Actor Roger E. Mosley, of Magnum P.I. fame, died Sunday around 1:17 a.m. after sustaining injuries from a motor accident last week. His daughter, Ch-a, confirmed the news on Facebook. He was 83.
Ch-a shared that her father passed away while being “surrounded by family,” adding that he “transcended peacefully.”
“We could never mourn such an amazing man,” she wrote in the post. “He would HATE any crying done in his name. It is time to celebrate the legacy he left for us all. I love you, daddy. You loved me too. My heart is heavy, but I am strong. I will care for mommy, your love of almost 60 years. You raised me well, and she is in good hands. Rest easy.”
On August 6, she announced her father’s critical condition after being in a car accident the week before in Lynwood, California, leaving him “paralyzed from the shoulders down.”
Ch-a described her father as “a legend, a trailblazer, a [role] model, a friend to his communities” and her “Mr. Man.”
Mosley was born on December 18, 1938, and raised in Watts, southern Los Angeles. Before hitting the screens, he was a wrestler in high school and his neighborhood swimming coach. He then went to study acting, and the 1970s CBS detective show Cannon became his first T.V. gig.
Mosley portrayed Theodore “T.C.” Clavin, a helicopter pilot in the show Magnum P.I., which starred Tom Selleck and began in 1980. According to Sky News, Mosley didn’t want to take the Magnum P.I. gig because he preferred films over T.V. shows. But his agent persuaded him to test the waters.
In the series, T.C. owned a helicopter charter company called Island Hoppers in Oahu, Hawaii. Although he didn’t fly on the show, Mosley was a licensed private helicopter pilot off cameras.
Other on-screen works Mosley was involved in include A Thin Line Between Love and Hate, Sanford and Son, Starsky and Hutch, The Rockford Files and Kojack.
