Once more, the heart grows heavy. Once more, the flag flies at
half-mast over the 4077th. Larry Linville has shipped out -- yet again.
This time, to be replaced by no one. His legacy: dozens of home movies
(episodes, to his followers), a filmed record of Frank Burns' days and
nights in a place he never wanted to be, but one we never wanted him to
leave; never dreaming that the pleasure his portrayal of such a major
nuisance gave to so many would, against all odds and expectations,
continue from one century into the next.
Would that you could have one more, one last curtain call, dear
Larry, so that you might go on your way to the accompaniment of applause
from the multitude of those who not only appreciated but cherished your
work.
Rest in the peace that you deserve. The peace you have most assuredly
earned.
Love,
Larry Gelbart
Larry Linville, TV Actor Who Played Officious Major of M*A*S*H, Dies at
60
By DOUGLAS MARTIN, NY Times
NEW YORK -- Larry Linville, whose comically mendacious character Maj.
Frank Burns made other Army doctors' lives miserable for the first five
seasons of the long-running television hit "MASH," died on
Monday at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan. He was 60
and lived in Manhattan.
His manager, Barry M. Greenberg, told The Associated Press that Linville
died of complications of pneumonia; he had part of a lung removed in 1998
after a malignant tumor was discovered.
Burns was one of the "MASH" regulars when the show began on CBS
in September 1972, and his officious, tattletale, whiny personality
quickly came to embody the hypocrisy, particularly that of the military,
that the show strove to satirize. After receiving orders to report
stateside, Burns was replaced by Maj. Charles Emerson Winchester, a more
serious character, not to mention a better doctor.
"MASH," at times with comedy and at times with sharp commentary,
detailed life at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. Its ensemble
cast also included Alan Alda, Gary Burghoff, Loretta Swit and Wayne
Rogers.
The character played by Linville brought a slapstick exube2ance to the
show, which has been broadcast and re-broadcast for decades around the
world in scores of languages.
The repeated adulterous rendezvous between Hot Lips Houlihan and Frank
Burns in her tent were legendary. Then there was the time that Burns,
variously known as "Ferret Face" or "the Lipless
Wonder," encountered a group of Koreans learning English. They had
been taught to chant, "Frank Burns eats worms!"
As word about Linville's death reverberated around the many Internet sites
devoted to "MASH," fans spoke of a deeper resonance than the
slapstick antics. On a British web page, www.mash4077.co.uk.,
Christian Anderson wrote: "In his role as Frank Burns, Larry Linville
was probably the least understood actor on 'MASH.' People equated his
character with the person and thus thought that since he played such an
idiot he was therefore one as well. In fact, to play such a role is doubly
difficult and to make it come off as well as Linville did was
masterful."
Linville was a third-generation Californian born in Ojai, who began a
lifelong hobby of designing and flying gliders as a child. He majored in
engineering at the University of Colorado, where he performed with a local
civic theater group, starring in "The Glass Menagerie." He was
one of three Americans among 300 applicants selected for a scholarship to
the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London.
He returned to California, where he acted in repertory theater for eight
years. He played Iago in "Othello" in San Diego's Shakespeare
Festival and appeared with Ingrid Bergman in "More Stately
Mansions" in Los Angeles and on Broadway.
He had numerous roles on television shows ranging from "Marcus Welby,
MD." to "Bonanza."
After "MASH," Linville was a guest star on many television
series and had roles in "Grandpa Goes to Washington,"
"Checking In" and "Paper Dolls."
Among his movies were "Rock 'n' Roll High School Forever" in
1990 and "Fatal Pursuit" in 1994. Along with other members of
the "MASH" cast, he appeared in television commercials for IBM
in the late 1980s.
Linville, who is survived by his wife, Deborah, attended a ceremony three
years ago in South Korea at the closing of the mobile hospital that
inspired the television show and the novel and movie that preceded it. He
said it was humbling to think of the real doctors who sometimes operated
on more than 150 patients in a day.
"We were like a plastic representation of the real people," he
said.
Hopefully these two will be alive for the next 60 years. |