Peter Rogers
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Peter Rogers (20 February 1914 - 14 April 2009) was a British film producer. Rogers is best-known as producer of the Carry On series of British comedy films, beginning with Carry On Sergeant in 1958.
Biography
Rogers began his career as a journalist for his local paper before graduating to scriptwriting religious informational films. He progressed to film production, working with director Gerald Thomas, the first work being a production for the Childrens Film Foundation. Rogers is most well known as producer of the Carry On series of British comedy films, beginning with Carry On Sergeant in 1958. There were 31 films in all. Rogers has also been linked with a further installment, Carry On London, which has been in pre-production for several years, but since his death is now unlikely to be produced.
The majority of Rogers' work, including all the Carry On films, were made at Pinewood Studios in Iver Heath, Bucks.
Rogers' other production ventures include the television series Ivanhoe with Roger Moore and the film adaptation of the long-running sitcom Bless This House with Carry On regular Sid James.
His wife was the film producer Betty Box, responsible for the Doctor series of films. They did not have children.
An authorized biography, Mr Carry On-the Life and Work of Peter Rogers (BBC), by Morris Bright and Robert Ross (author of The Carry On Companion and the Monty Python Encyclopedia) was published in 2000, with extensive input from Peter Rogers himself. It attempts to defend him against charges that he exploited the cast of the Carry On films by paying the lead actors an unchanged £5,000 per film from the first in 1958 to the penultimate movie.
Rogers attended the 50th anniversary of the Carry On films held at Pinewood Studios in March 2008. On 15 April 2009, it was announced by the Carry On Gold website that Rogers had died at his home the previous day aged 95, having been ill for several months.
