WILL ROGERS

Will Rogers was born in 1879, and people today can't imagine how popular he was and how much influence he had! He was part Cherokee Native American Indian, and he was a champion horse rider and lasso artist (film of this is on Youtube, and it is incredible what he could do!), and he started in Wild West shows and then vaudeville, but he soon started making movies, and he appeared in 33 very popular silent western movies, performing his own stunts. But when sound came in, unlike many other silent stars who could not adapt to talking pictures, Rogers became an even bigger star than ever, as audiences loved his homespun common sense humor. He starred in an astonishing 20 movies in 7 years, and he wrote daily newspaper articles that appeared all over the world, and he almost surely could have been elected President, had he wanted the office! In 1935, while on an airplane trip with famous aviator Wiley Post, the plane crashed, and both men were killed. Will was 55. Rogers' family made the unusual decision to withdraw all his films from circulation (out of respect!), which resulted in future generations not seeing his work, and this has caused him to be not very well known today, but he was a giant in his time!