Rocky Dennis was born in 1961, and at the time, the young child with the brilliant eyes appeared to be any other newborn. But when he was only two years old, his family’s life would be irrevocably altered.
Rocky’s skull abnormalities were discovered by an X-ray technician while performing a routine tonsillectomy. He had a calcium buildup in his skull, which was altering the contours of his face.
Rocky was not expected to live through his sixth birthday, according to the doctors. But despite all the odds, the young child triumphed, inspiring a lot of people in the process.
Here is everything you need to know about Rocky Dennis’ incredible life, including how he unexpectedly rose to fame throughout the world as a result of a hospital nurse and the 1985 movie Mask.
We are all deserving of the same respect regardless of how or where we were born, whether we have physical or mental impairments or a condition that makes us appear “different” from the norm. Everybody should be given the chance to live the life they desire.
While it’s important to constantly remind one another not to make snap judgments about people before getting to know them, we as individuals must never forget this.
In light of this, we think it’s important to share the tale of Rocky Dennis, a remarkable and amazing young kid whose life was irrevocably transformed at the age of two.
Rocky Dennis was born in Glenora, California, on December 4, 1961. Rusty Dennis (later Mason) was the mother of a handsome young boy. The family soon relocated to the Californian town of Covina.
Rocky’s life then had a standard tonsillectomy at the age of two, which irrevocably altered it.
No mother should ever receive the news that Rusty received. Rocky’s skull had certain abnormalities that an X-ray technician had noticed, and subsequent examinations at the UCLA Medical Center revealed the boy had an incredibly uncommon illness. His eyes were being pushed to the sides of his skull by abnormal calcium deposits, which were also deforming his nose.
Rocky was warned that he will lose his hearing and eyesight while still being a young child. Tragically, the pressure caused by the calcium deposits would eventually cause his brain to die.
Sadly, Rusty was informed that her son wouldn’t make it past the age of seven.
“What you think works, you know, and he thought he could hang around for as long as he wanted to.”
Rusty was resolved to never intervene in her son’s pursuit of his dreams. She thought he should attend school because she wanted him to have the same opportunities as other kids.
As they left the doctor’s office, Rusty was simultaneously aware that their lives would change drastically. She had even been informed by doctors that her son might go blind before he turned six. His teachers predicted that he would never be able to read, and they recommended Rusty not to enroll him in a public school.
But Rusty, like any other mother, believed that Rocky could achieve anything, and so he started school at age six.
Rusty told People that although “they tried to suggest his intelligence was diminished, it wasn’t true.” I believe they wanted to keep him away from the class because they believed it would annoy the parents of the other children.
Even though Rocky’s medical expenses were largely covered by genetic research organizations, paying for them all wasn’t simple. Rocky had been told to take pills for his headaches, but he and his mother were able to discover a specific biofeedback technique that helped.
He tried his best as a child to blend in, participating in the same pursuits that any other kid his age might. This includes a questionably legal business venture where he sold nearby neighbors the same newspapers he had swiped from their lawn. He also made money by watching youngsters; the kids didn’t seem to mind his malformed head at all.
“I told him he could do whatever he set his mind to. He constantly read, so he didn’t think of himself as blind,” Rusty recalled. “Most of the time, he was able to deal with whatever issues or discomfort he had on a psychic level.”
In essence, Rusty Dennis was a typical kid who enjoyed everything that kids do. But when he was seven years old, Rusty felt it was time to clear the air with him. Dennis noticed a female dwarf in the foyer of the Hacienda Resort Hotel while she and her kid were visiting Las Vegas.
To Rusty’s dismay, Dennis happened to laugh as the woman passed by when she was trying to make her way through the crowd.
“Now, do you get it?” Rusty remembered telling her son. “Do you know why some people treat you that way at times?”
The first-grader Rusty nodded.
No one can look like you, Rocky; everyone can look like anyone else. Be proud of that, she advised him.
Despite the fact that he was a nice, amiable, and loving youngster, some people had preconceived notions about him just because of the way he looked different. He went to Sandburg Junior High School, which employed Barbara Silva as a teacher.
She explained how she met Rocky at school in 2013. On the first day of the 1976 school year, he entered her room. She initially believed she had seen a boy sporting an enormous Halloween mask on his head.
As a new teacher, Silva had already made the decision that she needed to be honest with the kids from the beginning if she wanted to earn their respect. When the bell rang, she made a decision to order the youngster to remove his mask, but when she got close to him, she gasped.
Rocky Dennis was the young man. He informed her that he most likely belonged in a different class before leaving.
Barbara said to Patch, “I think I would have gone to the principal’s office and resigned right there if I had said what I was going to say to Rocky that first day.
“If that had happened, my teaching career would have ended.”
Rocky’s primary teacher wasn’t Barbara, but she remembers him as a highly intelligent young pupil with a fantastic sense of humor. No one gave a damn about his appearance as he quickly gained a lot of popularity among his peers.
“It’d be a good icebreaker. He would acknowledge the issue that was clearly troubling you and reassure you by saying, “It’s okay, I get it.
Rocky was, by all accounts, a fantastic student. He received his diploma from Sandburg Junior High School while dressed in a brand-new suit on graduation day. Additionally, he received a gold certificate that said, “Rocky Dennis – Honors Student.”
Meanwhile, Halloween developed become one of his favorite weekends of the year since he could go “trick or treating” with the local kids and kids from other parts of the city.
Rocky had a sense of humor only a youngster with a golden heart could have, and no one knew what he looked like beneath his mask.
“How adorable, he’s got two masks on! Take off your other one, too,’” a stranger reportedly said to his mother Rusty.
Gee, it must be stuck on, the young boy said in response. Rocky was always showered with sweets.
Rocky went away in 1978 at the age of 17. Of the ten known occurrences of his disease, he was the only one who had survived past the age of six as of 1985.
Rusty found it odd since only a few days earlier, he had apparently displayed symptoms of self-pity. Rocky apologized to his mother for being such a difficult child and expressed regret for the manner he had been conceived.
Rocky and Rusty went out to dinner on October 3. Rocky was now weak and Rusty ordered him to bed when they came home, telling him to “go make your headache better.”
It was the final time she had seen him.
The next morning, when she entered his bedroom, Rocky was no longer alive.
He had already left. Rusty told the public. “I gave him a hug and waved him off, but he wasn’t there.”
Rusty was aware that even after her son’s passing, he might still influence others. She gave Rocky’s body to the UCLA Center for Genetic Research. Rusty remembered him coming back to her a year later, even though he wasn’t with her any longer.
“The following year. He was in a chair in my bedroom when I woke up in the middle of the night. Hey, Mom, he said. I’m headed for San Francisco. I’m going to be there.
Now, it wasn’t always a given that courageous Rocky Dennis would be known to the globe. In fact, if Anna Hamilton Phelan hadn’t been there, we might not have ever known about his life.
Phelan met him for the first time in 1978, the year Rocky passed away, while she was working in a hospital’s genetics department. I bet you have a story to share, she added as they sat down.
“The following year. He was in a chair in my bedroom when I woke up in the middle of the night. Hey, Mom, he said. I’m headed for San Francisco. I’m going to be there.
After their brief encounter, Phelan lost track of Rocky, but she was still curious about him. After conducting her study and speaking with acquaintances of his, Rusty’s mother was contacted.
Her efforts led to the creation of the screenplay for the 1985 movie Mask. Starring alongside Cher as Rusty was Eric Stoltz as Rocky. Cher herself earned the prestigious Best Actress prize at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, and the movie won an Academy Award for Best Makeup.
The rights to Rusty’s narrative were sold to her for $15,000. The movie was an incredibly memorable experience for Cher. not just because she learned about Rocky Dennis and his life story, but also because the condition had a profound impact on her. She made up her mind to take action.
After the Mask movie was finished, Cher vowed to support people with craniofacial abnormalities across the nation. She was named the International Craniofacial Foundation’s honorary chairman in 1989.
Cher said to Parade Magazine in 1994, “You know, if Rocky Dennis had lived today, the doctors would have been able to treat him.”
A craniofacial wants nothing more than to be normal, she continued.
They simply want to move around without being observed, you know. People are always drawn to what they see as beautiful, and they frequently assume that attractive people are also kind. The one is unrelated to the other. Nowadays, everything is so packaged and perfection-oriented that we don’t want to look at somebody who isn’t flawlessly attractive.
The life of Rocky Dennis is extremely amazing. He was a truly nice and lovable young guy who deserved to have a much longer life.