Will Rogers Was an Early Hollywood Icon … Who Hated Hollywood
Actor Will Rogers was the highest paid actor of the 1930s — but according to great-granddaughter Jennifer Rogers-Etcheverry, her great-grandfather preferred to be in the country and just wanted to be a cowboy, despite being a massive movie star at the time.
She explained to Fox News, “I think the Hollywood scene paid the bills. And he was contracted with Fox to make several movies, which he did not get to finish his contract, but he would crank them out just so he could go travel, go right on the ranch, go play polo, go do something.”
20th Century-Fox Film Corp./Everett Collection
She added that despite making over 70 films before his untimely death on August 15, 1935 at the age of 55 in a plane crash, “I don’t think that his passion was being a movie star. His passion was out being with the people.”
In addition to acting, he was a writer who penned six books and had a newspaper column with over 40 million readers per day. Rogers-Etcheverry said that despite meeting some of the most famous people in that time period, “He never forgot where he came from in Oklahoma. He never forgot being a cowboy. That’s all he ever wanted to be was a cowboy. And I think he just stuck to his roots. And going from just being a cowboy on a ranch in Oologah, Oklahoma, to the No. 1 box office star … in Hollywood and just, he never got that attitude or that arrogance.”
Fox Film Corp./Everett Collection
As Rogers-Etcheverry got older, she learned more about her great-grandfather and called him “the most famous person alive” when he died. She wanted to carry on the family legacy and make sure no one forgot about him and his accomplishments, so she took over as the family representative years ago.
“I want to keep his legacy alive. I have two children and two grandchildren, and if it wasn’t for me, they would have no idea who Will Rogers is,” she said.
Remind 
Hollywoods Golden Year
April 2024
Return with us to the year film fans acknowledge as the finest in Hollywood history, 1939.
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