Roger Mobley
Roger Lance Mobley (born January 16, 1949) is a former child actor in the 1950s and 1960s who made more than 118 television appearances and co-starred in nine feature films in a nine-year career.[1] He served in the Green Berets (46th Special Forces Company) during the Vietnam War, and was subsequently a police officer in Beaumont, Texas.[1]
Roger Mobley | |
|---|---|
 Mobley in The Wonderful World of Disney, circa 1968 | |
| Born | January 16, 1949 Evansville, Indiana, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Child actor (1958-1967) Green Beret (1968-1970) Police officer |
| Spouse |
Sharie Barclay Mobley
(m. 1968) |
| Children | 3 |
| Website | www |
Background
Mobley is one of eight children of Arthur Lance Mobley and Charlene V. Mobley. Lance Mobley, as the father was known, was born in Centralia in southern Illinois, and a retired pipefitter at the time of his death in a hospital in Beaumont, Texas. Charlene and he married in 1939, when he was 17, and she was 15.[2] The couple moved from Indiana in the early 1950s to Pecos in Reeves County in West Texas before they headed in 1957 to Whittier, near Los Angeles.
Acting
Mobley (pronounced "Mahbley"[3]) sang with his older brother and sister in The Little Mobley Trio in Texas where the family then lived. After moving to California when Mobley was six or seven, the trio appeared on the Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour with disappointing results.
They were spotted, though, by Lola Moore, then the pre-eminent agent for child actors, who expressed an interest in Roger and arranged his audition for the part of eight-year-old Homer "Packy" Lambert in the NBC Saturday-morning Western television series, Fury, starring Peter Graves, Bobby Diamond, and William Fawcett. He appeared in 38 episodes of the series.[4]
In 1964, after having been impressed with Mobley's performance as Gustav in Emil and the Detectives, Walt Disney signed him to the title role in the highly acclaimed and Emmy-nominated "Adventures of Gallegher" serials for the Wonderful World of Color. Gallegher is an amateur sleuth newspaper reporter, a character created by author Richard Harding Davis.[1]
After 9 years and appearances in 118 television programs or feature films, Mobley's career was interrupted at the age of 18 by military service. Mobley eventually graduated Parachute Jump School (Fort Benning, Georgia) and JFK Special Warfare School (Fort Bragg, North Carolina) and was assigned to the 6th Special Group (Fort Bragg) and the 46th Special Special Forces Co., 1st Special Forces (1969-1970), before being honorably discharged in 1970. Upon his return home to Whittier, Mobley found that only $6,000 earnings from his extensive film work as a child had been saved for him. His new bride and he moved to Texas, where he landed a position on the Beaumont, Texas Police Dept.
As of 2022, his marriage to his high school sweetheart is still intact after 54 years, and they have three children, 12 grandchildren, and one great grandchild. Mobley and his wife are members of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1958-1960 | Fury | Homer "Packy" Lambert | 38 episodes |
| 1959 | Buckskin | Noah Wesley | Episode: "Mr. Rush's Secretary" (with Jane Darwell) |
| 1959 | Bachelor Father | Little Leaguer | Episode: "Bentley Goes to Washington" (with Whit Bissell, Sue Ane Langdon, and Flip Mark) |
| 1959 | A Dog's Best Friend | Pip Wheeler | Film (with Bill Williams and Marcia Henderson) |
| 1959-1963 | Wagon Train | Multiple roles | Eight episodes |
| 1960 | Hawaiian Eye | Stevie Hughes | Episode: "With This Ring" (with Paul Richards and Ruta Lee) |
| 1960-1961 | The Detectives | Boy and Paul | Two episodes: "A Barrel Full of Monkeys" and "Shuttle" |
| 1961 | Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre | Little Martin | Episode: "The Scar" (with Lew Ayres, Mort Mills, Patricia Barry, and Alan Hale, Jr.) |
| 1961 | The Donna Reed Show | Tony Martin, Jr. | Episode: "Tony Martin Visits" (with Tony Martin) |
| 1961 | Outlaws | Davey Morgan | Episode: "Blind Spot" (with Gary Merrill) |
| 1961 | National Velvet | Bradley Walton, III | Episode: "The Riding Mistress" (with Richard Deacon and Beverly Lunsford) |
| 1961 | The Runaway | Felipe Roberto | Film |
| 1961 | The Silent Call | Guy Brancato | Film (with Gail Russell and David McLean) |
| 1961 | The Loretta Young Show | Henry Sands, Jr. | Episode: "Not in Our Stars" (with Loretta Young and H. M. Wynant) |
| 1961 | Boy Who Caught a Crook | Kid | Children's film |
| 1961 | Gunsmoke | Thad Ferrin | Episode: "Miss Kitty" (with Frank Sutton, Harold J. Stone, and Dabbs Greer) |
| 1961-1962 | 87th Precinct | Danny and Lane Conners, respectively | Episodes: "Lady Killer" and "A Bullet for Katie" |
| 1961 and 1963 | Death Valley Days | Little Matt Denby and Matt, respectively | Episodes: "The Madstone" (with Myron Healey) and "Deadly Decision" (with James Caan) |
| 1961 and 1965 | Dr. Kildare | Jamie Carroll and Alan Burnside, respectively | Episodes: "Hit and Run" and "The Time Buyers" |
| 1962 | Straightaway | Dale | Episode: "A Moment in the Sun" (with Robert Blake) |
| 1962 | The Tall Man | David Harper | Episode: "St. Louis Woman" (with Jan Clayton and Russ Conway) |
| 1962 | Alcoa Premiere | Lonnie Dunlap | "Second Chance" (with Earl Holliman, Andrew Prine, Cliff Robertson, Jacqueline Scott, Roy Barcroft, and Don "Red" Barry) |
| 1962 | Frontier Circus | Andy Jukes | Episode: "Mighty Like Rogue" (with J. Pat O'Malley, Jena Engstrom, and Joby Baker) |
| 1962 | The Law and Mr. Jones | Tommy Pierce | Episode: "The Boy Who Said 'No'" (with Russell Johnson and Eve McVeagh) |
| 1962 | Jack the Giant Killer | Peter | Adventure film |
| 1962 | The Virginian | Homer Tatum | Episode: "Throw a Long Rope" (with fellow guest stars John Anderson, Ted Knight, and Jacqueline Scott) |
| 1962 | The Wide Country (series spun off from Alcoa Premiere episode above) | Billy-Joe Perry | Episode: "Journey Down a Dusty Road" (with Wallace Ford) |
| 1962 | Cheyenne | Gabe Morse and Billy Zachary | Episodes "The Idol" and "Sweet Sam" |
| 1962 | Going My Way | Miles Corbin | Episode: "Ask Me No Questions" (with Kevin McCarthy and Joanne Linville) |
| 1962 | Empire | Kieran Haskell | Episode: "When the Gods Laugh" (with James Gregory) |
| 1962-1963 | Our Man Higgins | Jamie and Jamie MacDermott, respectively | Two episodes: "Golf Partner" and "The Royal and Ancient Game" (both with Roy Roberts) |
| 1963 | Inside Danny Baker | Danny Baker | Television film |
| 1963 | Route 66 | Joby Paxton | Episode: "Somehow It Gets to Be Tomorrow" (with Martin Balsam) |
| 1963 | I'm Dickens, He's Fenster | Ralph | Episode: "Number One Son" |
| 1963 | The Dakotas | Christopher Deus | Episode: "Feud at Snake River" |
| 1963 | Dime with a Halo | Jose | Film |
| 1964 | Insight | The Urchin | Episode: "The Urchin" |
| 1964 | Ben Casey | Paul Hamilton, Jr. | Episode: "Keep Out of Reach of Adults" (with Richard Kiley and Geraldine Brooks) |
| 1964 | Destry | Toby Brady | Episode: "Red Brady's Kid" |
| 1964 | Emil and the Detectives | Gustav | Film |
| 1964-1980 | Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color | Multiple roles | 17 episodes |
| 1965 | The Farmer's Daughter | Alan Page | Episode: "Follow the Leader" |
| 1967-1968 | Dragnet | Audie Fulton and Charles L. Vail, respectively | Episodes: "The Big Kids" and "The Big Departure" |
| 1979 | The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again | Sentry | Film |
| 1980 | The Kids Who Knew Too Much | Police sergeant | Television film |
References
- "Roger Mobley biography". Broken Wheel Ranch. Archived from the original on October 26, 2021. Retrieved February 20, 2023.
- "Lance Mobley obituary". The Beaumont Enterprise, August 27, 2002. Retrieved February 22, 2013.
- "Fury and My Friend Flicka". YouTube. Retrieved August 26, 2016.
- Feature Players, Vol. 3, Tom and Jim Goldrup, 1997, Ben Lomond, California, p. 204.
Further reading
- Goldrup, Tom and Jim (2002). Growing Up on the Set: Interviews with 39 Former Child Actors of Film and Television. McFarland & Co. pp. 210–217. ISBN 1476613702.
- Holmstrom, John (1996). The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995. Norwich: Michael Russell, p. 288-289.