Introduction
Ninian Joseph Ewell, known professionally as Joe Yule (April 30, 1892 – March 30, 1950), was a Scottish-American vaudeville comedian who later appeared in many films as a character actor. He was noted for his role in the Jiggs and Maggie film series, and as the father of Mickey Rooney.
Biography
Ewell was born in Scotland on April 30, 1892 in the Polmadie district of Glasgow, and emigrated around 1900 with his parents to the United States.
As a teenager he joined the vaudeville circuit and adopted the stage name Joe Yule. In 1919, he married fellow vaudevillian Nellie W. Carter, a native of Kansas City, Missouri. In 1920, while they were appearing together in a Brooklyn production of A Gaiety Girl, their only son, Joseph Yule, Jr. (later Mickey McGuire, then Mickey Rooney), was born. The Yules separated in 1924 during a slump in vaudeville, and in 1925 Nellie moved with her son to Hollywood.
He died from a heart attack on March 30, 1950 in Hollywood, California. Rooney arranged to have his father buried near Rooney's friend and longtime acting colleague Wallace Beery, who had died a few years prior. "I thought it was fitting that these two comedians should rest in peace, side by side," he wrote.