A sad goodbye for a "familiar face from '80s television": KLTA reports that Roger E. Mosley, who starred with Tom Selleck in the original Magnum, PI on CBS, has died at the age of 83. Mosley's daughter, Ch-a Mosley, confirms to the Hollywood Reporter and USA Today that her father died Sunday at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after being hurt in a Thursday car crash in Lynwood, Calif. Mosley first appeared onscreen in the early '70s in small roles in movies and on TV, before moving onto bigger parts in the mid-'70s in such films as McQ, The River Niger, and Semi-Tough, starring alongside the likes of John Wayne, James Earl Jones, and Burt Reynolds, respectively.
He also had roles in multiple blaxploitation films and dozens of other movies and TV series and played pro boxer Sonny Liston in 1977's The Greatest. But it was his role as chopper pilot Theodore "TC" Calvin, Selleck's sidekick on Magnum, PI, that earned Mosley his biggest audience. THR notes that Gerald McRaney was originally supposed to play the part of TC, but producers swapped in Mosley, at Selleck's recommendation, so they could have a more diverse cast. Mosley, who appeared in nearly all of the show's 162 episodes, was a licensed helicopter pilot in real life, but he wasn't allowed to fly any of the aircraft on the show.
The Los Angeles Times, which notes that Mosley was paralyzed from the shoulders down after Thursday's accident, details another important part of his life: that of a tough but dedicated track and field coach to local youth in LA-area high schools, a role he enjoyed for more than 30 years. "He didn't have to do that," longtime friend and coaching partner Mike Knowles tells the paper. "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." Mosley is survived by his wife of nearly 60 years, Antoinette (Toni) and three children, as well as other relatives. (More Magnum, PI stories.)
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