Rogers, Will

Rogers, Will (William Penn Adair Rogers), 1879–1935, American humorist, b. Oolagah, Indian Territory (now in Oklahoma). In his youth he worked as a cowboy in Oklahoma, and after traveling over the world, he returned to the United States and worked in vaudeville as a cowboy rope-twirler, joking casually with the audience. He was an immediate success when he joined the Ziegfeld Follies in 1915. Rogers gained a wide audience through motion pictures, books, the radio, and a syndicated newspaper column. His salty comments on the political and social scene made the "cowboy philosopher" widely known. A constant booster of airplane travel, Rogers made several long airplane trips; he was killed with Wiley Post when their plane crashed near Point Barrow, Alaska.

Bibliography

See his autobiography (ed. by D. Day, 1949) and writings (1973); D. R. Milsten, Will Rogers: An Appreciation (1976); P. C. Rollins, Will Rogers: A Bio-Bibliography (1984).

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Rogers, Will(iam Penn Adair)

Will Rogers.

(credit: Culver Pictures)

(born Nov. 4, 1879, Indian Territory, U.S. [near present-day Claremore, Okla.]—died Aug. 15, 1935, near Point Barrow, Alaska) U.S. humorist and actor. Raised in Indian Territory, he demonstrated his rope-twirling skills in Wild West shows and vaudeville and gradually wove bits of homespun wit into his act. He was popular in New York City from 1905 and starred in Florenz Ziegfeld's Midnight Frolic (1915). Noted for his good-natured but sharp criticism of current affairs, he wrote a newspaper column in the New York Times (from 1922) as well as several books. He performed on radio and in movies such as State Fair (1933) and Steamboat Round the Bend (1935). His death in a plane crash in Alaska with the aviator Wiley Post (1899–1935) was widely mourned.

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Rogers, (William Penn Adair) Will (1879–1935) humorist, stage/film/radio actor; born in Oolagah, Indian territory (now Oklahoma). Part Cherokee, he was a practicing cowboy but went abroad to seek adventure, beginning his career (1902) as a rider and trick roper in Wild West shows in South Africa and Australia. Returning to the U.S.A. (1904), he moved into vaudeville and Broadway musicals, becoming an especial favorite in the Ziegfield Follies (1916–24), by which time his act had begun to feature his own cracker-barrel wit and homespun philosophy. By 1918 he was making the first of many movies, and soon he projected his persona of the common-but-shrewd man through many mediums—as a popular radio performer, a syndicated newspaper columnist, author of several books, and a presidential candidate on the Anti-Bunk ticket (1928). His trademark line was, "All I know is what I read in the papers," which he used to launch his wry comments on the current scene. When he died with Wiley Post in a plane crash in Alaska, he was mourned as an authentic American folk hero.