Actor, Singer, Major League Baseball Team Owner. Known by many as "The Singing Cowboy," he is best remembered for his songs "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," and his signature theme song, "Back in the Saddle Again" (1941). Born Orvon Grover Autry in Tioga, Texas, and raised in both Achille and Ravia, Oklahoma, he worked as a laborer for the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad in Oklahoma after graduating from high school. According to Hollywood lore, he was discovered by Will Rogers, singing for his own amusement at a telegraph office in Oklahoma. Rogers suggested he go to Hollywood. In 1928, he began singing for a local radio station and within three years, had his own radio show and was making records. His first film was "In Old Santa Fe" (1934), and the following year, he was in a movie serial, "The Phantom Empire" (1935), following which he signed a contract with Republic Pictures. His films in the 1930s and 1940s literally defined the B-Western film, despite cars, airplanes, and other modern devices in them. During World War II, he served as an officer in the Army Air Corps with the Air Transport Command, learning how to fly. Leaving military service in 1946, he returned to making movies, and, during the 1950s, he had his own television show, "The Gene Autry Show." He wrote over 200 songs, including his theme song, "Back in the Saddle Again." A shrewd businessman, Autry invested wisely and retired from show business in the late 1950s, a self-made millionaire. His gasoline company, Flying A, takes its name from his interest in flying and the letter of his last name, Autry. In 1983, he bought the California Angels baseball team. In the late 1980s (it opened in 1988), he built a museum to showcase his personal collection of authentic western memorabilia called the "Autry Museum of the American West," located at Griffith Park in Los Feliz, Los Angeles. He published his autobiography, "Back in the Saddle Again," in 1978. He has five stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for Recording, Movies, Television, Radio, and Live Theater. He died of cancer in Studio City, California, in 1998. He once stated, "I'm not a good actor, a good rider, or a particularly good singer, but they seem to like what I do, so I'll keep on doing it as long as they want."