Roger Radcliffe (or Roger Dearly in the original book and TV series) is a supporting character from Disney's 1961 animated feature film One Hundred and One Dalmatians and its 2003 sequel. He is the husband of Anita and owner, best friend, and "pet" to Pongo.
Background[]
Roger is Anita Radcliffe's husband and a songwriter. At the beginning of the original film, Roger is a bachelor songwriter, who lives in a small bachelor flat with Pongo. He works from home, usually not quitting work until after 5:00, and is described by Pongo as being married to his work. As a songwriter, he is very creative, and can easily write lyrics when given proper inspiration. However, it is only at Pongo's insistence that Roger meets Anita, as Roger would have stayed a bachelor forever according to Pongo.
Roger is based on the character of Mr. Dearly from the original book The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith. In the book, Mr. Dearly plays a similar role to Roger but is a financial wizard rather than a songwriter.
Personality[]
After his marriage, he is shown to be a kind and clever man who cares for his family, including his pets. Roger is also brave and isn’t afraid to stand up against Cruella when his family is involved. A scene near the end of the film shows that he is good at mental math, as he is able to tally up the number of Dalmatians fairly easily.
Physical appearance[]
Roger is fifty years old and he wears a white long sleeved shirt, a brown slip matching his pants, and blonde hair. At the beginning of the film, his slip is green and when he comes out he has a light brown jacket and a dark green hat. Sometimes, he wears dark green pants, the shirt in some scenes is yellow and in others, it is green. He wears brown socks and in one scene, he wears green socks. In another scene, he has a green jacket, gray trousers, and a green scarf.
Appearances[]
One Hundred and One Dalmatians[]
At the beginning of the film, Roger is seen working on a song. Pongo, having grown bored with their bachelor lives, conspires to set his pet up with a girl. After seeing Anita and Perdita, Pongo decides they would be perfect, as they were both beautiful. Pongo sets the clock ahead so that Roger believes that it is time for their walk. Roger is then forcefully dragged along as Pongo attempts to get Roger and Anita to meet. Eventually, Roger and Anita end up in the pond of the park, entangled by the leashes of their dogs. Roger attempts to apologize to the upset Anita, and blaming Pongo for making her wet, but the two end up laughing. A time skip shows that Roger and Anita fall in love and marry, and the two settle in a small house near the park with Pongo, Perdita, and Nanny.
- “Cruella De Vil! Cruella De Vil! If she doesn't scare you, no evil thing will!”
- ―Roger sassing Cruella in song
Sometime later, Roger is writing a new song but has only managed to get the melody written. He gains inspiration for lyrics after hearing the name of Cruella De Vil, Anita's former classmate. While Anita visits with her "friend," Roger writes a mocking song, relating the name to many frightening images. Three weeks later, Perdita is preparing to give birth to puppies. Roger is shown to be just as nervous as Pongo during the process, such that he jumps when Pongo licks his hand. He is initially overjoyed at the prospect of 15 puppies but saddens after hearing that one died. However, Roger is able to revive the puppy by gently rubbing it. When Cruella returns, intent on buying all the puppies, she mocks Roger’s song, which greatly annoys him. Roger nervously but defiantly stands up firm to her, informing Cruella with finality that they will not sell the puppies for any price (knowing full well she intends to slaughter them for their furs). Refusing to take no for an answer, Cruella is angered to the point that she storms off, threatening to get even. However, both Anita and Nanny calls him a hero for standing up to the devil woman.
One night, Roger and Anita take Pongo and Perdita out for a walk in the park. While they are gone, the puppies are stolen by Jasper and Horace Badun, hired secretly by Cruella. Roger is shown to be saddened by the theft. He is among those that believe Cruella is guilty of being involved in the theft, but neither he nor the police are able to connect her to the crime. When asked by Anita about what they will do now, he sadly cannot give an answer, and they rapidly lose hope of finding the puppies.
That same night, while on their usual walk in Primrose Hill, Roger becomes annoyed at Pongo's constant barking and forcefully drags him home, unaware that Pongo was actually passing the message of the puppies' theft through the Twilight Barking Chain. It is possible that Roger punishes Pongo inside the house for disturbing the whole neighborhood, but Pongo’s message is already spread across London as the Great Dane named Danny receives the message in Hampstead, along with Scottie. Eventually with the help of other city and country dogs, the message reaches their friend Towser, who then sends it to the Colonel.
Like Anita and Nanny, Roger is not seen again until the end of the film, around Christmastime, wondering why Pongo and Perdita ran away (unknown to him, they went to rescue the puppies). After hearing his Cruella song on the radio, he turns it off. Anita reveals that the song became Roger's first big hit, and brought in more money than they could dream of. When a group of "Labradors" come bursting into the home, Roger is confused, but he quickly realizes that they are actually Pongo, Perdita, and the puppies. Roger soon realizes that there are more than 15 puppies, and as Anita and Nanny find puppies, he adds up the totals to reveal that there are 101 Dalmatians altogether. Together with Anita, he decides to use the royalties from his songwriting to buy a country home big enough to keep all the puppies.
101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure[]
Roger in 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure.
Roger reappears in the sequel, still as a songwriter, alongside still being mentioned in Pongo's narration as his pet, and is also ready to move out of their London flat to a new farm. He is first shown packing up for their move to their new country home when seeing the spots from numerous puppies inspires him to write a new song Seeing Spots. Anita asks if he is packing or playing, and they dancing together as he sings.
The next day, moving day, he is packing up all of the puppies and the dogs into the trunk of the moving van. Believing that they have all the puppies, (unaware, they have left Patch behind) they drive away. Upon arriving to their new home, Cherry Tree Farm, Roger brings his piano into the farmhouse, asking Anita and Nanny where will the music go. The piano falls from the floor into the basement, startling them.
Later on, he's in his music room alongside Pongo when the puppies knock over the laundry with a newspaper on them. He throws the newspaper behind him and it lands in his trumpet, stating there's no time for him to read it if he's going to finish his new song. Later, the chickens the puppies had been chasing fall into the music room and run around crazy. One chicken lays an egg on Roger's head while another chicken jumps onto his trumpet handle, causing it to launch the newspaper out and land on the front of his piano, revealing a picture of Patch with Thunderbolt in London. When Roger and Pongo see this newspaper picture, they finally realize that Patch has been left behind. The entire family immediately goes into panic and Roger, Anita, Pongo, and Perdita head back to London to find him, leaving Nanny to care for the puppies. At the end of the film, Roger reunites with the puppies (as they had been stolen by Jasper and Horace under the orders of Cruella De Vil) after finding them in London. During the film credits, Roger is mentioned in the Music Times newspaper, stating that he had hit gold, winning an award for his song, Seeing Spots.
101 Dalmatians: The Series[]
Roger appears in the series along with Anita and Nanny. This version of Roger is a combination of the musician version from the animated movie and his game-developer version from the live-action film, as he is shown working in both professions. He's also depicted with brown hair instead of blond. He is always aware of Cruella's evil schemes to get him to give up the farm. According to the series bible, while he has some moderate successes, he has yet to make his big break. He gets so caught up in his creations, he sometimes neglects minor details like eating and sleeping, as well as having a number of half-completed projects. Cruella acts as the main investor in his game development, allegedly as an apology for stealing the puppies, but actually as a means for her controlling Roger and always having an excuse to come over and keep tabs on him, along with the fact that Cruella does legitimately believe that Roger will find success in game development one day, so wants to be able to claim royalties when he does. Roger is also said to have once smoked a pipe, like he did in the animated film, but quit smoking prior to the events of the series.
101 Dalmatian Street[]
Roger and Anita's Wedding Photo seen in "London We Have a Problem".
Since it is set sixty years after the original film, Roger doesn't make a physical appearance throughout the series, and it is unknown what happened to him since the original.
However, some of Roger's clothing can be seen in numerous episodes. In the episode "London, We Have a Problem", both he and Anita can be seen on their Wedding Photo alongside their wedding partners, Pongo and Perdita, when Doug grabs a vial containing a sample of Cruella's hair.
Other appearances[]
Roger made a small cameo appearance as a New York citizen at the beginning of the 1988 Disney animated movie, Oliver & Company. He and Anita also made a few appearances in the animated series House of Mouse, in crowd shots.
In the series finale of At Home With Olaf, a short clip of One Hundred and One Dalmatians featuring Roger appears during a montage of heartwarming moments from Disney films playing in Olaf's song "I Am With You".
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In the novel, the surname of the Dalmatians' owners is "Dearly", but was changed to Radcliffe for the animated film; most likely because Disney has a number of families in previous films with similar names, such as the Darlings from Peter Pan and Jim Dear from Lady and the Tramp. Their surnames return to being Dearly in the live-action films and 101 Dalmatians: The Series.
- In the first animated film, Roger shares the same speaking voice actor with Grimsby in The Little Mermaid, known as Ben Wright, but his singing voice is done by Bill Lee of the Mellomen.
- Both of Roger's original voice actors participated in the movie version of The Sound of Music with Wright portraying Herr Zeller (meaning "Mr. Zeller" in German) and Lee dubbing over Christopher Plummer's singing as Captain Von Trapp.
- In the original novel, Roger's profession was said to be a "financial wizard", implying that he's an accountant for a bank or something similar. While in the 1961 animated film, he's a songwriter.
- In 101 Dalmatians: The Series, Roger is shown to be a fan of baseball, with his favorite team being the Biddleburg Bivels in Dalmatian Vacation.
- In the animated films, Roger is a habitual smoker, regularly seen smoking a pipe in addition to his home at the start of the film being littered with used cigarettes. This trait was removed in the animated series due to censorship, though Lucky and Anita do mention that Roger did smoke a pipe in the animated series, and was able to quit with the aid of a self-help tape.
- According to Disneystrology, his birthday is May 27.
