Pernell Roberts, Star of “Bonanza” & “Trapper John, MD,” Has Died at 81… RIP (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on January 25, 2010
Actor Pernell Roberts in his two most famous TV roles, (L) as Adam Cartwright in 'Bonanza,' (R) as Trapper John, MD
When I was a kid, our family watched Bonanza every week. I recall that when Pernell Roberts, who played the oldest Cartwright son Adam, left the series, my mother was in recurring shock for months… actually, years. I believe she harbored a bit of a crush on the actor, and couldn’t believe he had left the show. Bonanza was never again the same for her.
Millions of fans also felt the same anguish and confusion. But Roberts, always a consummate professional, felt hindered in the role as Adam, and did something that few television actors of that era did: leave a top-rated show once his contract was up to pursue his own dreams.
Pernell, rest in peace. My mom still doesn’t know that he passed away. I’m dreading telling her.
From USA Today, Pernell Roberts, last star of TV’s ‘Bonanza,’ dies:
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Pernell Roberts, the ruggedly handsome actor who shocked Hollywood by leaving TV’s Bonanza at the height of its popularity, then found fame again years later on Trapper John, M.D., has died. He was 81.
Roberts, the last surviving member of the classic Western’s cast, died of cancer Sunday at his Malibu home, his wife Eleanor Criswell told the Los Angeles Times.
Although he rocketed to fame in 1959 as Adam Cartwright, eldest son of a Nevada ranching family led by Lorne Greene’s patriarchal Ben Cartwright, Roberts chafed at the limitations he felt his Bonanza character was given.
“They told me the four characters (Greene, himself and Dan Blocker and Michael Landon as his brothers) would be carefully defined and the scripts carefully prepared,” he complained to The Associated Press in 1964. “None of it ever happened.”
It particularly distressed him that his character, a man in his 30s, had to continually defer to the wishes of his widowed father.
“Doesn’t it seem a bit silly for three adult males to get Father’s permission for everything they do?” he once asked a reporter.
Original cast of 'Bonanza': Pernell Roberts (as Adam Cartwright), Michael Landon (as Little Joe Cartwright), Lorne Greene (as Ben Cartwright), Dan Blocker (as Hoss Cartwright)... the wealthy, ranching Cartwright family on the Ponderosa
Bonanza Opening Theme Song
Video Tribute to Pernell Roberts in Honor of His 80th Birthday
From Los Angeles Times, Pernell Roberts, Adam Cartwright on “Bonanza,” dead at 81:
Pernell Roberts, an original cast member of one of television’s classic westerns, “Bonanza,” died at his Malibu home Sunday. He was 81.
His death from cancer was confirmed by his wife, Eleanor Criswell.
Roberts was known to fans as the handsome and smart eldest son of the Cartwright clan, Adam. He played the role from its inception in 1959, but tired of the role after six years and left the show to act in films and resume a stage career that had brought him a 1955 Drama Desk Award for best actor in a production of “Macbeth.” In 1979, he returned to series television in the popular “Trapper John, M.D.,” playing the title character, Dr. John McIntyre, for the show’s entire seven seasons.
In later years, he had guest roles in other shows and narrated documentaries. He retired in the late 1990s.
From Sacramento Bee, Pernell Roberts, last star of TV’s ‘Bonanza,’ dies:
…Roberts agreed to fulfill his six-year contract [on "Bonanza"] but refused to extend it, and when he left the series in 1965, his character was eliminated with the explanation that he had simply moved away.
“Bonanza,” with its three remaining stars, continued until 1973, making it second to “Gunsmoke” as the longest-running Western on TV. Blocker died in 1972, Greene in 1987, and Landon in 1991.
When Roberts left the show, the general feeling in Hollywood was that he had foolishly doomed his career and turned his back on a fortune in “Bonanza” earnings.
Indeed, for the next 14 years he mainly made appearances on TV shows and in miniseries, or toured with such theatrical productions as “The King and I, “Camelot” and “The Music Man.”
His TV credits during that time included “The Virginian,” “Hawaii Five-O,” “Mission Impossible,” “Marcus Welby, M.D.,” “Banacek,” “Ironside” and “Mannix.”
Then, in 1979, he landed another series, “Trapper John, M.D.,” in which he played the title role.
The character, but little else, was spun off from the brilliant Korean War comedy-drama “M-A-S-H,” in which Wayne Rogers had played the offbeat Dr. “Trapper” John McIntire opposite Alan Alda’s Dr. Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce.
Rogers had left that series after just three seasons.
In “Trapper John, M.D.,” the Korean War was nearly 30 years past and Roberts’ character was now a balding, middle-aged chief of surgery at San Francisco Memorial Hospital. He no longer fought the establishment, having learned how to deal with it with patience and wry humor.
The series, praised for its serious treatment of the surgical world, aired until 1986.
Trapper John, MD Intro
Pernell Roberts, the actor who portrayed oldest brother Adam Cartwright on hit TV show Bonanza, has died, Us media reported Monday. Roberts, 81, passed away from cancer Sunday at his home in Malibu, California. He spent two years in the Marines before turning to acting. His breakthrough came in 1959 with Bonanza, starring as the oldest brother in the rancher family that included a father and brothers Hoss and Little Joe. Roberts left the show after six seasons, but the show would continue for eight more years. In 1979, he started in the title role in the Mash spinoff Trapper John, MD, which he would play for seven years.
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[...] Pernell Roberts, Star of “Bonanza” & “Trapper John, MD,” Has Died …“They told me the four characters (Greene, himself and Dan Blocker and Michael Landon as his brothers) would be carefully defined and the scripts carefully prepared,” he complained to The Associated Press in 1964. … Read more [...]
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Bonanza was one of the first TV shows broadcast in COLOR !
My father repaired TVs on the side and ran across one that the owner sold to him because it quit working. He fixed it and we watched Bonanza, in COLOR, in our own house !
My Dad was really into westerns, and this one was in color.
Next best thing to the movies !