Kent Rogers
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{short description|American actor (1923–1944)}}
{{more citations needed|date=June 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Kent Rogers
| image = Kent-Rogers-200.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Rogers in All-American Co-Ed (1941)
| birth_name = Kent Byron Rogers
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1923|7|31}}
| birth_place =
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1944|7|9|1923|7|31}}
| death_place = Pensacola, Florida, U.S.
| occupation = Actor
| years_active = 1937–1944
}}
Kent Byron Rogers (July 31, 1923 – July 9, 1944) was an American actor who appeared in several live-action features and shorts, and a voice actor for Warner Bros. Cartoons and Walter Lantz Productions.
Career
For Warner Bros. Cartoons, Rogers portrayed several Hollywood stars in Hollywood Steps Out, and lent his voice to The Heckling Hare, Porky's Pastry Pirates, Horton Hatches the Egg, The Squawkin' Hawk and Super-Rabbit. Rogers also provided the original voice of Beaky Buzzard in Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid and The Bashful Buzzard. He also provided the voice of Junior Bear in Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears, the initial 1944 entry of Chuck Jones' The Three Bears series. He also appeared occasionally on radio sitcoms, generally doing one-off characters.
In 1941, he had a rare on-camera role as Henry, a boy who had a talent for doing impressions, in the film All-American Co-Ed.
For Walter Lantz Productions he voiced Woody Woodpecker in five theatrical cartoon shorts released from 1942 to 1943.{{cite web |url=http://lantz.goldenagecartoons.com/profiles/woody/ |title=The Walter Lantz Cartune Encyclopedia: Cartune Profiles: Woody Woodpecker |accessdate=December 5, 2015 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20151205233709/http://lantz.goldenagecartoons.com/profiles/woody/ |archivedate=December 5, 2015 }}
Death
Rogers enlisted as an Ensign in the United States Navy in late 1943. He was killed in the crash of a training flight at Pensacola, Florida on July 9, 1944. Stan Freberg, who arrived in Hollywood just as Rogers had died, would be hired to replace Rogers, including in the role of Junior Bear.{{cite book
| title = It Only Hurts When I Laugh
| last = Freberg
| first = Stan
| year = 1988
| publisher = Times Books
| isbn = 0812912977
| pages = 32–36
}} Mel Blanc took over as the voice of Beaky Buzzard, though that character's appearances were limited after Rogers' death.{{Cite web|url=https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/animation-anecdotes-134/|title=Animation Anecdotes #134 |website=cartoonresearch.com}}
Rogers is buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Filmography
| class="wikitable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! Notes |
|---|
| rowspan="3" | 1937
| Summer Camp Kid | Film debut, uncredited |
| Boy of the Streets
| Gang Member 'Red' | Uncredited |
| Headin' East
| Boy in Gym | Uncredited |
| rowspan="3" | 1938
| Inmate | Uncredited |
| Boys Town
| Tailor | Uncredited |
| The Storm
| Boy in Gym | Uncredited |
| rowspan="2" | 1939
| Wanted: No Master | Justice of the Peace{{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=Keith |title=Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2 |date=3 October 2022 |publisher=BearManor Media |page= |language=en}} | Voice, uncredited |
| Streets of New York
| Gang Member | Uncredited |
| rowspan="6" | 1940
| Odiorne Towne | Uncredited |
| Adventures of Tom Thumb Jr.
| Uncredited |
| Those Were the Days!
| Jimmy Skelton | Uncredited |
| The Bookworm Turns
| Voice, uncredited |
| Military Academy
| Billings | Uncredited |
| Syncopated Sioux
| Voice, uncredited |
| rowspan="8" |1941
| Henry Gorilla / Crab | Voice, uncredited |
| Farm Frolics
| Voice, uncredited |
| Hollywood Steps Out
| Mickey Rooney / James Cagney / James Stewart / J. Edgar Hoover / Henry Fonda / Cary Grant / Edward G. Robinson / Clark Gable / Bing Crosby / Lewis Stone / Ned Sparks / Peter Lorre / Groucho Marx / Kay Kyser | Voice, uncredited |
| The Heckling Hare
| Voice, uncredited |
| Life Begins for Andy Hardy
| Tough Boy | Uncredited |
| Speaking of Animals Down on the Farm
| Various | Voice, uncredited |
| Speaking of Animals in the Zoo
| Monkey / Elephant / Lion / Stork / Fox / Tortoise | Voice, uncredited |
| All-American Co-ed
| Henry | |
| rowspan="19" | 1942
| Voice, uncredited |
| The Hollywood Matador
|Woody Woodpecker / Oxnard the Terribull / Elevator Hick |Voice, uncredited |
| style="white-space:nowrap" | The Hams That Couldn't Be Cured
| Algernon Wolf / Pigs / Sheriff | Voice, uncredited |
| Horton Hatches the Egg
| Horton the Elephant / Peter Lorre Fish / Giraffe / Rosebud | Voice, uncredited |
| Nutty Pine Cabin
| Voice, uncredited |
| Hobby Horse-Laffs
| Strongfort / Giggleswick / Potts | Voice, uncredited |
| Speaking of Animals and Their Families
| Hippo Baby | Voice, uncredited |
| Ace in the Hole
| Woody Woodpecker / GI Sergeant | Voice, uncredited |
| Wacky Blackout
| Voice, uncredited |
| Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid
| Voice, uncredited |
| Pigeon Patrol
| Homer Pigeon / Carrier Pigeon / Induction Officer | Voice, uncredited |
| The Squawkin' Hawk
| Voice, uncredited |
| Blitz Wolf
|Voice, uncredited |
| The Early Bird Dood It!
| Voice, uncredited |
| Andy Panda's Victory Garden
| Voice, uncredited |
| The Hep Cat
| Voice, uncredited |
| The Loan Stranger
| Woody Woodpecker / Hudson C. Dann | Voice, uncredited |
| Road to Morocco
| Male Camel | Voice, uncredited |
| Speaking of Animals in South America
| Spider Monkey / Male Parrot / Monkey #2 / Stork #1 / Condor / Anteater / Barnacle Goose | Voice, uncredited |
| rowspan="11" | 1943
| Woody Woodpecker / Policeman / "Ouches" / Man in Seat / Vendor / Ballplayer / Batter / Worm / Umpire / Catcher | Voice, uncredited |
| Tortoise Wins by a Hare
| Voice, uncredited |
| Super-Rabbit
| Voice, uncredited |
| Swing Your Partner
| Homer Pigeon / Hank / Laughter | Voice, uncredited |
| Red Hot Riding Hood
| Voice, uncredited |
| The Dizzy Acrobat
| Voice, uncredited |
| Who Killed Who?
| Victim / Red Skeleton / Falling Body / Santa Claus | Voice, uncredited |
| One Ham's Family
| Voice, uncredited |
| What's Buzzin' Buzzard
| Joe Buzzard / Jimmy Durante Vulture's Stomach / Rabbit | Voice, uncredited |
| Speaking of Animals Tails of the Border
| | Voice, uncredited |
| Speaking of Animals at the Cage Door Carteen
| Parrot / Polar Bear / Monkey / Moron / Buzzard / Stork / Eagle | Voice, uncredited |
| rowspan="5" | 1944
|Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears |Voice, uncredited |
| Who's Who in Animal Land
| Fox / Llama / Donkey / Singing Bull | Voice, uncredited |
| Speaking of Animals as Babies
| Monkey / Henry Ostrich talking / Baboon Baby / Papa Goat / Goat Kid / Lion Cubs / Cat Father / Giraffe | Voice, uncredited |
| Speaking of Animals: Monkey Business
| Monkeys | Voice, uncredited |
| Speaking of Animals in a Harem
| Tiny Tim | Voice, uncredited |
| rowspan="2" | 1945
| Voice, uncredited, released posthumously |
| Speaking of Animals from A to Zoo
| Monkey / Fox / Tortoise / Lion / Stork / Buffalo | Voice, uncredited, final film role, released posthumously |
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name}}
- {{discogs artist|Kent Rogers}}
- {{Find a Grave|84105476}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rogers, Kent}}
Category:20th-century American comedians
Category:20th-century American male actors
Category:American impressionists (entertainers)
Category:American male child actors
Category:American male radio actors
Category:American male voice actors
Category:Burials at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific
Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio people
Category:United States Navy personnel killed in World War II
Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1944
Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in the United States
Category:Walter Lantz Productions people
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