Will Rogers(1879-1935)
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
World-famous, widely popular American humorist of the vaudeville stage
and of silent and sound films, Will Rogers graduated from military
school, but his first real job was in the livestock business in
Argentina, of all places. He transported pack animals across the South
Atlantic from Buenos Aires to South Africa for use in the Boer War
(1899-1902). He stayed in Johannesburg for a short while, appearing
there in Wild West shows where he drew upon his expertise with horse
and lasso. Returning to America, he brought his talents to vaudeville
and by 1917 was a Ziegfeld Follies star. Over the years he gradually
blended into his act his unique style of topical, iconoclastic humor,
in which he speared the efforts of the powerful to trample the rights
of the common man, while twirling his lariat and perhaps chewing on a
blade of straw. Although appearing in many silents, he reached his
motion-picture zenith with the arrival of sound. Now mass audiences
could hear his rural twang as he delivered his homespun philosophy on
behalf of Everyman. The appeal and weight of his words carried such
weight with the average citizen that he was even nominated for governor
of Oklahoma (which he declined).
