November 1953 – July 17, 2022

Russel Floyd Vogel Jr, 68 passed away July 17, 2022 in Conroe, Texas. He was born November 7, 1953 to parents, Iris Eileen Phippen and Russel Floyd Vogel Sr. in Detroit, Michigan.

Known as Rusty by family, he was a successful Actor, lifelong comedian, and an absolute adventurer. Early in life Russ found great joy in making people laugh. With his father gone in the Navy he found his curious ways getting him into trouble with his friends. It was then he found an audition for a primetime Detroit weekend special needing a 15 year old male, at which he got the part and perused his new career. Highschool fame got the better of him, so he dropped out and moved downtown LA. He made many production efforts pursuing his next active acting role where he made friends with Phyllis Diller, Tony Camillo, and Dana Owens. He traveled frequently from his home in Detroit to New Jersey for friends and then to Los Angeles and Las Vegas for auditions yearly. When his acting career settled down, he decided to go into his father’s roots of engineering and created amazing "Crazy Characters". These characters stood 12 to 35 foot tall, as was the one in the Macy Day Parade 1990. He did many state fairs, festivals, dealership conventions and small children's house parties. His life was all about entertaining people. In the early 90's Russ found his first clients as an Acting Manager for three child actors. Russ then moved to Texas in year 2000 for family, both his sister Kimberly Vogel and his dad Sr. He found himself reigniting the Crazy Character business and did advertising for 6 different mattress companies and doing several on air commercials for them. Russ lived his last 15 years on a houseboat on Lake Conroe where he met many new friends and love the style of life.