Early career Rogers appeared on television in both dramas and sitcoms such as
The Invaders, The F.B.I., Combat!, Gunsmoke, Have Gun – Will Travel, Wanted Dead or Alive, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., and
The Fugitive, and had a small supporting role in the 1967 movie
Cool Hand Luke. He also appeared on
The Big Valley in 1968. He played Slim Davis on the soap opera
Search for Tomorrow in 1959. He also played a role in
Odds Against Tomorrow, which was nominated for a
Golden Globe Award in 1960 as Best Film Promoting International Understanding. He guest starred on an episode of the CBS western
Johnny Ringo. Rogers co-starred with
Robert Bray and
Richard Eyer in the western series
Stagecoach West on
ABC from 1960 to 1961. Rogers was cast as
U.S. Army Lieutenant
Richard Henry Pratt in 1965 in
Death Valley Days. He appeared on the
Cannon episode "Call Unicorn" in 1971.
M*A*S*H (1972–1975) When Rogers was approached for
M*A*S*H, he planned to audition for the role of Hawkeye Pierce. He found the character too cynical, however, and asked to screen test as Trapper John, whose outlook was brighter. Rogers was told that Trapper and Hawkeye would have equal importance as characters. That changed after
Alan Alda, whose acting career and résumé up to that point had outshone that of Rogers, was cast as Hawkeye and proved to be more popular with the audience. Rogers enjoyed working with Alda and the rest of the cast as a whole (Alda and Rogers quickly became close friends), but eventually chafed that the writers were devoting the show's best humorous and dramatic moments to Alda. When the writers took the liberty of making Hawkeye a
thoracic surgeon in the episode "
Dear Dad" (December 17, 1972), even though Trapper was the unit's only thoracic surgeon in the movie and the novel, Rogers felt Trapper had been stripped of his credentials. He decided to leave the show between production of the third and fourth seasons, making his last on-screen appearance in the episode
Abyssinia, Henry, which was also the final episode for fellow cast member
McLean Stevenson who had portrayed Lieutenant Colonel
Henry Blake. On the
M*A*S*H 30th Anniversary Reunion Television Special aired by Fox-TV in 2002, Rogers spoke on the differences between the Hawkeye and Trapper characters, saying, "Alan [Alda] and I both used to discuss ways on how to distinguish the differences between the two characters as to where there would be a variance.... My character [Trapper John McIntyre] was a little more impulsive [than Hawkeye]." Rogers considerably reduced his Alabama accent for the character of Trapper. He succeeded
Elliott Gould, who had played the character in the
Robert Altman movie
MASH, and was himself succeeded by
Pernell Roberts on the
M*A*S*H spin-off
Trapper John, M.D..
Post-M*A*S*H work After leaving
M*A*S*H, Rogers appeared as an FBI agent in the 1975 NBC-TV movie
Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan, as Michael Stone in the 1980 miniseries
Top of the Hill, and as
civil rights attorney
Morris Dees in 1996's
Ghosts of Mississippi. He also starred in the short-lived 1976 period detective series
City of Angels and the 1979–1982 CBS series
House Calls, first with
Lynn Redgrave (both were nominated for Golden Globes in 1981, as best actor and best actress in TV comedy, but did not win) and then later with actress
Sharon Gless. Rogers also appeared in the 1980s miniseries
Chiefs. Rogers then was a guest star five times in a recurring role on CBS's
Murder, She Wrote. He has served as an executive producer and producer in both
television and
film, and as a screenwriter, and a director. Rogers also starred in several other movies. In 1981, he played the role of an
art forger in
Roger Vadim's
The Hot Touch. Then, in the movie
The Gig (1985), alongside
Cleavon Little, he was a jazz musician-hobbyist whose group has an opportunity to play a
Catskills resort and must confront failure. Also in 1985, he starred opposite
Barbara Eden in the televised reunion movie
I Dream of Jeannie... Fifteen Years Later based on the 1960s situation comedy
I Dream of Jeannie. Rogers took on the role of Major Tony Nelson, which was originally portrayed by
Larry Hagman in the television series when Hagman was unavailable to reprise the character he had originated. In 1986, Rogers hosted the short-lived CBS television series
High Risk. He also starred as Walter Duncan in the 1987 movie
Race Against the Harvest. In 1990, Rogers co-starred with
Connie Selleca in the CBS made-for-television movie
Miracle Landing based on the true story of the 1988
Aloha Airlines Flight 243 crash landing after an explosive cabin depressurization.
Financial career Rogers began to test the stock and real estate markets during his tenure as a
M*A*S*H cast member and became a successful
money manager and investor. In 1988 and 1990, he appeared before the
United States House Committee on the Judiciary as an expert witness, testifying in favor of retaining the banking laws enacted under the
Glass–Steagall Legislation act of 1933. He appeared regularly as a panel member on the
Fox Business Network cable TV stocks investment/stocks news program ''Cashin' In,'' hosted since 2013 by
Fox News anchor
Eric Bolling. In August 2006, Rogers was elected to the board of directors of
Vishay Intertechnology, Inc., a
Fortune 1000 manufacturer of
semiconductors and
electronic components. He was also the head of Wayne Rogers & Co., a stock trading investment corporation. On April 23, 2012, Rogers signed as the new spokesman for Senior Home Loans, a direct
reverse mortgage lender headquartered in
Long Island, New York.
Awards Rogers received a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2005. ==Personal life and death==