Sunday, August 7, 2022

Roger Mosley obit

Roger E. Mosley, TV and Film Actor Known for His Role on 'Magnum P.I.' , Dead at 83: 'Rest Easy'

His daughter Ch-a shared in a Facebook post on Saturday that a "major car accident" left her father "paralyzed from the shoulders down"

 

 He was not on the list.


Roger E. Mosley, a television and film star best known for his role as helicopter pilot Theodore "T.C." Calvin on Magnum P.I., has died. He was 83.

Mosley's daughter, Ch-a Mosley, confirmed the news of his death in a statement shared on Facebook Sunday.

"Roger E. Mosley, my father, your friend, your 'coach Mosley' your "TC" from Magnum P.I., passed away at 1:17am," she wrote on social media. "He was surrounded by family as he transcended peacefully."

Noting that she and her family "could never mourn such an amazing man," Ch-a said her father "would HATE any crying done in his name."

"It is time to celebrate the legacy he left for us all. I love you daddy. You loved me too. My heart is heavy but I am strong," she added. "I will care for mommy, your love of almost 60 years. You raised me well and she is in good hands. Rest easy."

Roger E. Mosley, who portrayed Theodore “T.C.” Calvin, the helicopter pilot and buddy of Tom Selleck’s character on all eight seasons of the original Magnum, P.I., died Sunday. He was 83.

Mosley died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of injuries incurred in a car accident in nearby Lynwood three days earlier, his daughter, Ch-a, told The Hollywood Reporter.

On the big screen, Mosley was at his most memorable as blues and folk singer Huddie Ledbetter (“The Midnight Special”) in the period piece Leadbelly (1976), directed by Gordon Parks. In his review, Roger Ebert wrote that Mosley played the part “with great strength” and called the film “one of the best biographies of a musician I’ve ever seen.”

Mosley also was a standout in blaxploitation films, playing the angry brother of the fresh-out-of-prison Goldie (Max Julien) in the classic The Mack (1973) and starring in Hit Man (1972), Sweet Jesus, Preacherman (1973) and Darktown Strutters (1975).

And in The Greatest (1977), Mosley — a sturdy 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds in his prime — portrayed Sonny Liston and got whupped by Muhammad Ali.

The likable actor appeared on 158 of the 162 episodes of CBS’ Magnum, P.I., created by Donald Bellisario and Glen A. Larson. T.C. was a buddy of Selleck’s Thomas Magnum from their days in Vietnam; his character owned a helicopter charter company in Oahu called Island Hoppers, which came in handy on the series that aired from December 1980 through May 1988.

According to Mosley, Gerald McRaney was all set to play T.C. before the producers realized they needed a person of color in the main cast. Selleck thought of Mosley from a prison film they had done together, 1973’s Terminal Island, and suggested him for the part.

The Los Angeles native was busy making movies at the time and didn’t want a job on a television show, but his agent talked him into at least doing the Magnum pilot.

As Mosley remembered it, his agent told him: ” ‘It’s starring this guy Tom Selleck. Tom Selleck has made about five pilot shows … and none of them has sold. So here’s what you do, Roger: Sign up for the show, go over to Hawaii, they’ll treat you good for the 20 days it will take to shoot the [pilot], you’ll get a lot of money, and then you come home. A show with Tom Selleck always fails, and you’ll be fine.’

“Well, 8 1/2 years later … “

Mosley in real life was a licensed private helicopter pilot (something the producers discovered after he was hired, he said) but not allowed to fly on the series.

At the start, the writers had T.C. as the owner of a struggling helicopter business, but Mosley refused to “be the only Black person in Hawaii and be broke,” he said. “And they reversed. They decided Tom would be broke, and I would be financially well off — except I was always bailing him out.”

Mosley also made his character a graduate of Grambling State University, a lover of books and poetry, and a guy who didn’t party.

“They [the Magnum writers] keep writing for me to smoke and drink, but I won’t do it,” he said in a 1982 interview in Ebony. “I never get high, smoke or drink on the show or in real life. That’s not what I want Black kids to see.”

Born on Dec. 18, 1938, Roger Earl Mosley was raised by his mother, Eloise, in the Imperial Courts project in Watts. He was a wrestler in high school and a swimming coach in the neighborhood.

As recounted in a 1976 People story, Mosley was studying acting under Raymond St. Jacques at the Mafundi Institute, a community arts school in Watts, when a director from Universal came to lecture the students on self-sacrifice and said, “I know actors who had to eat ketchup sandwiches.”

Mosley got up and shouted: “You have the audacity to tell us to eat ketchup sandwiches for our art. I know people who are eating ketchup sandwiches to survive. We need somebody to give us a break.”

The director invited Mosley to visit the studio the next week.

Mosley made one of his first onscreen appearances in 1971 on an episode of CBS’ Cannon, then had small roles in The New Centurions (1972) and Hickey & Boggs (1972).

He later worked with John Wayne in McQ (1974); with James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson and Louis Gossett Jr. in The River Niger (1976); and, as football player Puddin Patterson Sr., in Semi-Tough (1977), starring Burt Reynolds.

Post-Magnum, he starred opposite Nell Carter on the CBS sitcom You Take the Kids, as Coach Ricketts on ABC’s Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper and as Milt Johnson on Showtime’s Rude Awakening. He also appeared in the movies Heart Condition (1990), Unlawful Entry (1992), Pentathlon (1994) and A Thin Line Between Love & Hate (1996).

He also starred in the television series Hangin' with Mr. Cooper (1992–1993) as Coach Ricketts in a recurring role with comedian/actor Mark Curry, and in the film A Thin Line Between Love and Hate (1996) with Martin Lawrence, Lynn Whitfield, and Bobby Brown.

He also appeared as a celebrity guest on The $25,000 Pyramid for a week's worth of shows in July 1983, July 1984, and June 1985.

Survivors also include his wife, Antoinette (“Toni”) — they were together for nearly 60 years — son Brandonn; grandson Austin; and Rahsan, among his many nieces and nephews

Film

Year       Title       Role(s)

1972      The New Centurions       Truck Driver

Hickey & Boggs

Hit Man                Huey

1973      The Mack             Olinga Mickens

Sweet Jesus, Preacherman          Holmes / Lee

Terminal Island Monk

1974      McQ      Rosey

1975      Darktown Strutters          Mellow

1976      The River Niger Big Moe Hayes

Stay Hungry        Newton

Leadbelly             Huddie Ledbetter

Drum     Slave

1977      The Greatest      Sonny Liston

Big Time               J.J.

Semi-Tough        Puddin Patterson Sr.

1978      Cruise Into Terror             Nathan

1979      The Jericho Mile               Cotton Crown

Steel      Lionel

1980      Attica    Frank Green

Pray TV                 Willie Washington/Leroy Washington

1981      The White Lions                John Kani

1990      Heart Condition                Captain Wendt

1992      Unlawful Entry Officer Roy Cole

1994      Pentathlon          John Creese

1996      A Thin Line Between Love and Hate          Smitty

1998      Letters from a Killer         Horton

2000      Walker, Texas Ranger     Carter

Hammerlock       Sgt. James Hammer

 

Partial Television Credits

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1971      Cannon                 Porter   Episode: "Death Is a Double-Cross"

1972      Sanford and Son               Norman Blood   Episode: "Blood is Thicker than Junk "

1974      Kojak     Stutz      Episode: "You Can't Tell a Hurt Man How to Holler "

1974      Kung Fu                Seth       Episode: "In Uncertain Bondage "

1975      McCloud              Dolan    Episode: "Return to The Alamo "

1975      Switch   Walter Episode: "Las Vegas Roundabout "

1975      The Rookies        Rawlins                 Episode: "Dead Heat "

1975      Baretta Det. Rudy Davis                 Episode: "Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth "

1977      Starsky & Hutch                The Baron            Episode: "The Set-Up: Part 2 "

1979      Starsky & Hutch                Big Red McGee Episode: "Huggy Can't Go Home "

1979      I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings              Bailey Sr.              TV Movie

1980-1988          Magnum, P.I.     Theodore 'TC' Calvin       158 episodes

1986      Danger Bay         Hari Mubaru       Episode: "The Leopard's Spots "

1987      The Love Boat    Jeffrey T. Gilbert               Episode: "Who Killed Maxwell Thorn? "

1992-1993          Hangin' with Mr. Cooper               Coach Ricketts   10 episodes

1994      The Sinbad Show              Sgt. Al Beckley   Episode: "Adoption: Part 2 "

RoboCop              Frank Uno           Episode: "Ghosts of War"

1996      Women: Stories of Passion           Freddy Episode: "The Boxer"

In the House       Buff        Episode: "To Die For"

1999-2000          Rude Awakening              Milton 'Milt' Johnson      20 episodes

2001      Arliss     Mudcat Burrell Episode: "Like No Business I Know"

2003      What Should You Do?     Kidnapper          

The District         Temple's Father                Episode: "Bloodlines"

2007      Las Vegas             Roger    Episode: "When Life Gives You Lemon Bars"

2019; 2021          Magnum P.I.       John Booky         2 episodes

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