Born on May 18, 1928 in Waycross, GA, Roberts was active in both music and sports while in high school, and was a vocalist in his local church choir. He twice failed to attend college, first at the Georgia Technological Institute, which he attended prior to joining the Marines in 1946, where he performed in the Marine Corps Band. In 1949, he briefly attended the University of Maryland, which gave him his first exposure to acting in classical theater. After leaving the university, Roberts moved to Washington D.C. in 1950 and supported himself in a wide variety of jobs while performing with the acclaimed Arena Stage Company. Two years later, he relocated to New York and appeared off-Broadway before graduating to the Great White Way with performances in “Tonight in Samark,” “The Lovers” opposite Joanne Woodward and “A Clearing in the Woods.” A 1955 Drama Critics Award for Best Actor in an off-Broadway production of “Macbeth” prompted a move to Los Angeles to try his hand in motion pictures. Roberts signed a contract with Columbia in 1957, and he made his film debut a year later as one of Burl Ives’ contentious sons in “Desire Under the Elms” (1958).
Roberts’ tall frame and authoritative presence made him a natural for Western hero roles. He marked considerable time in film and television shoot-em-ups, most notably Budd Boetticher’s “Ride Lonesome” (1959), for which he broke tradition to play a smooth-talking villain. That same year, Roberts was cast as Adam Cartwright in “Bonanza.” Producer David Dortort knew Roberts from his appearances in other television Westerns and thought him perfect to play the well-mannered Adam, whose education in architecture allowed him to design the family’s iconic home, the Ponderosa. Though the series struggled its first year, a move to Sunday nights proved to be a successful one, leading to a rise in the ratings until it reached the top spot in the mid-‘60s. Roberts enjoyed the rewards of being on a top-rated show, which allowed him to explore his musical interests with an album of folk songs, Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies in 1962.
But Roberts was uninhibited in expressing the concerns he had with the show over script quality and other issues. A public supporter of the civil rights movement who attended the historic marches in Selma in 1965, Roberts used his position on a popular show to press NBC to stop casting white actors in minority roles, and spoke out against racist and sexist elements on the series itself. He also clashed with the producers over scripts and direction, railing against having to wear a toupee for the role. All four of the main cast members had signed five-year contracts with NBC in the second year of the show’s production, but when Roberts was approached for renewal, he turned it down. Despite the dismay of his many fans, Roberts left the program in 1965 and headed back to the stage for a production of “Camelot.” Years later, Roberts would express regret in interviews about his abrupt departure from the show.
For the next decade or so, Roberts worked steadily in television and a handful of obscure films, but substantive success eluded him. He returned to the stage on numerous occasions, including the 1973 Los Angeles production of “Scarlett,” and landed a terrific showcase for his vocal abilities in a 1967 television production of “Carousel.” But for the most part, Roberts was a guest star on episodic series and television movies which frequently cast him as authority figures – generals, police detectives, doctors and scientists. Then in 1979, Roberts had a second chance at television stardom with the title role in “Trapper John, M.D.,” which concerned the further adventures of “M*A*S*H” surgeon Trapper John McIntyre. The series brought Trapper John up to the present, where he served as head of surgery at a major San Francisco hospital. Though older and without a toupee, Roberts was still capable of gaining a sizable female fanbase, though newcomer Gregory Harrison gave him a run for his money as fellow vet “Gonzo” Gates. Roberts netted his first and old Emmy nomination for the show, which ran until 1986. He also parlayed his popularity as a TV doctor into a long-running stint as the spokesman for Ecotrin tablets.
After “Trapper John” concluded its network run, Roberts returned to guest appearances in television and TV features, though the frequency of these guest shots were fewer and more far between. He appeared in a few made-for-TV movies, like “The Night Train to Kathmandu” (Disney Channel, 1988), “Perry Mason: The Case of the All-Star Assassin” (NBC, 1989) and “Donor” (CBS, 1990, then lent his distinctive voice to the ABC anthology series “FBI: The Untold Stories” (1991-93). But Roberts slowed his output with each subsequent year, until he made his final television appearances in several episodes of “Diagnosis: Murder” (CBS, 1993-2001) and as the narrator for the History Channel documentary “Mountain Men” (1999). When the 21st century arrived, Roberts appeared to retire altogether from screen acting. His name and image, however, were frequently referenced in tributes and reports on “Bonanza,” which fixated with some degree on the fact that at the time he was the last surviving member of the original cast.