'An Amazing Man': 'Magnum PI' Star Dies at 83 After Accident

Actor Roger E. Mosley, who played helicopter pilot Theodore “T.C.” Calvin in the original CBS hit show “Magnum P.I.,” died Sunday at 83. Mosley died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles three days after a car…

IJR SyndicatedAug 8, 20224 min read

Sponsored

, who starred in the series, suggested Mosley, who was indifferent to the offer.

He said his agent talked him into doing the pilot by saying it would be a short vacation and little more.

“‘It’s starring this guy Tom Selleck. Tom Selleck has made about five pilot shows … and none of them has sold,’” Mosley quoted his agent as telling him, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “‘So here’s what you do, Roger: Sign up for the show, go over to Hawaii, they’ll treat you good for the 20 days it will take to shoot the , you’ll get a lot of money, and then you come home. A show with Tom Selleck always fails, and you’ll be fine.’”

Mosley was conscious of how his role would be perceived.

He said that the initial script called for his character to be broke, but Mosley demurred and said he wouldn’t “be the only black person in Hawaii and be broke,” he said. “And they reversed. They decided Tom would be broke, and I would be financially well off — except I was always bailing him out.”

“They keep writing for me to smoke and drink, but I won’t do it,” he said in a 1982 interview. “I never get high, smoke or drink on the show or in real life. That’s not what I want black kids to see.”

Loading post…

In addition to his daughter, Mosley is survived by his wife of almost 60 years, Antoinette; his son, Brandonn; his grandson, Austin; and Rahsan, among his many nieces and nephews.

Ch-a Mosley said there was a side to the actor few knew.

“My dad was always a man of the community,” she said, according to the Los Angeles Times. “Even while famous and having this successful career in Hollywood, he continued to work with youth — most recently working as a track coach in the Monrovia .”

“He personally coached me. I was his first hurdler that he trained to run the 400-meter hurdles, and he made me into a champion. Under his coaching, I learned what it meant to win. … He made sure that I had a work ethic, and he instilled in me a strong moral compass to stand on my own two feet and to get a good education and have all the tools I needed to be successful in life.”

“He was always giving knowledge,” said Mike Knowles, who met Mosely while coaching his daughter and became a close friend. “If you asked him something, you would get the complete answer, not just a part-answer. … He was an encyclopedia of knowledge on different things.”

Loading post…

Knowles said Mosley was “a tough coach. But all his athletes respected him. … They may not always have liked his coaching methods, but every one that he ever coached that went on to college or to the pros … came back and thanked him for being tough on them and teaching them how it’s going to be in life. And that’s what he did to all of us, basically.”

“He didn’t have to do that. He had money. He had fame. He didn’t have to go back to the community and put his time in there. But he did,” Knowles said.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.