Have you peeped Google today? It's all about the famed actor Will Rogers.
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The search engine site, which sometimes uses its homepage to recognize prominent figures, is highlighting the entertainer on what would have been his 104th birthday.
“In honor of Native American Indian Heritage Month,” Google wrote on its blog, “today’s animated Doodle celebrates the plainspoken American Indian actor, humorist, author, filmmaker, and public personality Will Rogers, who famously remarked, ‘I never met a man I didn’t like.’”
Born November 4, 1979 at Rogers Ranch in Oologah, Cherokee Territory, the performer learned to rope and ride horses at a young age. His tricks were so impressive that he began touring the world as a circus performer named “The Cherokee Kid.”
In 1922, he starred in and produced the film “The Ropin’ Fool,” which helped catapult him into stardom. Within a 15-year time span, he’d acted in more than 30 movies.
But he didn’t just work in front of the camera. He also hosted a radio show, authored several bestselling books and newspaper columns and was a political commentator, earning the name “America's Cowboy Philosopher.” He even launched a mock campaign in 1928 for the U.S. presidency and held a brief stint as honorary mayor of Beverly Hills.
In 1935, he died in a plane crash at 55. He was flying with aviator Wiley Post when their small plane crashed in Alaska.
Since his death, the Barrow, Alaska airport, which is located about 16 miles from the location of the fatal plane crash, has been renamed the Wiley Post-Will Rogers Memorial Airport.
A hospital, theater, submarine and museum have also been named after Rogers. Now Google is paying tribute. Learn more about the doodle here.
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