Wayne Rogers

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Wayne Rogers
Image:Rogers.jpg
Born	April 7 1933 Birmingham, Alabama

Wayne M. Rogers (born April 7 1933, Birmingham, Alabama) is an American film and television actor, best known for playing the role of 'Trapper John' McIntyre in the long-running U.S. television series, M*A*S*H. He succeeded Elliott Gould, who had played the character in the movie, and was succeeded later by Pernell Roberts on the M*A*S*H spin-off Trapper John, M.D..

Rogers is a graduate of the Webb School in Bell Buckle, Tennessee. He also graduated from Princeton University with a history degree in 1954, and served in the U.S. Navy before becoming an actor. He has been married twice; first from 1960 to 1979 (fathering two children), then to Amy Hirsh, from 1988 to the present.

Prior to the role of 'Trapper John', Rogers appeared on television in The F.B.I., Gunsmoke, and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., and had a small role in the 1967 movie Cool Hand Luke. He had also been a co-star in the western series Stagecoach West in 1961. Later he appeared as a Federal agent in the 1975 television movie Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan, and as civil rights attorney Morris Dees in 1996's Ghosts of Mississippi. He also starred in the 1979-1982 series House Calls with Lynn Redgrave, and guest-starred five times on Murder, She Wrote. He has served as an executive producer and producer in both television and film, a screenwriter, and a director. In addition, he has achieved some recognition as an amateur investor, appearing frequently on Fox News Channel business shows.

In August 2006, Rogers was elected to the Board of Directors of Vishay Intertechnology, Inc., a Fortune 1000 manufacturer of semiconductors and electronic components.

M*A*S*H

When Rogers was first approached for M*A*S*H, he was expected to audition as Hawkeye Pierce. However, he found the character to be too cynical and asked to instead test as 'Trapper John', whose outlook was brighter. Rogers was initially told that Trapper and Hawkeye would have equal importance as characters, almost to the point of being interchangeable. This changed after Alan Alda, whose career and résumé already outshone that of Rogers, was cast as Hawkeye, and proved more popular with the viewing audience. Rogers did enjoy working with Alda and the cast as a whole (fondly remembering in an interview how he and Alda would drive out to the set together and discuss their dreams as they went along), but eventually chafed at the fact the writers were devoting the show's best moments (both humorous and dramatic) to Alda. The earliest sign of change was when the writers took the liberty of making Hawkeye a thoracic surgeon in the episode "Dear Dad" December 17, 1972, even though Trapper was the unit's only thoracic surgeon on both the movie and novel. Rogers felt the writers had stripped Trapper of his credentials.

After three seasons, Rogers grew weary of Trapper being treated as more of a sidekick than an equal, and decided to leave the show (as had McLean Stevenson, who had played Colonel Blake). He also disliked the "morals clause" in his contract, which stated he could be suspended or fired if he did anything the producers found objectionable, and refused to accept it unless they signed a similar clause for him. When Rogers left M*A*S*H he was sued for breach of contract. The case was later dismissed, however, when it was revealed that he had never even signed the contract in the first place due to the clause issue.

Rogers admitted later he regretted leaving M*A*S*H in light of how long it stayed in production: "If I had known it would run that long [eleven seasons], I probably would have kept my mouth shut and stayed put." (Former cast member McLean Stevenson later echoed Rogers' statements as well). Despite his acrimonious departure, Rogers has participated in retrospectives of the show, including Memories of M*A*S*H in 1992 and the M*A*S*H 30th Anniversary Reunion.

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