You know those celebrities whose kids look just like them?  Like how Michael Douglas looks a lot like Kirk Douglas?  Or Peter and Jane Fonda look a lot like their dad Henry?  Robert Walker Jr. was almost a spitting image of his father, too.  I’m sure there are a lot more that I’m not thinking of, but today, October 20th, is the birthday of another paternal lookalike, so much so that he played his own father in a biographical film.  It’s Will Rogers Jr., who was born on this day back in 1911. 

Surely everyone has at least heard of Oklahoma-born Will Rogers, the celebrated American humorist and entertainer.  He was a vaudeville headliner, famous for his roping skills and his raconteurship, the star of more than fifty feature-length movies, and was dubbed “the most dangerous man in America” by fellow columnist H.J. Mencken, for Rogers’ prodigious influence over his vast and captivated audiences.  We’re lucky that at least twenty of his films were made in the sound era, and his homespun charm and charisma are easily understood once you watch one of his movies.  Famous for poking fun at all manner of pretension, Will Rogers was a truly beloved American icon who died at the age of fifty-five in a horrible plane crash near Point Barrow, Alaska, perishing along with aviation pioneer Wiley Post.  Rogers’ death was a national tragedy, a loss keenly felt by fans all across America and indeed the world. 

Will Rogers was survived by his widow Betty, along with three of his four children (the youngest had died at two years of age).  Mary, Jim and Will Jr. would all flirt with their own careers in show business, but Will Jr. combined his uncanny resemblance to his father, whom he portrayed in a number of films, with a distinguished military and public service career, including a stint as a Democratic congressman from California in the early 1940s.  It was during his legislative term that he was instrumental in bringing national attention to the need to help rescue Jews from Europe during the dark days of WWII, an issue that was not being given sufficient urgency by the Roosevelt administration.  After working to draw attention to the situation, Will Jr. was called into active military service and cut short his congressional term in exchange for a harrowing time on the front lines.  When he returned from the war he ran for the Senate but was defeated, and decided to turn his energies to establishing a career in entertainment.  He appeared as his father in three movies; Look for the Silver Lining, the story of beautiful vaudeville star Marilyn Miller, was first, in 1949.  He next appeared in 1952’s full-length movie biography of his father The Story of Will Rogers, directed by Michael Curtiz, co-starring Jane Wyman as Betty Rogers.  His last appearance as his own father was in 1953’s The Eddie Cantor Story, starring Keefe Brasselle as the multi-talented Cantor.  Will Rogers Jr. also appeared in productions where he wasn’t playing his father, of course. 

In addition to his acting career, Rogers always kept up his interest in politics, as a delegate to several Democratic National Conventions, as a member of the California State Parks Commission, and as a special member of the Commission on Indian Affairs during the Johnson Administration.  The later position reflected his Native American heritage; his father was part-Cherokee.

An honorable gentleman with a true regard for the people, Will Rogers Jr. was certainly his father’s son.  Unfortunately, his later years were filled with a series of debilitating strokes and ill health from serious heart disease.  In July of 1993, after undergoing hip implant surgery which left him in worse pain than before, Will Rogers Jr. drove himself out into the Arizona desert near his home and took his own life.  He was 81 years old.