His trials to show made him a reluctant celebrity. TV Guide called him "America's favorite grumpy." He retired in October 2011 after 33 years in the program.
Andy Rooney, longtime resident curmudgeon of CBS News whose whimsical and scathing essay on "60 Minutes" became a writer wrinkled unlikely - and reluctant - TV celebrity, died on Friday night, just weeks after retiring of the series. He was 92.
CBS has announced the death of Rooney, who launched his long career during the Second World War as a correspondent for the newspaper Stars and Stripes military and remains a fixture on "60 Minutes" for 33 years.
He died at a hospital in New York City of complications following minor surgery, according to CBS.
For millions of Americans, Rooney was a welcome visitor at their homes on Sunday night, an old familiar face who appears for a few minutes at the end of the tail of one of the most valued in television history.
The TV viewers award-winning magazine who saw him as a friend, neighbor or relative know what to expect from a man who offered his views on a wide range of topics.
Ironically. Curmudgeon. Capricious. Articulated a common man. Quiet but inquisitive. A crank. A complainant. The man of a thousand questions.
These are just some of the words journalists have used to describe the man TV Guide called "America's favorite grumpy."
Sitting behind his desk in his tiny office, crammed with CBS in New York, Rooney spoke to the camera as if the viewer at home had fallen on a brief visit to see what was on his mind this week.
There was always something.
Designer Jeans: "The facts of advertising are far superior to the reality of the average American back."
Bank name: "Trust is a word, such as banks in their names there are some names that would never use," Bankorama "for example .."
Baseball: "My own fairly quickly time passes without a national game to help."
But Rooney did not just spend your minutes over seemingly trivial matters. In 2003, for example, turned its attention to the French for not supporting the war in Iraq.
"You can not beat the French when it comes to food, fashion, wine and perfume, but lost his license to have an opinion on world affairs years ago," he said. "The French lost the Second World War the Germans in about 20 minutes."
With Rooney, as his "60 Minutes" colleague Mike Wallace once said: "What you see is what you get."
"Never, never met a man I admire more, more respect," Wallace said during a debate in journalism from the Second World War at the Smithsonian Institution in 2004.
"He is loyal, is honorable. He has the guts to say what's on your mind. And, thank God, we had the opportunity to millions of Americans see him every Sunday night in the last couple of decades," said Wallace.
An award-winning writer and producer of the CBS TV special narrated by Harry Reasoner News in the early 1960 - "A bird's eye view of America" and "Essay on Bridges", among them - Rooney began to appear on camera themselves himself as a writer and producer of a series of specials in the 70's.
"Mr. Rooney goes to dinner", which explores the business of $ 11 million restaurants, visiting restaurants across the United States, was one. (If the restaurant menu has a tassel on it, Rooney told viewers, "add $ 2 for the bill." And forget the homemade food restaurants advertising. "If I cook at home," he said, "I will stay at home. ")
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