Charles "Buddy" Rogers

Charles Rogers

Rogers in 1929
Born Charles Edward Rogers
(1904-08-13)August 13, 1904
Olathe, Kansas, U.S.
Died April 21, 1999(1999-04-21) (aged 94)
Rancho Mirage, California, U.S.
Occupation Actor, Musician
Years active 1926–99
Spouse(s) Mary Pickford (m. 1937–79) (her death)
Beverly Ricondo (m. 1981–99) (his death)

Charles Edward “Buddy” Rogers (August 13, 1904 – April 21, 1999) was an American film actor and musician. During the peak of his popularity in the late 1920s and early 1930s he was publicized as "America's Boy Friend".

Life and career

Early years

Rogers with The Twin Stars radio program, 1937.

Rogers was born to Maude and Bert Henry Rogers in Olathe, Kansas. He studied at the University of Kansas where he became an active member of Phi Kappa Psi. In the mid-1920s he began acting professionally in Hollywood films. A talented trombonist skilled on several other musical instruments, Rogers performed with his own dance band in motion pictures and on radio. During World War II, he served in the United States Navy as a flight training instructor.

According to American Dance Bands On Record and Film (1915–1942), compiled by Richard J. Johnson and Bernard H. Shirley (Rustbooks Publishing, 2010), Rogers was not a bandleader in the usual sense of the term. Instead, he was a film actor who fronted a band for publicity purposes. His later bands were organized by Milt Shaw. In 1930, he recorded two records for Columbia as a solo singer with a small jazz band accompanying. In 1932, he signed with Victor and recorded four sweet dance band records. In 1938, he signed with Vocalion and recorded six swing records (see discography below).

Career

Nicknamed "Buddy", his most remembered performance in film was opposite Clara Bow in the 1927 Academy Award winning Wings, the first film ever honored as Best Picture. In 1968, he appeared as himself in an episode of Petticoat Junction entitled "Wings", a direct reference to the silent movie.

Respected by his peers for his work in film and for his humanitarianism, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored Rogers in 1986 with The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Rogers has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6135 Hollywood Blvd.

At the 1988 Academy Awards

A longtime resident and benefactor of California's Coachella Valley, Rogers was honored by having named after him a children's symphony orchestra that he and second wife, Beverley Ricondo, a real estate agent he married in 1981, helped found. A street in Cathedral City, California is named after him as well.

In 1993, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to him.[1]

Personal life

In 1937, Rogers became the third husband of silent film legend Mary Pickford, a woman twelve years his senior. Their romance had begun in 1927, when they co-starred in My Best Girl,[2] but they kept it on ice until Pickford's separation and 1936 divorce from the less faithful Douglas Fairbanks. The couple adopted two children—Roxanne (born 1944, adopted in 1944) and Ronald Charles (born 1937, adopted in 1943)—and remained married for 42 years until Pickford's death in 1979.

Death

Rogers died in Rancho Mirage, California, in 1999 at the age of 94 of natural causes, and was interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Cathedral City, near Palm Springs.[3]

Filmography

Discography

as Charles "Buddy" Rogers (America's Boy Friend)

as Buddy Rogers and His California Cavaliers

as Buddy Rogers and his Famous Swing Band

(vocals by Buddy Rogers, except Bob Hannon# or Joe Mooney@, or Elizabeth Tilton$)

References

  1. ↑ Palm Springs Walk of Stars dedication to Rogers; accessed February 6, 2014.
  2. ↑ UCLA Film & Television Archive program notes for My Best Girl, including comments by Pickford biographer Jeffrey Vance. Accessed April 26, 2016.
  3. ↑ Brooks, Patricia; Brooks, Jonathan (2006). "Chapter 8: East L.A. and the Desert". Laid to Rest in California: a guide to the cemeteries and grave sites of the rich and famous. Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press. p. 246. ISBN 978-0762741014. OCLC 70284362.

Sources

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Charles Rogers.

Buddy Rogers at Find a Grave

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