Actor Morgan White, who for 15 years was better known to Hawaii schoolchildren as the TV character "Pogo Poge," died yesterday in Utah where he had retired. He was 86.

He had retired to farm in Seviere, Utah, after he retired from Hawaii television in 1982, said his son, Steve White.

From 1967 to 1982, White was an island TV fixture on the after-school program — "Checkers & Pogo."

Checkers was portrayed by three actors — Jim Hawthorne, former Star-Bulletin columnist Dave Donnelly and Jim Demarest — during the 15 years the show aired on KGMB-TV Channel 9.

White also wrote and produced several episodes of the children’s TV series. It is considered the longest running, most successful children’s television show in Hawaii.

When Demarest left the show in 1979, White remained as the lone host until it ended in 1982. Both Demarest and Hawthorne died in 2007; Donnelly died in 2004.

In 1999, KGMB  televised an hour special, "Checkers & Pogo Remembered" which featured songs from the series, trivia, and interviews with all the original cast members, including White, Donnelly, Hawthorne and Demarest.

White also appeared in several episodes of the original "Hawaii Five-0" series, portraying the attorney general in six of them.