sorts of bizarre situations.

In this one, he played a uranium prospector who is on the site of a nuclear testing facility when a bomb explodes. His resulting radioactivity does cause slot machines to pay off as he passes, but it also leads the FBI to recruit him to help break up an enemy spy ring.

The film co-starred Elaine Davis, who was married to Rooney at the time -- she was even billed Mrs. Mickey Rooney in the credits. It was her first screen role, though she'd go on to appear in nearly 40 film and TV roles.

Rooney has been married eight times, and indeed seems to enjoy working with his wives. His 1941 film "Babes on Broadway" featured a young Ava Gardner in an uncredited role, before she attained film stardom, and a year before she married Rooney. He's also worked in several films with Jan Rooney (born Jan Chamberlin), to whom he's been married for 33 years, more than all the other marriages combined.

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