Roger Converse (Who’s Who at MGM, 1937) 🇺🇸

When Roger Converse was a student at Stanford University, he took part in some of the college shows but until two years after graduation, he didn’t consider acting as a possible career.

Roger was born June 26, in Santa Barbara, the son of Judith Adams and Edmund Cogswell Converse, Jr. His father was a prosperous banker and ranch owner. When he was a small boy, Roger’s family moved to Los Angeles, because his father had acquired a large ranch near the city.

A few years later Roger was taken to Alameda to live. He enrolled in the Mastick school where he received his preliminary education. After graduation he attended Hitchcock Military Academy at San Rafael for several years.

From that institution he went to the A-to-Zed school at Berkeley in preparation for enrollment at Stanford. His favorite subjects at the university were history and biology, he was a member of Zeta Psi social fraternity and was graduated with a degree of bachelor of arts, majoring in economics.

Travel Expert

Each summer he spent on extensive vacations, touring Europe after completing his freshman year at the university. He visited England, France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, by train and automobile. In later years he made three vacation trips to Honolulu, one to Northwestern Canada and one to Alaska.

After returning from a long vacation the summer he was graduated, Roger opened an office as real estate broker near the Stanford campus. He plugged away for two years, considered returning to the university for a postgraduate course; then, one day, in thinking about those old college shows, he decided he might have a chance to become an actor if he had further training.

So he gave up his real estate office, went to New York and enrolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where he studied for nearly two years. Summers, he went to East Jaffrey, New Hampshire, to play minor roles with a stock company. He appeared in Shining Hour, Importance of Being Earnest, The Old Lady Shows Her Medals and The Drunkard.

After further study at the Academy, Roger returned to California and appeared in The Queen’s Husband and other shows presented by the Palo Alto Community Playhouse. When the season ended, he went to Los Angeles to visit an academy classmate who was playing small parts in pictures. He induced Roger to apply for a screen test. It was successful and he was placed under contract by M-G-M.

Dickens Enthusiast

Roger keeps in condition by playing golf in the 80’s, swimming and bowling regularly. He likes biographies of famous historical characters such as Napoleon and Bismarck.

He has an extensive collection of Dickens novels and considers him his favorite classical author. Among contemporaries, he likes best the writing of James Hilton, particularly his Goodbye, Mr. Chips.

His favorite picture was Mutiny on the Bounty and the play he liked best, Victoria Regina. Steak and salad appeal to him more than any other dish, blue is his favorite color and gardenia his choice among scents.

He is six feet, two inches tall, weighs 170 pounds, has brown hair and gray eyes. He is married and has two daughters, Joyce, four, and Joan, one and one-half years of age. His ambitions are to be a good father and a good actor.

He made his screen debut in My Dear Miss Aldrich. This was followed by Navy Blue and Gold.

Collection: Who’s Who at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1937)