'Charlie the Tuna' creator Tom Rogers drowns

R.I.P. Charlie. Tom Rogers, creator of Starkist's Charlie the Tuna, drowned in his backyard pool on June 24. Sadly, this is not a joke.

Tom Rogers created Charlie the Tuna while working at Leo Burnett in 1961. The character was based on a friend of Rogers, Henry Nemo, who was a beat musician and part-time actor. Mr. Rogers also created other iconic ad mascots such as the Keebler elves and Morris the Cat, infusing them with distinctive personalities based on his observations of human nature.

Tom was born in Minneapolis during the Depression and was raised by his single mother. At times, he stayed with his grandparents in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

During the Prohibition era, he occasionally hung out at speakeasies. There, he earned some spending money by cleaning floors and running errands for bootleggers. They believed that the police wouldn't suspect a kid. Although he was never a good student, he knew he wanted to be a writer. When he wasn't observing speakeasy hustlers and small-time hoodlums, he spent time at the public library. He was still a teenager when he sold his first story to a pulp detective magazine. His mother had to help him cash the twenty-dollar check.

Rogers dropped out of high school to join the Civilian Conservation Corps in the early 1930s. He later made his way to Hollywood, where he worked as a screenwriter and script doctor. Soon he started to become known as a script doctor due to his ability to improve dialogue.

In the late 1940s, he moved to New York City where he was involved in the beat scene and wrote for stage, radio, and comedy sketches for nightclub comedians.

He returned to Minneapolis in 1951, got married two years later and landed a job at a local advertising agency. One of his responsibilities was to produce a weekly radio show with George Mikan, the famous center for the Minneapolis Lakers of the National Basketball Association.

In 1960, he moved to Chicago to work for Leo Burnett, and that is where he created the famous Charlie the Tuna.

Unlike most copywriters today, Rogers had complete control over his creation, including Charlie's appearance, voice (supplied by Herschel Bernardi), and what he said about the product. Charlie appeared in 86 commercials and guest spots throughout the 1960s and '70s before he was retired as the Starkist spokesfish.

Rogers stayed at Leo Burnett until his retirement in 1980, after which he moved to Balsam Lake, Wisconsin, to work on novels and a memoir of his childhood.