(4 November 1879, Oologah, Indian Territory, [now Oklahoma] - 15 August 1935, near Point Barrow, Territory of Alaska)

Name at birth: William Penn Adair Rogers

Will Rogers was a one of America's brightest media stars during the 1920s and '30s, a Cherokee cowboy-philosopher who did rope tricks while making pointed -- and humorous -- political observations.

Rogers grew up on a ranch in Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma. After a few years as a rancher and cowboy, he began performing rope tricks and made it to vaudeville. He signed on with the Ziegfield Follies in 1915 and soon became a popular and well-paid stage performer.

By 1918 he was starring in and producing movies in Hollywood. By the end of the '20s Rogers was a movie star, radio star and successful newspaper columnist. He had a way of making insightful and witty remarks on complicated issues, in simple terms and without rancor, a style audiences adored. Rogers is still famous for saying "I only know what I read in the newspaper" and "I never met a man I didn't like." He was killed in 1935 with pilot Wiley Post when their plane crashed in Alaska.