LOS ANGELES – Pernell Roberts, the rugged beautiful actress who shocked Hollywood by leaving the TV series “Bonanza” at the height of his popularity, who found fame again years later, “Trapper John, MD,” died. He was 81 years.
Roberts, the last surviving member of the classic western’s cast, who died of cancer Sunday at his home in Malibu, he told his wife, Eleanor Criswell Los Angeles Times.
Although he shot to fame in 1959 as Adam Cartwright, eldest son of a Nevada ranching family operation headed by Lorne Greene’s patriarchal Ben Cartwright, Roberts chafed at the limitations he felt “Bonanza” grade was given.
It specifically whispered to him that his character, a man in his 30s, had to constantly expose to the wishes of his father’s widow.
“Bonanza“, with its three remaining stars, continued until 1973, making it second to “Gunsmoke” as the longest running Western in television. Blocker died in 1972, Greene in 1987 and Landon in 1991.
His TV credits during this time included “The Virginian,” “Hawaii Five-O”, “Mission Impossible”, “Marcus Welby, MD” Banacek “,” Ironside “and” Mannix.
In “Trapper John, MD,” The Korean War was almost 30 years earlier, and Roberts’ character was now a Balding, middle-aged head of surgery at San Francisco Memorial Hospital. He no longer fought the company that has learned to handle it with patience and wry humor.
Roberts worked in regional theater, then was informed in New York, where he won a Drama Desk Award in 1956 for her performance in an off-Broadway production of “Macbeth”.
Three of the Roberts’ marriage ended in divorce. His first Vera Mowry, a son, Jonathan, who died in 1989 at 37 years.
