Roger R Radcliffe

**Roger R Radcliffe** is a character from Disney's 1961 animated feature film, *One Hundred and One Dalmatians* and its sequel. He is the husband of Anita and owner, best friend, and "pet" to Pongo.

## Background

Roger is Anita Radcliffe's husband and a songwriter. At the beginning of the original film, Roger is a bachelor songwriter, who lives in a small bachelor flat with Pongo. He works from home, usually not quitting work until after 5:00, and is described by Pongo as being married to his work. As a songwriter, he is very creative, and can easily write lyrics when given proper inspiration. However, it is only at Pongo's insistence that Roger meets Anita, as Roger would have stayed a bachelor forever according to Pongo. **After his marriage, he is shown to be a kind man who cares for his family, including his pets. Roger is not afraid to stand up against Cruella when his family is involved. A scene near the end of the film shows that he is good at mental math, as he is able to tally up the number of Dalmatians fairly easily.**

## Appearances

> : “*Cruella De Vil! Cruella De Vil! If she doesn't scare you, no evil thing will!*” ― Roger sassing Cruella in song
>
>

### *One Hundred and One Dalmatians*

At the beginning of the film, Roger is seen working on a song. Pongo, having grown bored with their bachelor lives, conspires to set his pet up with a girl. After seeing Anita and Perdita, Pongo decides they would be perfect, as they were both beautiful. Pongo sets the clock ahead so that Roger believes that it is time for their walk. Roger is then forcefully dragged along as Pongo attempts to get Roger and Anita to meet. Eventually, Roger and Anita end up in the pond of the park, entangled by the leashes of their dogs. Roger attempts to apologize to the upset Anita, and blaming Pongo for making her wet, but the two end up laughing. A time skip shows that Roger and Anita fall in love and marry, and the two settle in a small house near the park with Pongo, Perdita, and Nanny. **Sometime later, Roger is writing a new song but has only managed to get the melody written. He gains inspiration for lyrics after hearing the name of Cruella De Vil, Anita's former classmate. While Anita visits with her "friend," Roger writes a mocking song, relating the name to many frightening images. Three weeks later, Perdita is preparing to give birth to puppies. Roger is shown to be just as nervous as Pongo during the process, such that he jumps when Pongo licks his hand. He is initially overjoyed at the prospect of 15 puppies but saddens after hearing that one died. However, Roger is able to revive the puppy by rubbing it. When Cruella returns, intent on buying all the puppies, she mocks Roger’s song, which annoys him greatly. Roger nervously but defiantly stands up firm to her, informing Cruella with finality that they will not sell the puppies for any price. Refusing to take no for an answer, Cruella is angered to the point that she storms off, threatening to get even. However, both Anita and Nanny calls him a hero for standing up to the devil woman.** One night, Roger and Anita take Pongo and Perdita out for a walk in the park. While they are gone, the puppies are stolen by Jasper and Horace Badun, hired hands working for Cruella. Roger is shown to be saddened by the theft. He is among those that believe Cruella is guilty of being involved in the theft, but neither he nor the police are able to connect her to the crime. When asked by Anita about what they will do now, he just stays silent, and they rapidly lose hope of finding the puppies. **That same night, while on their usual walk in Primrose Hill, Roger becomes annoyed at Pongo's constant barking and forcefully drags him home, unaware that Pongo was actually passing the message of the puppies' theft through the Twilight Barking Chain. It is possible that Roger punishes Pongo inside the house for disturbing the whole neighborhood, but Pongo’s message is already spread across London as the Great Dane named Danny receives the message in Hampstead, along with Scottie and eventually with the help of other city and country dogs, the message reaches their friend Towser who then sents it to the Colonel.** Like Anita and Nanny, Roger is not seen again until the end of the film, around Christmastime, wondering why Pongo and Perdita ran away (unknown to him, they went to rescue the puppies). After hearing his Cruella song on the radio, he turns it off. Anita reveals that the song became Roger's first big hit, and brought in more money than they could dream of. When a group of "Labradors" come bursting into the home, Roger is confused, but he quickly realizes that they are actually Pongo, Perdita, and the puppies. Roger soon realizes that there are more than 15 puppies, and as Anita and Nanny find puppies, he adds up the totals to reveal that there are 101 Dalmatians altogether. Together with Anita, he decides to use the royalties from his songwriting to buy a country home big enough to keep all the puppies.

### *101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure*

**Roger reappears in the sequel, still as a songwriter, alongside still being mentioned in Pongo's narration as his pet, and is also ready to move out of their London flat to a new farm. He is first shown packing up for their move to their new country home when seeing the spots from numerous puppies inspires him to write a new song *Seeing Spots*. Anita asks if he is packing or playing, and they dancing together as he sings.** The next day, moving day, he is packing up the puppies and the dogs into the trunk of the moving van, believing that they have all the puppies. (Unknown to them, Patch was left behind, his barks not heard through the window). Upon arriving to their new home, Cherry Tree Farm, Roger is brings his piano into the farmhouse, asking Anita and Nanny where will the music go. The piano falls from the floor into the basement, startling them. **Later on, he's in his music room alongside Pongo and the puppies when in the laundry, a newspaper is shown, showing that they left Patch in London. Roger, Anita, Pongo, and Perdita go to find him, leaving Nanny behind to care for the puppies. At the end of the film, Roger reunites with the puppies (as they had been stolen by Jasper and Horace) after finding them in London. During the film credits, Roger is mentioned in the Music Times newspaper, stating that he had hit gold, winning an award for his song, *Seeing Spots*.**

## Gallery

***Known Shared-Combined Crossovers wiki*** has a collection of images and media related to ***Roger Radcliffe***.

## Trivia

* In the first animated film, Roger shares the same speaking voice actor with Grimsby in *The Little Mermaid*, known as Ben Wright, but his singing voice is done by Bill Lee of the Mellomen.
* Both of Roger's original voice actors participated in the movie version of *The Sound of Music* with Wright portraying Herr Zeller (meaning "Mr. Zeller" in German) and Lee dubbing over Christopher Plummer's singing as Captain Von Trapp.
* In the animated films, Roger is a habitual smoker, regularly seen smoking a pipe in addition to his home at the start of the film being littered with used cigarettes. This trait was removed in the live-action film and animated series due to censorship, though Lucky and Anita do mention that Roger did smoke a pipe in the animated series.
* According to *Disneystrology*, his birthday is May 27.