He ended up joining Montreal’s Negro Theatre Guild and ultimately won the Canadian Drama Festival acting award in 1939.

Despite the award, finding a legitimate acting job was difficult, which led to him working as a toolmaker and machinist for 10 years at Pratt & Whitney in Longueuil, Quebec in order to survive.

He went on to star on American television in programs such as The Nurses, Naked City, The Wild Wild West, Route 66 and Star Trek but first gained widespread notoriety in 1968 for his role as neurosurgeon Dr. Harry Miles in the prime time soap opera Peyton Place,[5] seen as a breakthrough white-collar role for a black actor.

He also appeared in the made-for-television films The Old Man Who Cried Wolf (1970), Ring of Passion (1978), Angel Dusted (1981), and the miniseries Roots: The Next Generations (1979).

[1] Rodriguez also had an extensive career on the stage and worked with several prominent African-American actors, such as Al Freeman Jr., Brock Peters, Moses Gunn, William Marshall, Raymond St. Jacques, Lincoln Kilpatrick, Rosetta LeNoire, Otis Young and Tony nominee Diana Sands.

Of the many film trailers Rodriguez narrated over several decades, notable titles include The Exorcist (1973), Shivers (1975), Taxi Driver (1976), The Omen (1976), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), The China Syndrome (1979), The Black Hole (1979), 1941 (1979), Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979), The Amityville Horror (1979), Psycho II (1983), Videodrome (1983), Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983), Children of the Corn (1984), Brazil (1985), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), Spaceballs (1987), Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), Dead Ringers (1988), Coming to America (1988), Scrooged (1988), A Fish Called Wanda (1988), Poltergeist III (1988), Pet Sematary (1989), Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989), National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), Jetsons: The Movie (1990), Alien 3 (1992), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992), and Wayne's World (1992).

[citation needed] Rodriguez played numerous roles, including detectives, lawyers, politicians, ambassadors, and doctors.