William Wayne McMillan Rogers III

 William Wayne McMillan Rogers III (April 7, 1933 – December 31, 2015)

Rogers was an film and television actor, known for playing the role of Captain "Trapper" John McIntyre in the CBS television series, M*A*S*H. He was a regular panel member on the Fox News Channel stock investment television program Cashin' In as a result of having built a career as an investor, investment strategist, advisor, and money manager. Wayne Rogers also studied acting at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City. Rogers appeared on television in both dramas and sitcoms such as The Invaders, The F.B.I., Combat!, Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., The Fugitive, and had a small supporting role in the 1967 movie Cool Hand Luke. He played Slim Davis on the soap opera Search for Tomorrow in 1959. Rogers also played a role in Odds Against Tomorrow, which was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 1960 as Best Film Promoting International Understanding. He guest starred on an episode of the CBS western Johnny Ringo. Rogers co-starred with Robert Bray and Richard Eyer in the western series Stagecoach West on ABC from 1960 to 1961. When Rogers was approached for M*A*S*H, he planned to audition for the role of Hawkeye Pierce. He found the character too cynical, however, and asked to screen test as Trapper John, whose outlook was brighter. Rogers was told that Trapper and Hawkeye would have equal importance as characters. This changed after Alan Alda, whose acting career and résumé up to that point had outshone that of Rogers, was cast as Hawkeye and proved to be more popular with the audience. Rogers enjoyed working with Alda and the rest of the cast as a whole (Alda and Rogers quickly became close friends), but eventually chafed that the writers were devoting the show's best humorous and dramatic moments to Alda.

After leaving M*A*S*H, Rogers appeared as an FBI agent in the 1975 NBC-TV movie Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan, as Michael Stone in the 1980 miniseries Top of the Hill, and as civil rights attorney Morris Dees in 1996's Ghosts of Mississippi. Rogers began to test the stock and real estate markets during his tenure as a M*A*S*H cast member and became a successful money manager and investor. Rogers died on December 31, 2015, from complications from pneumonia in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 82. He is interred at Westwood Memorial Park.