Wayne Rogers

Wayne Rogers was a performer best known for his role as Captain “Trapper” John McIntyre on the classic television series M*A*S*H. Rogers played the Korean War Army surgeon for 72 episodes, from the series’ beginning in 1972 to 1975, the first three seasons of an eleven-season run. The CBS series won 14 Emmy Awards and eight Golden Globes.

Trapper John was an audience favorite, and was known for his witty banter with Alan Alda’s character, Hawkeye Pierce. Rogers eventually left the show due to a contract dispute. In 1979, the character was spun-off as the protagonist of his own series, Trapper John, M.D., with Pernell Roberts in the title role.

Rogers would play a doctor once more on another CBS comedy, House Calls, from 1979 to 1982. He played lead character Dr. Charley Michaels, a capable doctor who chooses to ignore hospital rules and regulations, and dates the hospital administrative assistant. Rogers also wrote two episodes for the series and directed three.

Additionally, he appeared on the series The Millionaire; Stagecoach West (in nearly 40 episodes as character Luke Perry); Alfred Hitchcock Presents; Gomer Pyle: USMC; Gunsmoke; The Fugitive; Shane; Cannon; The F.B.I.; Barnaby Jones; City of Angels; The Larry Sanders Show; Murder, She Wrote and Diagnosis Murder. He also appeared in the telefilms It Happened One Christmas, starring Marlo Thomas and Orson Welles and I Dream of Jeannie... Fifteen Years Later, in the role of Tony Nelson.

He also worked in feature films, including Odds Against Tomorrow, with Harry Belafonte; Chamber of Horrors, with Patrick O’Neal; Cool Hand Luke, starring Paul Newman; Pocket Money, with Newman and Lee Marvin; The Killing Time, with Beau Bridges and Kiefer Sutherland; and Ghosts of Mississippi, with Alec Baldwin, James Woods and Whoopi Goldberg.

In 1968, Rogers wrote and produced The Astro-Zombies, a science-fiction film about the attempt to build a superhuman. He also served as a producer on the telefilms Perfect Witness, Night of the Twisters, The Charlie Rose Special and Money Play$.

Additionally, Rogers produced Broadway shows, including Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, Broadway Bound and a revival of The Odd Couple.

After attending Princeton and graduating with a degree in history, he served in the Navy, and became interested in acting while on leave in New York. He later worked on Wall Street prior to studying Sanford Meisner’s technique at the Neighborhood Playhouse.

In later years he turned his focus to the financial world and became a successful investor and wealth manager. He drew upon his financial expertise as a regular panelist on the Fox News series Cashin' In.

Rogers died December 31, 2015, in Los Angeles. He was 82.