Roger I. Moseley, who played helicopter pilot and Tom Selleck’s friend Theodore “TC” Calvin on all eight seasons of Magnum, PI, died Sunday at the age of 83.
The actor, a regular in blaxploitation films such as 1973’s The Mack, died of injuries sustained in a car accident three days earlier, his daughter Ch-a Mosley told the Hollywood Reporter.
Moseley’s best-known film role was as blues and folk singer Hudy Leadbetter in Gordon Parks’ 1976 film Leadbelly, which critic Roger Ebert called in his review “one of the best biographies of a musician I’ve ever seen.” .
Mosley also appeared in several blaxploitation films, including Hit Man (1972), Sweet Jesus, Preacherman (1973), and Darktown Strutters (1975). In The Greatest (1977), 6ft 2in Mosley played boxer Sonny Liston, who was beaten by Muhammad Ali, playing himself.
Born on December 18, 1938, Roger Earl Moseley grew up in the Imperial Courts project in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, raised by a single mother, Eloise.
He studied acting with Raymond St Jacques at the Mafundi Institute, a community arts school in Watts, and made his first television appearance in a 1971 episode of CBS’s Cannon, followed by small roles in The New Centurions and Hickey & Boggs. He appeared in 158 of Magnum, 162 episodes of PI that aired between December 1980 and May 1988.
According to Moseley, white actor Gerald McRaney was to play the role of TC Calvin, who owned a local one-man charter helicopter and often flew Selleck’s Thomas Magnum around Hawaii for various occasions. But the producers wanted a person of color for the main cast, which also included Larry Manetti and John Hillerman; Selleck suggested Moseley based on a prison film they made together, Terminal Island (1973).
“We could never mourn such an amazing person,” his daughter Ch-a wrote on Facebook. “He will HATE any crying done in his name. It is time to celebrate the legacy he left for us all. I love you dad. You loved me too. My heart is heavy, but I am strong. I will take care of Mom, your love of almost 60 years. You raised me well and she is in good hands. Take it easy.”
Mosley is survived by his wife of nearly 60 years, Antoinette, son Brandon, grandson Austin, and many nieces and nephews.
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