Mixing personal and professional matters is never advisable. But sometimes, the two meet head-on in an unavoidable fiasco. Try as you might, when things affect your home life, it's hard not to bring them into your job space. You can do everything you want to compartmentalize, but ultimately, your barriers might not withstand life's trials and tribulations. To truly give yourself to your work means giving your whole self, warts and all, which makes it tricky when your life is falling apart.

This is even more troublesome with a career in the arts. For folks lucky enough to create for a living, being emotionally open is part of the job. We connect with pieces of art and media that show us vulnerability or reliability. So, artists of all kinds have to be in touch with their feelings. If an actor has true range, it's because they've lived a dynamic life with plenty of passion and sentiment they can tap into. But that raw, intense availability can make for some tough situations when life gives you lemons.

As Radar, Gary Burghoff was M*A*S*H's soft underbelly. The guy had a teddy bear in the chaos of the Korean War. He brought perfect balance to the negativity of the 4077th's situation, and was often the necessary reprieve from the horrors of Army life. 

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But it became increasingly difficult for Burghoff to portray Radar's innocence and sensitivity. That's because Burghoff's real-life situation changed, and he couldn't help but bring those personal matters onto the set with him each day. 

According to his 2009 book To M*A*S*H and Back, Burghoff fell out with the show as his first marriage fell apart. The aftermath of the relationship left the actor in a deep depression, and the blues began affecting his work. He'd show up with headaches and a sore body, with fatigue setting in amongst the emotional turmoil of his impending divorce.

Worse, these difficulties made him hard to work with, and Burghoff admitted to feuding with his co-stars, specifically Alan Alda.

"My frequent snits and outbursts on the set were inevitably followed by guilt feelings over what I'd just said or done," he wrote. 

Luckily, Gary Burghoff's legacy is in all the great memories he left us on M*A*S*H, not the personal hardships that threatened to overshadow them.