Ad Man Behind Charlie The Tuna Dies At 87ff

The creator of Charlie the Tuna recently died in Charlottesville, his adopted home.

Thomas Russell Rogers, 87, was behind the StarKist Tuna “spokesfish” who was never good enough to be used in the product, as well as the industrious Keebler Elves and Morris the Cat, the finicky eater from 9 Lives’ cat food ads.

“Charlie was based on a guy he knew in New York,” his son, Lance Rogers, said Monday. Tom Rogers grew up during Prohibition and the Great Depression, working as a liquor carrier as a preteen in Minnesota.

He knew plenty of “hustlers and rogues,” said his son, who lives in Albemarle County. “He’d be the quiet guy in the corner, watching things and taking notes.”

Rogers’ colorful life also included a stint as a screenwriter in Hollywood and a comedy writer, before going to work in advertising. He also was an aircraft welder during World War II.

In 1960, he landed at the Leo Burnett Company Inc. in Chicago as a copywriter, just in time for the agency’s heyday.

Now one of the top advertising companies in the world, Burnett was behind such icons as the Marlboro Man, the Jolly Green Giant and Tony the Tiger.

Rogers worked at the agency for 20 years, retiring in 1980. He came up with the idea for Charlie the Tuna and directed and produced TV commercials featuring the character.

In his spare time, Rogers wrote short stories and novels. He was working on a memoir of his childhood when he died, on June 24, of a sudden illness, his son said.