Jimmy Rogers

James Blake Rogers (July 25, 1915 – April 28, 2000), commonly known as Jimmy (also spelled Jimmie), was an American actor. He played Hopalong Cassidy's sidekick in six films. Rogers was also a horse rancher, polo player, and newspaperman. He was the family representative on the Will Rogers Memorial Commission, and worked with the staff at the Will Rogers State Historic Park. Early years Rogers was born in New York City on July 25, 1915, the son of Will Rogers and Betty Blake. He had three siblings: Will Jr. (1911–1993), Mary (1913–1989), and Fred (1918–1920). He spent his childhood in Beverly Hills, but moved to a ranch in the late 1920s, and grew to love working with horses. He attended Pomona College, but left in 1935, after his father and pilot Wiley Post died in a plane crash. Film career As a child he had parts in four of his father's silent films, and was billed as Jimmy Rogers. He used that stage name in all of his film roles. Rogers was more interested in raising horses, so in the 1930s he and a friend purchased a ranch in Santa Barbara County, but in the early 1940s the U. S. government bought the ranch for a new army base, which later became Vandenberg Air Force Base. In need of a new occupation he returned to acting. He made three comedy westerns with Noah Beery Jr. at Hal Roach Studios. Rogers then went on to make six Hopalong Cassidy movies with William Boyd, playing a fictional version of himself, a character named Jimmy Rogers.