Will Rogers was one of the most beloved Americans of his era — a cowboy humorist, newspaper columnist, radio commentator, and film star whose folksy wit and common-sense decency made him the unofficial voice of the average citizen. Born in the Indian Territory of present-day Oklahoma, part Cherokee, he grew up on a ranch and became an expert horseman and roper.
He began in show business as a trick roper in Wild West shows and vaudeville, gradually adding a stream of homespun commentary on the news of the day to his act. Audiences loved his drawling, self-deprecating manner, and his quips — "I never met a man I didn't like," "All I know is what I read in the papers" — entered the national vocabulary.
Rogers became a star of the Ziegfeld Follies, a syndicated newspaper columnist read by millions, a popular radio broadcaster, and one of Hollywood's top box-office draws in the early sound era. Cutting gently across party lines, he poked fun at politicians and the powerful while championing ordinary people, especially during the hardship of the Great Depression.
He was also an enthusiast of aviation, and it was this passion that killed him: in 1935 he died with the famed aviator Wiley Post when their plane crashed in Alaska. The nation mourned as for few other public figures, a measure of how deeply the "cowboy philosopher" had been loved.