Vogel made his feature film debut at the age of 12, appearing in the 1968 comedy Yours, Mine and Ours, as one of Lucille Ball’s and Henry Fonda’s brood. He rose to prominence the following year as Lucius McCaslin in the feature film The Reivers, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination as the Best Supporting Actor of 1969.

Having established himself in feature films, Vogel briefly appeared on an episode of Bonanza broadcast on October 6, 1968, entitled “The Real People of Muddy Creek”. Two years later he joined the Bonanza cast, co-starring as Jamie Hunter, an adolescent orphan taken in and eventually adopted by the Cartwrights during the last three seasons of the series.

In addition to his guest-starring roles on episodic television series, Vogel also appeared in lead roles in the Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color films, Menace on the Mountain in 1970 and The Boy from Dead Man’s Bayou in 1971, as well as co-starring in the made-for-television films Born Innocent in 1974 and State Fair in 1976.

In 1978, Vogel left show business and began a life away from the limelight. He formed a rock band and moved to Pittsburgh PA. He was married in 1985 and the couple have two daughters. Vogel lives in the Southern California area and has spent time directing and appearing in church plays, as well as singing in a band.

In 2002, Vogel returned to Bonanza’s locations for the Travel Channel’s TV Road Trip, in which he narrated an account of his visit to the Ponderosa Ranch in Incline Village near Lake Tahoe, Nevada. In 2004 he was featured in an interview in Bonanza Gold magazine. He participated in both the 2005 Bonanza Convention and the 2010 Bonanza Weekend in Liverpool, England. Vogel was featured in an interview published online on 19 January 2017, in which he described how he had been cast for his part on Bonanza.