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Magnum PI actor Roger E Mosley dies after sustaining injuries in car crash | Ents & Arts News


Magnum PI star Roger E Mosley has died aged 83 after being injured in a car crash, his daughter has confirmed.

Best known for playing Theodore ‘TC’ Calvin – helicopter pilot and best friend of Tom Selleck’s famed private investigator – he starred in all eight hit show series.

His daughter Ch-a confirmed his death to The Hollywood Reporter on Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She said he was surrounded by his family and passed away “peacefully”.

Roger Mosley and Tom Selleck in magnum
Picture:
Mosley as helicopter pilot Theodore ‘TC’ Calvin in Magnum PI

She had shared the news of his car crash in Lynwood, California, a few days earlier, telling her followers that her father was in critical condition and had been “paralysed” from the shoulder down”.

Before his death, she praised him as a “legend, a forerunner, a role model, a friend to his community”.

Appearing in 158 of the 162 episodes of Magnum PI that aired between 1980 and 1988, Mosely later told Irish journalist Jim Conlan that he wasn’t initially interested in the show – preferring the movie work over the contract performing on television – but his agent convinced him to become a pilot, advising him that the job might be as short-lived as “a show with Tom Selleck that always fails”.

He joked: “Well, eight and a half years later…”

The producers are said to have considered casting Gerald McRaney, before deciding they needed a person of color in the main cast.

Mosley said it was Selleck who personally recommended him for the role, after working together on the 1973 prison film Terminal Island.

** FILE PHOTO ** Roger E. Mosley has passed away.  Denise Nicholas with Roger E. Mosley and his daughter Ch & # 39;  a at the Jackie Joyner Kersee Invitational June 18, 1989. Image provider: Ralph Dominguez / MediaPunch / IPX PIC: AP
Picture:
Mosley with his daughter Ch-a (R) and actress Denise Nicholas (L) in 1989. Photo: Ralph Dominguez / MediaPunch / IPX PIC: AP

In the show, set in Hawaii, TC is friends with Selleck’s Thomas Magnum from their Vietnam days, and his character owns a helicopter rental company in Oahu called Island Hoppers. .

Although not allowed to fly in the series, Mosley is a licensed private helicopter pilot in real life.

Mosley pushed his character to be rich, educated and a lover of poetry – successfully convincing writers to switch plans for a broken TC – with his character often helping Magnum’s Selleck out of financial trouble.

He said in a 1982 interview in Ebony magazine: “I never got high, smoked or drank on the show or in real life. That’s not what I wanted black kids to see. .”

Before breaking off his major television career, he starred in numerous films, earning critical acclaim as blues band and folk singer Huddie Ledbetter in the leadbelly biopic of the year. 1976.

He also starred in many Blaxploitation films of the 1970s including The Mack, Hit Man, Sweet Jesus, Preachrman and Darktown Strutters.

An impressive 6ft 2in (189cm) tall and 215lbs (98kg) at his peak, athletic Mosley played boxer Sonny Liston in Mohammed Ali’s 1977 biopic The Greatest, appearing alongside the iconic icon. sports figure who played himself in the film.

https://www.facebook.com/cha.mosley.5/posts/pfbid0CjvEwW44v9EAgF7GFxW3panGLrCos7xca8GjUMKYYiFAKEHnXSQb3bxgdMk45FbGl

Born on December 18, 1938, Roger Earl Mosley was raised by his mother in the Royal Court project in Watts, south of Los Angeles.

A high school wrestler and neighborhood swimming coach, he continued to study acting, playing his first television role in 1971 on the CBS detective show Cannon, which he pursued. some small television work.

He went on to take on film roles alongside stars including John Wayne in McQ in 1974, James Earl Jones in The River Niger in 1976 and with Burt Reynolds in Semi-Tough in 1977.

Following his success in Magnum, he starred in various television roles throughout the 1990s including the sitcoms Hangin’ With Mr Cooper, You Take the Kids, and Rude Awakening, as well as other film roles.

Despite stepping back from acting in 2010, he still appeared as a guest in two episodes of the 2018 Magnum PI reboot starring Jay Hernandez and British actress Perdita Weeks.

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In tribute, his daughter Ch-a wrote on Facebook: “We could never mourn such a wonderful man. He would HATE any cry made in her name. It’s time to celebrate the legacy he left us all.”

“I love you dad. Dad loves me too. My heart is heavy but I’m strong. I will take care of you, your love for nearly 60 years. You raised me very well and you are always there. assured.”

Mosley leaves behind his 60-year-old wife Toni, daughter Ch-a and son Brandonn, grandson Austin; and many nieces and nephews.



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