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Born: November 4, 1879 - Oologah, Indian Territory [now in Oklahoma]
Died: August 15, 1935 - Near Point Barrow, Alaska
 f part-Cherokee parentage, Rogers attended a series of boarding schools and subsequently worked as a cowboy on his father's ranch. While traveling abroad, he joined a Wild West show as a rope twirler, and on his return he transferred his act to vaudeville, gradually adding an offhand humorous patter in a Southwestern drawl, which
audiences loved. He made his first New York appearance in 1905, and in 1915 he joined Ziegfeld's Follies, where his talk began to include political humor.
In 1922 he began writing a weekly column for the New York Times that was soon syndicated nationally. Noted for its good-natured but sharp criticism of contemporary public figures and affairs, it eventually reached an audience estimated at 40 million, and his radio talks made his comfortable drawl a beloved presence in tens of millions of households nationwide. He also wrote a series of books in a similar vein, including Rogerisms, the Cowboy Philosopher on Prohibition (1919), The Illiterate Digest (1924), and There's Not a Bathing Suit in Russia (1927).
| Works by Will Rogers |
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Rogerisms, the Cowboy Philosopher on Prohibition (1919) |
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The Illiterate Digest (1924) |
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There's Not a Bathing Suit in Russia (1927) |
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He began appearing in films in 1918, and enjoyed great success as an actor during the Depression in such films as A Connecticut Yankee (1931), State Fair (1933), David Harum (1934), and Steamboat Round the Bend (1935). His death in a plane crash with the pilot Wiley Post was widely mourned.
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