Roger Lawrence Strunk, later known as Rod Lauren, was born on March 26, 1939, in Fresno, California. When he was three years old, his family moved to Tracy, California, where his father, Larry Strunk, worked as a schoolteacher and later as a switchman for the Southern Pacific Railroad, and his mother was a teacher and church organist.
As a teenager, Roger attended Tracy High School, where he appeared in school plays and played the trombone in the high school band. After graduating in 1957, he began singing in local clubs in Tracy.
A recording executive discovered Rod's unique vocal style and offered him an audition, which he won, securing an RCA recording contract. He took the professional name Rod Lauren and appeared on the Ed Sullivan and Dick Clark variety shows between 1959 and 1960. He had a mild hit with "If I Had a Girl" in 1960, but his singing career declined with the British invasion.
Rod's dark, sulky, greaser-type appearance led to acting jobs on TV and singing work in Vegas and Southern California lounge clubs. He made six films in 1963, including the horror flicks Terrified, Black Zoo, and The Crawling Hand.
After his film career declined, Rod appeared in isolated TV episodes, including Gomer Pyle: USMC and Combat!, before making his last film appearance in Childish Things in 1969. He then moved to the Philippines, where he met Nida Blanca, a rising Filipino film star, and married her in 1979.
Rod functioned as his wife's escort as his own career dissipated. In 2001, his wife Nida was stabbed to death, and Rod was charged with her murder. He managed to resist extradition and returned to the US, where he found employment as a camera operator for the city of Tracy's public-access station.
The pressures of the ongoing investigation took their toll, and Rod ended his life on July 11, 2007, by jumping from a second-floor motel balcony in Tracy. He was 68 years old.
