Where To Watch
See the cast of M*A*S*H in their first ever screen roles
Before they served in the 4077th, they were sculptors, bartenders, gunners and geeks.
Perhaps the M*A*S*H actors were destined to end up in the 4077th. Many of them got their start in war movies or on military shows — both drama and comedy. They were gunners and Marine recruits. One was even a patient in a MASH unit.
You know them best as Hawkeye, Hot Lips, Radar, Potter, Klinger, Henry, B.J. and Father Mulcahy. Now see how they got their start on screens.
1. Alan Alda on The Phil Silvers Show
1958
The Emmy-winner born Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo landed his first role on The Phil Silvers Show, playing a blue-blood pal of Sgt. Bilko in "Bilko the Art Lover." Bilko believes Carlyle, Alda's character, to be a millionaire. Turns out, he has not inherited all those zeroes in his bank account just yet. He's a starving artist making abstract sculptures of women with grapes.
2. Loretta Swit on Mission: Impossible
1970
Jim Phelps (Peter Graves) returns to his hometown to nab a killer preying on his older friends. Swit plays Midge, an upbeat bartender and former friend of Phelps. We highlight this, because, coincidentally, Larry Linville, who played her lover Burns on M*A*S*H, appeared in the previous episode (The Innocent). That same year, Swit appeared in three episodes of Gunsmoke and a couple of Mannix. But you can catch her first ever appearance months earlier on Hawaii Five-O.
3. Gary Burghoff on The Good Guys
1969
The Good Guys remains the forgotten Bob Denver sitcom. Heck, the Gilligan's Island and Dobie Gillis star is probably better remembered for Far Out Space Nuts. In this show, Denver played a co-owner of a diner. Burghoff turned up playing an egghead in "Take a Computer to Lunch." In his next gig, he was already playing Radar — in the 1970 MASH film.
Image: The Everett Collection
4. Harry Morgan in To the Shores of Tripoli
1942
Morgan was working as an actor before World War II. In fact, the Pearl Harbor invasion occurred during the production of this Technicolor war flick. Initially intended to be a Navy nurse romance, the plot and ending were altered to focus on enlisting because of the attack. Morgan played "Mouthy," a recruit in boot camp.
Image: The Everett Collection
5. Jamie Farr in Blackboard Jungle
1955
Jameel Farah was fresh out of school when a talent scout discovered him and cast him the mentally challenged student Santini in the Sidney Poitier film Blackboard Jungle. His acting career was put on hold as he was drafted into the Army. He and Alda would be the only two M*A*S*H actors to have actually served in Korea. He would later appear alongside Andy Griffith and Don Knotts in No Time for Sergeants (1958) before changing his name at the dawn of the 1960s.
Image: The Everett Collection
6. McLean Stevenson on That Girl
1969
After a bit part in The Bing Crosby Special: Making Movies, Stevenson landed his first meaty role, playing a soda pop representative in "My Sister's Keeper." It's an interesting episode, as it serves as a Thomas family reunion, as Danny Thomas, Terre Thomas and Tony Thomas join star Marlo Thomas.
Image: CBS Television Distribution
7. Mike Farrell on McHale's Navy
1963
Long before he was B.J., Farrell was merely "The Gunner" on McHale's Navy. The former Marine next earned more acting stripes on military shows such as Ensign O'Toole, Combat! and Garrison's Gorillas. He was even an astronaut on I Dream of Jeannie.
Image: NBCUniversal Television Distribution
8. William Christopher in Twelve O'Clock High
1965
Though he is just billed as "Patient," Christopher gets a couple lines as he hobbles around hospital beds filled with some notable costars — Beau Bridges and Tom Skerritt.
Image: 20th Century Fox
QUIZ: Can you guess who wrote these letters on M*A*S*H?
Crack the code on letters to Dad, Mildred, Peggy, Sis and Uncle Abdul. TAKE THE QUIZ
16 Comments
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They forgot Wayne Rogers. Wasn't he on Carol Burnett and Friends? Or maybe I'm thinking of Lyle Waggoner. Wayne Rogers was on Fox News.
I wonder if any of the MASH actors were on Murder, She Wrote. Tony Dow from Leave it to Beaver was.
Loretta Swit was almost on Cagney and Lacey, I think.
