American actor (1933?2015)
Wayne Rogers
|
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Rogers as Trapper in
M*A*S*H
, 1972
|
Born
| William Wayne McMillan Rogers III
(
1933-04-07
)
April 7, 1933
|
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Died
| December 31, 2015
(2015-12-31)
(aged 82)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
|
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Alma mater
| Princeton University
, 1954
|
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|
Allegiance
|
United States
|
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Service/
branch
|
United States Navy
|
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Years of service
| 1954?1956
|
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Rank
| Ensign
|
---|
Unit
| USS
Denebola
,
navigator
|
---|
Battles/wars
| |
---|
|
Occupations
|
- Actor
- investor
- television personality
|
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Years active
| 1959?2014
|
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Spouses
| -
Mitzi McWhorter
(
m.
1960;
div.
1983)
-
|
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Children
| 2
|
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William Wayne McMillan Rogers III
(April 7, 1933 ? December 31, 2015)
[1]
was an American actor, known for playing the role of
Captain "Trapper" John McIntyre
in the
CBS
television series
M*A*S*H
and as Dr. Charley Michaels on
House Calls
(1979?1982).
He was a regular panel member on the
Fox News Channel
stock investment television program
Cashin' In
as a result of having built a career as an investor, investment strategist, adviser, and money manager. Rogers also studied acting at the
Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre
in New York City.
Early life
[
edit
]
Born in
Birmingham, Alabama
, Rogers attended
Ramsay High School
in Birmingham and was a graduate of the
Webb School
in
Bell Buckle
, Tennessee.
[1]
He earned a history degree from
Princeton University
in 1954. He was a member of the
Princeton Triangle Club
and the
eating club
Tiger Inn
. After college, Rogers served as an officer in the
United States Navy
, as a
navigator
on the
USS
Denebola
, and planned to enter
Harvard Law School
before he became an actor.
[1]
[2]
Career
[
edit
]
Early career
[
edit
]
Rogers appeared on television in both dramas and sitcoms such as
The Invaders
,
The F.B.I.
,
Combat!
,
Gunsmoke
,
Have Gun Will Travel
,
Wanted Dead or Alive
,
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
,
and
The Fugitive
,
and had a small supporting role in the 1967 movie
Cool Hand Luke
.
He also appeared on
The Big Valley
in 1968.
He played Slim Davis on the soap opera
Search for Tomorrow
in 1959. He also played a role in
Odds Against Tomorrow
,
which was nominated for a
Golden Globe Award
in 1960 as Best Film Promoting International Understanding. He guest starred on an episode of the CBS western
Johnny Ringo
.
Rogers co-starred with
Robert Bray
and
Richard Eyer
in the western series
Stagecoach West
on
ABC
from 1960 to 1961.
Rogers was cast as
U.S. Army
Lieutenant
Richard Henry Pratt
in 1965 in
Death Valley Days
.
He appeared on the
Cannon
episode "Call Unicorn" in 1971.
M*A*S*H
(1972?1975)
[
edit
]
When Rogers was approached for
M*A*S*H,
he planned to audition for the role of Hawkeye Pierce. He found the character too cynical, however, and asked to screen test as Trapper John, whose outlook was brighter. Rogers was told that Trapper and Hawkeye would have equal importance as characters. That changed after
Alan Alda
, whose acting career and resume up to that point had outshone that of Rogers, was cast as Hawkeye and proved to be more popular with the audience. Rogers enjoyed working with Alda and the rest of the cast as a whole (Alda and Rogers quickly became close friends), but eventually chafed that the writers were devoting the show's best humorous and dramatic moments to Alda.
[
citation needed
]
When the writers took the liberty of making Hawkeye a
thoracic surgeon
in the episode "
Dear Dad
" (December 17, 1972), even though Trapper was the unit's only thoracic surgeon in the movie and the novel, Rogers felt Trapper had been stripped of his credentials. He decided to leave the show between production of the third and fourth seasons, making his last on-screen appearance in the episode
Abyssinia, Henry
, which was also the final episode for fellow cast member
McLean Stevenson
who had portrayed Lieutenant Colonel
Henry Blake
.
[
citation needed
]
On the
M*A*S*H 30th Anniversary Reunion Television Special
aired by Fox-TV in 2002, Rogers spoke on the differences between the Hawkeye and Trapper characters, saying, "Alan [Alda] and I both used to discuss ways on how to distinguish the differences between the two characters as to where there would be a variance.... My character [Trapper John McIntyre] was a little more impulsive [than Hawkeye]." Rogers considerably reduced his Alabama accent for the character of Trapper.
[3]
He succeeded
Elliott Gould
, who had played the character in the
Robert Altman
movie
MASH
, and was himself succeeded by
Pernell Roberts
on the
M*A*S*H
spin-off
Trapper John, M.D.
After three seasons, Rogers left the show after a contract dispute with the producers.
Post-
M*A*S*H
work
[
edit
]
After leaving
M*A*S*H
, Rogers appeared as an FBI agent in the 1975 NBC-TV movie
Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan
,
as Michael Stone in the 1980 miniseries
Top of the Hill
, and as
civil rights
attorney
Morris Dees
in 1996s
Ghosts of Mississippi
.
He also starred in the short-lived 1976 period detective series
City of Angels
and the 1979?1982 CBS series
House Calls
,
first with
Lynn Redgrave
(both were nominated for Golden Globes in 1981, as best actor and best actress in TV comedy, but did not win) and then later with actress
Sharon Gless
(coincidentally, one of the
House Calls
co-stars was
Roger Bowen
who played the original Colonel Henry Blake in the
MASH
movie). Rogers also appeared in the 1980s miniseries
Chiefs
.
Rogers then was a guest star five times in a recurring role on CBS's
Murder, She Wrote
.
He has served as an executive producer and producer in both
television
and
film
, and as a screenwriter, and a director.
Rogers also starred in several other movies. In 1981, he played the role of an
art forger
in
Roger Vadim
's
The Hot Touch
.
Then, in the movie
The Gig
(1985), alongside
Cleavon Little
, he was a jazz musician-hobbyist whose group has an opportunity to play a
Catskills
resort and must confront failure. Also in 1985, he starred opposite
Barbara Eden
in the televised reunion movie
I Dream of Jeannie... Fifteen Years Later
based on the 1960s situation comedy
I Dream of Jeannie
.
Rogers took on the role of Major Tony Nelson, which was originally portrayed by
Larry Hagman
in the television series when Hagman was unavailable to reprise the character he had originated. In 1986, Rogers hosted the short-lived CBS television series
High Risk
. He also starred as Walter Duncan in the 1987 movie
Race Against the Harvest.
In 1990, Rogers co-starred with
Connie Selleca
in the CBS made-for-television movie
Miracle Landing
based on the true story of the 1988
Aloha Airlines Flight 243
crash landing after an explosive cabin depressurization.
Financial career
[
edit
]
Rogers began to test the stock and real estate markets during his tenure as a
M*A*S*H
cast member and became a successful
money manager
and investor. In 1988 and 1990, he appeared before the
United States House Committee on the Judiciary
as an expert witness, testifying in favor of retaining the banking laws enacted under the
Glass?Steagall Legislation
act of 1933.
[4]
He appeared regularly as a panel member on the
Fox Business Network
cable TV stocks investment/stocks news program
Cashin' In,
hosted since 2013 by
Fox News
anchor
Eric Bolling
. In August 2006, Rogers was elected to the board of directors of
Vishay Intertechnology, Inc.
,
[5]
a
Fortune 1000
manufacturer of
semiconductors
and
electronic components
. He was also the head of Wayne Rogers & Co., a stock trading investment corporation.
On April 23, 2012, Rogers signed as the new spokesman for Senior Home Loans, a direct
reverse mortgage
lender headquartered in
Long Island
, New York.
Awards
[
edit
]
Rogers received a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame
in 2005.
[6]
Personal life and death
[
edit
]
As a young actor, Rogers met actress Mitzi McWhorter in New York in the late 1950s. They married in 1960, had two children, and divorced in 1983. They had been separated for almost four years prior to the divorce. Rogers married his second wife, Amy Hirsh, in 1988.
In 2001, Rogers made
Destin, Florida
, his home.
[7]
Rogers died on December 31, 2015, from complications of pneumonia in Los Angeles at the age of 82.
[8]
[9]
He died exactly one year before fellow
M*A*S*H
cast member
William Christopher
.
[10]
Filmography
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
Wilson, Claire M.
"Wayne Rogers"
. Encyclopedia of Alabama. (Auburn University)
. Retrieved
May 26,
2022
.
- ^
Compton, Carrie (February 8, 2017).
"Lives: Wayne Rogers '54"
.
Princeton Alumni Weekly
. Retrieved
May 26,
2022
.
- ^
Comments made by Rogers on
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
.
- ^
Andrew Dalton ? AP (January 1, 2016).
"Wayne Rogers, Trapper John on 'M.A.S.H.,' dies at 82"
.
Washington Post
. Archived from
the original
on January 1, 2016.
- ^
"Wayne M. Rogers Profile&"
.
Forbes
. Archived from
the original
on May 15, 2010
. Retrieved
May 2,
2010
.
- ^
"
'M-A-S-H' star Wayne Rogers gets star on Hollywood walk of fame"
.
USA Today
. Associated Press. December 13, 2005
. Retrieved
August 15,
2009
.
- ^
Jackson, Scott T. (March 2010).
"Wayne Rogers: Actor, Entrepreneur, Financial Pundit"
.
Emerald Coast Magazine
.
11
(1)
. Retrieved
January 14,
2016
.
- ^
Bueno, Antoinette (December 31, 2014).
"
'MASH' Star Wayne Rogers Dies at 82"
.
Entertainment Tonight
.
CBS Television Distribution
.
CBS Studios Inc.
Retrieved
January 1,
2016
.
- ^
"M*A*S*H star Wayne Rogers dead at 82"
.
BNO News
. December 31, 2015
. Retrieved
January 1,
2016
.
- ^
"Wayne Rogers, Trapper John on 'M*A*S*H*,' dies at 82"
.
Fox News
.
FOX
. Associated Press. January 1, 2016. Archived from
the original
on January 5, 2016
. Retrieved
January 1,
2016
.
External links
[
edit
]
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International
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National
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Other
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