Kent Rogers

Kent Rogers
Rogers in All-American Co-Ed (1941)
Born	Kent Byron Rogers (1923-07-31)July 31, 1923
Died	July 9, 1944(1944-07-09) (aged 20) 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.^[1]

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.^[2] Mel Blanc took over as the voice of Beaky Buzzard, though that character's appearances were limited after Rogers' death.^[3]

Rogers is buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1937	Make a Wish	Summer Camp Kid	Film debut, uncredited
	Boy of the Streets	Gang Member 'Red'	Uncredited
	Headin' East	Boy in Gym	Uncredited
1938	Reformatory	Inmate	Uncredited
	Boys Town	Tailor	Uncredited
	The Storm	Boy in Gym	Uncredited
1939	Wanted: No Master	Justice of the Peace[4]	Voice, uncredited
	Streets of New York	Gang Member	Uncredited
1940	Northwest Passage	Odiorne Towne	Uncredited
	Adventures of Tom Thumb Jr.	Grasshopper[4]	Uncredited
	Those Were the Days!	Jimmy Skelton	Uncredited
	The Bookworm Turns	Mr. Hyde[4]	Voice, uncredited
	Military Academy	Billings	Uncredited
	Syncopated Sioux	Punchy / Cowboy / Indians[4]	Voice, uncredited
1941	Goofy Groceries	Henry Gorilla / Crab	Voice, uncredited
	Farm Frolics	Henry Ant[4]	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[4]	Voice, uncredited
	The Heckling Hare	Willoughby[4]	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
1942	Porky's Pastry Pirates	James Cagney Bee[4]	Voice, uncredited
	The Hollywood Matador	Woody Woodpecker / Oxnard the Terribull / Elevator Hick[4]	Voice, uncredited
	The Hams That Couldn't Be Cured	Algernon Wolf / Pigs / Sheriff[4]	Voice, uncredited
	Horton Hatches the Egg	Horton the Elephant / Peter Lorre Fish / Giraffe / Rosebud[4]	Voice, uncredited
	Nutty Pine Cabin	Beavers[4]	Voice, uncredited
	Hobby Horse-Laffs	Strongfort / Giggleswick / Potts[4]	Voice, uncredited
	Speaking of Animals and Their Families	Hippo Baby	Voice, uncredited
	Ace in the Hole	Woody Woodpecker / GI Sergeant[4]	Voice, uncredited
	Wacky Blackout	Woodpecker / Baby Bird[4]	Voice, uncredited
	Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid	Beaky Buzzard[4]	Voice, uncredited
	Pigeon Patrol	Homer Pigeon / Carrier Pigeon / Induction Officer[4]	Voice, uncredited
	The Squawkin' Hawk	Henery Hawk[4]	Voice, uncredited
	Blitz Wolf	Devils[4]	Voice, uncredited
	The Early Bird Dood It!	Worm[4]	Voice, uncredited
	Andy Panda's Victory Garden	Caterpillar[4]	Voice, uncredited
	The Hep Cat	Rosebud[4]	Voice, uncredited
	The Loan Stranger	Woody Woodpecker / Hudson C. Dann[4]	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
1943	The Screwball	Woody Woodpecker / Policeman / "Ouches" / Man in Seat / Vendor / Ballplayer / Batter / Worm / Umpire / Catcher[4]	Voice, uncredited
	Tortoise Wins by a Hare	Dumb Rabbit with Telescope[4]	Voice, uncredited
	Super-Rabbit	Professor Canafrazz[4]	Voice, uncredited
	Swing Your Partner	Homer Pigeon / Hank / Laughter[4]	Voice, uncredited
	Red Hot Riding Hood	Wolf (some lines)[4]	Voice, uncredited
	The Dizzy Acrobat	Woody Woodpecker[4]	Voice, uncredited
	Who Killed Who?	Victim / Red Skeleton / Falling Body / Santa Claus[4]	Voice, uncredited
	One Ham's Family	Narrator / Junior / Wolf[4]	Voice, uncredited
	What's Buzzin' Buzzard	Joe Buzzard / Jimmy Durante Vulture's Stomach / Rabbit[4]	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
1944	Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears	Junyer Bear[4]	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
1945	The Bashful Buzzard	Beaky Buzzard / Farmer[4]	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

1. "The Walter Lantz Cartune Encyclopedia: Cartune Profiles: Woody Woodpecker". Archived from the original on December 5, 2015. Retrieved December 5, 2015.
2. Freberg, Stan (1988). It Only Hurts When I Laugh. Times Books. pp. 32–36. ISBN 0812912977.
3. "Animation Anecdotes #134". cartoonresearch.com.
4. Scott, Keith (October 3, 2022). Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2. BearManor Media.

External links

• Kent Rogers at IMDb 
• Kent Rogers discography at Discogs
• Kent Rogers at Find a Grave