The hip TV series 77 Sunset Strip (1958). studio, Roger won the role of wisecracking private detective "Jeff Spencer" in Hired him to play his son, "Lon Jr.", in the Lon Chaney biopic Man of a Thousand Faces (1957),īut made him his co-star in the musical comedy-drama Never Steal Anything Small (1959). Roger reconnected with Cagney around this time who not only HeĪlso played the older "Patrick Dennis" role in the madcap Rosalind Russell farceĪuntie Mame (1958). While there, young Roger gained experience on such TV anthologies as "Damon Runyon Theatre," "Celebrity Playhouse," "Ford Television Theatre" and "George Sanders Mystery Theatre" and made such films as No Time to Be Young (1957), Operation Mad Ball (1957) and Crash Landing (1958). So and it didn't take long for Columbia Pictures to snap him up 1957. Looks and appeal, encouraged Roger to give Hollywood a try. Cagney, impressed with the boy's clean-cut good Stationed in Hawaii at a Naval Reserve, Roger had a chance meeting with film legend James Cagney. Led to a TV appearance with Ted Mack and his Ted Mack & the Original Amateur Hour (1948) program. While studying at the University of Arizona in Tucson on a football scholarship, Roger enteredĪnd won several amateur talent prizes as a singer and guitarist which School theater productions, was made president of the school's actingĬlub and became a star linebacker for his high school football team. By age 12, the family moved to Nogales,Īrizona, a small town on the Mexican border where he appeared in high His parents enrolled him at a professional school for singing,Įlocution and dancing lessons. Debonair, dark-haired, exceedingly handsome Roger LaVerne Smith was born in South Gate,Ĭalifornia to Dallas and Leone Smith on December 18, 1932.
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