Roger Mobley

Last updated
Roger Mobley
Born (1949-01-16) January 16, 1949 (age 76)
Evansville, Indiana, U.S.
Occupation(s)Child actor (1958-1967)
Green Beret (1968-1970)
Police officer
Spouse
Sharie Barclay Mobley
​
​
(m. 1968)​
Children3
Website www.facebook.com/roger.mobley.16

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]

Contents

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 with Earl Holliman in The Wide Country (1962) EHandRGinTWC.jpg
Mobley with Earl Holliman in The Wide Country (1962)

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

YearTitleRoleNotes
1958-1960 Fury Homer "Packy" Lambert38 episodes
1959 Buckskin Noah WesleyEpisode: "Mr. Rush's Secretary" (with Jane Darwell)
1959 Bachelor Father Little LeaguerEpisode: "Bentley Goes to Washington" (with Whit Bissell, Sue Ane Langdon, and Flip Mark)
1959 A Dog's Best Friend Pip WheelerFilm (with Bill Williams and Marcia Henderson)
1959-1963 Wagon Train Multiple rolesEight episodes
1960 Hawaiian Eye Stevie HughesEpisode: "With This Ring" (with Paul Richards and Ruta Lee)
1960-1961 The Detectives Boy and PaulTwo episodes: "A Barrel Full of Monkeys" and "Shuttle"
1961 Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre Little MartinEpisode: "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 MorganEpisode: "Blind Spot" (with Gary Merrill)
1961 National Velvet Bradley Walton, IIIEpisode: "The Riding Mistress" (with Richard Deacon and Beverly Lunsford)
1961 The Runaway Felipe RobertoFilm
1961 The Silent Call Guy BrancatoFilm (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 KidChildren's film
1961 Gunsmoke Thad FerrinEpisode: "Miss Kitty" (with Frank Sutton, Harold J. Stone, and Dabbs Greer)
1961-1962 87th Precinct Danny and Lane Conners, respectivelyEpisodes: "Lady Killer" and "A Bullet for Katie"
1961 and 1963 Death Valley Days Little Matt Denby and Matt, respectivelyEpisodes: "The Madstone" (with Myron Healey) and "Deadly Decision" (with James Caan)
1961 and 1965 Dr. Kildare Jamie Carroll and Alan Burnside, respectivelyEpisodes: "Hit and Run" and "The Time Buyers"
1962 Straightaway DaleEpisode: "A Moment in the Sun" (with Robert Blake)
1962 The Tall Man David HarperEpisode: "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 JukesEpisode: "Mighty Like Rogue" (with J. Pat O'Malley, Jena Engstrom, and Joby Baker)
1962 The Law and Mr. Jones Tommy PierceEpisode: "The Boy Who Said 'No'" (with Russell Johnson and Eve McVeagh)
1962 Jack the Giant Killer PeterAdventure film
1962 The Virginian Homer TatumEpisode: "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 PerryEpisode: "Journey Down a Dusty Road" (with Wallace Ford)
1962 Cheyenne Gabe Morse and Billy ZacharyEpisodes "The Idol" and "Sweet Sam"
1962 Going My Way Miles CorbinEpisode: "Ask Me No Questions" (with Kevin McCarthy and Joanne Linville)
1962 Empire Kieran HaskellEpisode: "When the Gods Laugh" (with James Gregory)
1962-1963 Our Man Higgins Jamie and Jamie MacDermott, respectivelyTwo episodes: "Golf Partner" and "The Royal and Ancient Game" (both with Roy Roberts)
1963 Inside Danny Baker Danny BakerTelevision film
1963 Route 66 Joby PaxtonEpisode: "Somehow It Gets to Be Tomorrow" (with Martin Balsam)
1963 I'm Dickens, He's Fenster RalphEpisode: "Number One Son"
1963 The Dakotas Christopher DeusEpisode: "Feud at Snake River"
1963 Dime with a Halo JoseFilm
1964 Insight The UrchinEpisode: "The Urchin"
1964 Ben Casey Paul Hamilton, Jr.Episode: "Keep Out of Reach of Adults" (with Richard Kiley and Geraldine Brooks)
1964 Destry Toby BradyEpisode: "Red Brady's Kid"
1964 Emil and the Detectives GustavFilm
1964-1980 Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color Multiple roles17 episodes
1965 The Farmer's Daughter Alan PageEpisode: "Follow the Leader"
1967-1968 Dragnet Audie Fulton and Charles L. Vail, respectivelyEpisodes: "The Big Kids" and "The Big Departure"
1979 The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again SentryFilm
1980 The Kids Who Knew Too Much Police sergeantTelevision film

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Roger Mobley biography". Broken Wheel Ranch. Archived from the original on October 26, 2021. Retrieved February 20, 2023.
  2. ↑ "Lance Mobley obituary". The Beaumont Enterprise, August 27, 2002. 28 August 2002. Retrieved February 22, 2013.
  3. ↑ "Fury and My Friend Flicka". YouTube . Retrieved August 26, 2016.
  4. ↑ Feature Players, Vol. 3, Tom and Jim Goldrup, 1997, Ben Lomond, California, p. 204.

Further reading

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