photo thanks to Rita Bennett, from
A Matter of Faith Bonanza World Biography: Mitch Vogel by Short Shanks
Mitch Vogel ("Jamie Hunter Cartwright" on
Bonanza) was born on January 17, 1956 in Alambra, California. His parents divorced when he was young, and his father, Dennis Vogel, went to work in construction in Kiel, Wisconsin. Mitch's mother married Marines drill sargeant Edward Greenleaf. The family, including a half sister, Kitty, who was seven years younger, lived in Costa Mesa, California until Mitch's mother and stepfather separated, and then Mitch and Kitty went to live in Burbank, California with their mother and grandmother.
In 1966, ten-year-old Mitch Vogel was given a choice: music lessons or acting lessons. Mitch loved playing his guitar, but he had also been fascinated by acting ever since his mom had taken him to see the play "Peter Pan" at the Melodyland Theater in Anaheim, California. Mitch decided on the acting lessons, and within three days of enrolling at the Orange County Performing Society in Costa Mesa he won the lead role in "Tom Sawyer." Mitch's first movie role soon followed in which he played one of Lucille Ball's children in
Yours, Mine and Ours (1968).
In that same year, twelve-year-old Mitch also made his first
Bonanza appearance, playing a young boy whose grandfather helps Ben fight off a gang of outlaws in
The Real People of Muddy Creek. The young boy proudly boasts of his grandfather's skill as a gunslinger, but is horrified when he sees the consequences of the gunfight. Mitch also played roles on other TV shows such as
The Virginian,
Adam-12 and
Death Valley Days.
The breakthrough role for Mitch Vogel was
The Reivers (1969), a coming-of-age film co-starring Steve McQueen and Will Geer which was adapted from a novel by William Faulkner. Mitch played Lucius McCaslin, a young boy who's talked into stealing his grandfather's Winton Flyer automobile by his older cousin Boone (McQueen) and heading off to Memphis for adventure. Narrated by Burgess Meredith, the movie's unfolding events are seen through the young boy's eyes, and Mitch Vogel received a 1970 Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor Supporting Actor for his role.
Mitch appeared on additional TV shows including three different roles on
Gunsmoke as well as
Ironside and
Here Come The Brides before being offered a continuing role on
Bonanza as Jamie Hunter Cartwright, a young orphan taken in by the Cartwrights and eventually adopted as Ben Cartwright's fourth son. Altogether he appeared on 39 episodes of
Bonanza. A freckle-faced redhead with blue eyes, Mitch was 5'4" and weighed 116 pounds when he joined the cast in 1970 at the age of 14.
In a 1971 TV Guide interview, Lorne Greene described doing an impromptu test of young Mitch's acting ability by ad-libbing in a rehearsal and changing the scripted movements. "This would rattle most kids," Lorne said, "but Mitch was concentrating on me, not merely on the words he had learned, and he responded to my changes perfectly. "
Mitch's character, Jamie Hunter, joined the show in episode #363
A Matter Of Faith in Season 12. Jamie is traveling with Dusty Rhoades, who's been working on-and-off for the Cartwrights as ranch hand (Dusty's in
The Horse Traders for example, and seems to have traveled just about everywhere and done just about everything from working in a bank to working in "ding joints" in traveling shows.) Jamie's father was a rainmaker, and all that Jamie has left of him is a battered book on how to make rain.
Another important episode for Jamie is #390
The Grand Swing in Season 13 in which Ben takes Jamie on a tour of the ranch (a "grand swing" around the perimeter.) They go past the "Witness Tree," an official marker for the land's boundaries, and Ben has Jamie carve his name into the tree under Hoss's and Joe's which is an important symbolic moment for Jamie as a Cartwright son.
In Season 13's episode #402
A Home for Jamie, Ben decides to officially adopt Jamie, but there's a problem when Jamie's grandfather arrives, wanting to take Jamie back to Boston with him.
During the filming of
Bonanza, Mitch's grandmother Maude Awrey doubled as his business manager, giving Mitch an allowance of $3 per week plus lunch money. Mitch took care of his pets - five pigeons, a rabbit and a chameleon - and kept up his household chores of watering the yard and taking out the trash. Mitch was also tutored for three hours daily at the Warner Brothers studio in algebra, Spanish, English, and journalism and sometimes attended the Jordan Junior High in Burbank, where the students would serenade him with the
Bonanza theme song whenever he walked in.
Mitch made two Disney adventure movies,
Menace On The Mountain (1970) and
The Boy From Dead Man's Bayou (1972). After
Bonanza ended in 1973, Michael Landon cast Mitch as "Johnny Johnson" on two episodes of
Little House on the Prairie in 1974 and 1975. His last movie was
Texas Detour (1978), when he was 22. In the years since
Bonanza, Mitch directed community theater, went into business, and married his wife Christine. They have two daughters, Shauna and Melanie, and live in Southern California. Mitch continues to be involved with music through his church. He was also involved in 1999 with the nonprofit organization "A Minor Consideration," in which former child stars helped and advised new young stars on dealing with pitfalls and problems of their careers.
Mitch Vogel has always spoken well of his experience working on
Bonanza, describing the warm, family atmosphere on the set and saying in an interview at the 2002 Bonanza Convention, "I have nothing but good memories of working with them." Mitch returned to
Bonanza's locations for the Travel Channel's
TV Road Trip (2002), in which he narrated a look at the Ponderosa Ranch in Incline Village. Most recently in 2004, Mitch was featured in an interview in the
Bonanza Gold magazine, and participated in the 2005 Bonanza Convention.
Sources Interview, TV Guide, March 27, 1971.
Interview, Fort Apache Scout, Oct 31, 1971. Vol. 10, Iss. 10; pg. 12
Interview, The San Diego Union-Tribune, April 7, 2002, Sunday, TV WEEK-6
Mitch Vogel Fan Page
http://home.pacbell.net/ava414/mitchvogel.htm Interview, Associated Press, Sunday, June 9, 2002
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...020EDT0083.DTL Here Come The Brides Guest Star Spotlight
http://www.bobbysherman.com/mitch.htm Mitch Vogel's IMBD Listing:
http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0900938/ Mitch Vogel's TVLand Profile:
http://www.tvland.com/shows/bonanza/actor5.jhtml A Minor Consideration
http://www.applesforhealth.com/childstar1.html NY Times Movie Page
http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movie...tml?p_id=73775
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