Andy Rooney, 60 Minutes Commentator, Dead at 92
Andy Rooney, the curmudgeonly commentator from CBS’s 60 Minutes, died Friday at the age of 92 of complications from minor surgery, the network announced Saturday. Rooney had retired from his regular role on the newsmagazine last month.
Rooney was best known for his closing segments on 60 Minutes, where he would muse about everything from dogs to computers. The commentaries, called “A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney,” were delivered from the desk of his cluttered office and ran from 1978 to this year.
While much of his work discussed the many minor annoyances of everyday life, his tenure at 60 Minutes was not without controversy, his New York Times obituary notes. In 1990, Rooney was suspended from the newsmagazine because his remarks in a 1989 TV special that offended black and gay people.
He courted further criticism in a 1994 segment following the suicide of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, when he said, “A lot of people would like to have the years left that he threw away.” He then rhetorically dismissed an upset Nirvana fan who was weeping at the news of Cobain’s death, saying, “I’d love to relieve the pain you’re going through by switching my age for yours.”
In addition to his work on 60 Minutes, Rooney also wrote books, newspaper columns and material for television entertainers. During World War II, he was a correspondent for the Army newspaper Stars and Stripes.
Regarding his own musical taste, Rooney once said, “I don’t like any music I can’t hum.”
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