By the end of the 1940s, Rooney's movie characters were no longer in demand, and his career went downhill. "In 1938," he said, "I starred in eight pictures. In 1948 and 1949 together, I starred in only three." However, film historian Jeanine Basinger notes that although his career "reached the heights and plunged to the depths, Rooney kept on working and growing, the mark of a professional." Some of the films that reinvigorated his popularity were "Requiem for a Heavyweight" (1962), "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" (1963), and "The Black Stallion" (1979). In the early 1980s, he returned to Broadway in "Sugar Babies", and "found himself once more back on top".