Pernell Roberts Bio, Family, Career, Wife, Net Worth, Metrics

Famous Bonanza actor Pernell Roberts (aka Pernel Elven Roberts Jr.) was a famous name in Hollywood showbiz. He was best recognized as the bearded actor and his baritone voice. Many people know him for his best performance in the western TV series “Bonanza”. There he had portrayed the role of the eldest son “Adam Cartwright”. He also played the main character of Chief Surgeon, Dr. John Mclntyre, in the series ‘Trapper John, MD (1979-86).

Apart from acting, he had also been popular as a singer/singer. He sang many songs including ‘The Music Man’, ‘Camelot’, ‘Kiss Me, Kate’ and ‘The King and I’. Before Roberts passed away due to pancreatic cancer, he worked in numerous series and dramas. Nevertheless, he entered the industry performing on numerous Broadways and Off-Broadways, for which he had received awards.

PERNELL ROBERTS: BIOGRAPHY, FAMILY, EDUCATION

Pernell Roberts was born as the only child of Pernell Elven Roberts Sr. on May 18, 1928. He was born in Waycross, Georgia, United States of America. Her father was a sales representative and mother Minnie Myrtle Morgan Roberts. He is of African American ethnicity.

In high school, he acted in plays and school and church dramas. Roberts also played horn and sang at local USO shows. Later, he joined Georgia Tech. but did not graduate. Then he served two years in the United States Marine Corps in 1946. While in the armed forces, he joined the Marine Corps Band and had played tuba/horn. In addition, he also has expertise in sousaphone and percussion playing. After his discharge from the army, he enrolled at the University of Maryland. Nevertheless, it was the first time he was exposed to classical acting theater.

During his university years, he acted in four productions, including Othello and Antigone. However, he left school to pursue a career in acting.

PERNELL ROBERTS: CAREER, ACHIEVEMENTS IN LIFE AND NET WORTH

Roberts had made his first professional acting debut through the play “The Man Who Came to Dinner” at the Olney Theater in Olney, Maryland. After that, for the next eight weeks, it moved to the Bryn Mawr College Theater in Philadelphia. There he performed ‘Dan’ in Emlyn Williams’ ‘Night Must Fall’ and also as Alfred Doolittle in Bernard Shaw’s ‘Pygmalion’.

In 1950 he moved to Washington D.C. and began performing at the Arena Stage Theater for two years. During this time, he also did various odd jobs to support himself financially. Subsequently, he starred in several productions, including ‘The Adding Machine’, ‘The Inspector General’, ‘The Glass Menagerie’, ‘The Scarecrow’ and ‘Three Men on a Horse’, among others.

He moved to New York in 1952, then he made his first off-Broadway in one-act operas and ballets with productions like ‘Lyric Theater’ and ‘Equity Library Theatre’. Later in 1955, he received a Drama Desk award for his off-Broadway portrayal of Macbeth, which followed the role of Mercutio in “Romeo & Juliet.” Additionally, he had also performed at the American Shakespeare Festival and on Broadway. In 1957, he signed a contract with Columbia Pictures. After that, a year later, he made his film debut as the son of Burl Ives in ‘Desire Under the Elms’.

His other film credit includes, among others, ‘Sheepman (1958)’, ‘Four Rode Otu (1971) and ‘Kashmiri Run (1970)’. He also starred in series like ‘The Girl from UNCLE’, ‘The Big Valley’, ‘Marcus Welby’, ‘Gunsmoke’, ‘The Love Boat’, ‘The Bold Ones’ and ‘The Immigrants’, many others.

He made his last television appearance as the character “Mannix” in an episode of the series “Diagnosis: Murder” in 1997. Prior to that, he provided his voice to host and narrate the television anthology series “FBI : The Untold Stories” for 1991. to 1993.

Before he died, he had earned a huge income from his acting career. Moreover, he has made some profit from his musical career. At that time, his net worth had an estimate of around $10 million.

PERNELL ROBERTS: PERSONAL LIFE, WIFE AND DEATH

Roberts was very successful in his acting career throughout his life, but his married life was not very successful. Consequently, he had married four times during his life. Roberts had married his first wife Vera Mowry in 1951. She was a professor of theater history at Washington State University. Also, a professor emeritus of Ph.D. program in theater at the City University of New York. Together they had one child, Jonathan Christopher Roberts. Unfortunately, at the age of thirty-eight (i.e. 1989), Jonathan died in a motorcycle accident. Moreover, the eight years of their marriage ended in 1959.

After three years of separation from the first wife, he married Judith Anna LeBrecque on October 15, 1962. But their married life did not last long and divorced in 1971. A year later in 1972, he remarried again to Kara Knack. Her third marriage hit the bottom of twenty-four years and ended in 1996. However, no information is provided about her marriage separation.

Roberts died of pancreatic cancer on January 24, 2010. At the time of his death, he had been married to his fourth wife Eleanor Criswell since 1997.

PERNELL ROBERTS: BODY MEASUREMENTS

The veteran actor was a handsome man who was popular for his beard face with a baritone voice. He had a perfect muscular body which is 6 feet tall and weighs around 80 kg. Roberts Jr. had gray hair color with light brown eyes.