Pernell Roberts, the eldest son and first member of the "Bonanza" Cartwright clan to permanently leave the Ponderosa, was born Pernell Elvin Roberts, Jr. on May 18, 1928, in North Carolina. He was singing in local USO shows while still in high school and attended both Georgia Tech and the University of Maryland, but flunked out of both colleges.
After a two-year stint as a Marine, Roberts decided to give acting a chance and supported himself as a butcher, forest ranger, and railroad riveter during the lean years while pursuing his craft. On stage from the early 1950s, he gained experience in productions such as "The Adding Machine," "The Firebrand" and "Faith of Our Fathers" before spending a couple of years performing the classics with the renowned Arena Stage Company in Washington, DC.
Roberts made his Broadway debut in 1955 with "Tonight in Samarkind" and won the "Best Actor" Drama Desk Award for his off-Broadway performance as "Macbeth." He then headed for Hollywood and found minor roles in films before landing the pivotal role of Ben Cartwright's oldest and best-educated son Adam in the Bonanza series in 1959.
The series made Roberts a bona fide TV star, and the program itself became the second longest-running TV western after "Gunsmoke" and the first to be filmed in color. However, Roberts was displeased with the writing and direction of the show and suddenly elected not to renew his contract and left at the end of the 1964-1965 season to the utter dismay of his fans.
With his newfound freedom, Roberts focused on singing and the musical stage, starring in productions such as "Camelot," "The King and I," and a musical version of "Gone with the Wind." He also became an avid civil rights activist and joined other stalwarts such as Dick Gregory, Joan Baez, and Harry Belafonte who took part in civil rights demonstrations during the 60s.
The following years were rocky, with Roberts struggling to find solid footing in films and maintaining a viable presence in TV with parts in large-scale mini-series and guest shots on TV. In 1979, he finally won another long-running series role as Trapper John, M.D. in which he recreated the Wayne Rogers TVM*A*S*H role.
Roberts was a heavily principled man and spent his life fighting racism, segregation, and sexism, notably on TV. He was constantly at odds with the "Bonanza" series writers of his concerns regarding equality. He also kept his private life private, married and divorced three times, and had one son, Jonathan Christopher, who was killed in a motorcycle crash in 1989.
Roberts retired in the late 1990s and was diagnosed with cancer in 2007, passing away at the age of 81 on January 24, 2010, survived by his fourth wife Eleanor Criswell.
