Pernell Roberts

Pernell Elven Roberts Jr. was born on May 18, 1928, in Waycross, Georgia, the only child of Pernell Elven Roberts Sr., a Dr Pepper salesman, and Minnie Myrtle Morgan Roberts. During his high school years he played horn, performed in school and church plays, and sang in local USO shows. He attended Georgia Tech but did not graduate, and in 1946 enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, where he served two years and played tuba, horn, sousaphone, and percussion in the Marine Corps Band. He subsequently enrolled at the University of Maryland, also without graduating, where he appeared in four productions including Othello and Antigone before leaving to pursue summer stock work.

Roberts made his professional stage debut in 1949 at the Olney Theatre in Olney, Maryland, appearing alongside Moss Hart and Kitty Carlisle in The Man Who Came to Dinner. He then spent eight weeks at the Bryn Mawr College Theatre in Philadelphia, where he portrayed Dan in Emlyn Williams' Night Must Fall and Alfred Doolittle in Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion. Moving to New York City in 1952, he performed off-Broadway with the North American Lyric Theatre in one-act operas and ballets, with the Shakespearewrights, and at the Equity Library Theatre. He won a Drama Desk Award in 1955 for an off-Broadway production of Macbeth, and subsequently played Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. His classical work extended to Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, Dr. Faustus, and The Taming of the Shrew at the American Shakespeare Festival, as well as St. Joan in Cleveland, Down in the Valley at the Provincetown Playhouse, The Duchess of Malfi, Measure for Measure, and King John.

Roberts appeared on Broadway between 1955 and 1972, with credits including Tonight in Samarkand, which also played in Washington, D.C., The Lovers opposite Joanne Woodward, A Clearing in the Woods with Robert Culp and Kim Stanley, and Captain Brassbound's Conversion. In 1956, he returned to the Olney Theatre to star opposite Jan Farrand in Much Ado About Nothing with the Players, Inc. group. That same year he made his television debut in the episode "Shadow of Suspicion" on Kraft Television Theater, followed by guest appearances on Whirlybirds, Gunsmoke, Cimarron City, Buckskin, Sugarfoot, and Cheyenne.

Roberts signed with Columbia Pictures in 1957 and made his film debut the following year as one of Burl Ives' sons in Desire Under the Elms, a film nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography. He also appeared in The Sheepman opposite Glenn Ford and Shirley MacLaine, and guest-starred on multiple television programs including episodes of the Shirley Temple Storybook Theater and Zane Grey Theater. He played Captain Jacques Chavez on the NBC adventure series Northwest Passage and portrayed the lead villain Travis in the Have Gun – Will Travel episode "Hey Boy's Revenge," which aired April 11, 1958. In 1959 he co-starred in Ride Lonesome alongside Randolph Scott, playing the outlaw Sam Boone in the Budd Boetticher-directed film, which also featured James Coburn in his film debut.

Also in 1959, Roberts was cast as Adam Cartwright, the university-educated eldest son of Ben Cartwright, in the NBC Western series Bonanza. He remained with the show through the 1964–65 season, after which he departed following disagreements with writers and producers over script quality, characterization, and the show's refusal to permit him to perform elsewhere during his contract. Roberts had objected to the portrayal of the relationship between the adult sons and their father, the show's lack of minority actors, and what he described as the limiting nature of series television. He had previously told a reporter in 1965 that his participation in Bonanza was comparable to Isaac Stern sitting in with Lawrence Welk, though he later denied making certain statements attributed to him about the series.

Following his departure from Bonanza, Roberts continued to guest-star in more than 60 television series. He went on to star as chief surgeon John McIntyre, the title character of Trapper John, M.D., from 1979 to 1986. Throughout his career Roberts was also known for his activism, including participation in the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965 and his efforts to pressure NBC to stop casting white actors in non-white roles. He died on January 24, 2010.