Will Rogers
William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers (November 4, 1879 - August 15, 1935) was a Cherokee-American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer and actor.
Known as Oklahoma's favorite son, Rogers was born to a well off Indian Territory family and learned to ride horses and use a lariat so well that he was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for throwing three ropes at once--one around the neck of a horse, another around the horse's rider, and a third around all four legs of the horse. During his life he traveled around the world three times, made 71 movies (50 silent films and 21 "talkies"), wrote more than 4,000 nationally-syndicated newspaper columns, making him a world-famous figure.
By the mid-1930s, Rogers was loved by the American people, and was the highest-paid movie star in Hollywood at the time. During an around-the-world trip with pilot Wiley Post, Rogers died when their small airplane crashed near Barrow, Alaska Territory in 1935.
Citations
1879 births
1935 deaths
Aviation deaths
American silent movie actors
American radio personalities
Comedians from Oklahoma
Actors from Oklahoma
Vaudeville performers