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Farewell, Harry Morgan
Dec. 7th, 2011 01:50 pmTime was, when you said "Potter," you didn't mean Harry.
Although you did.
Or -- okay, it's not that complicated. Harry Morgan, one of America's finest character actors, passed away this morning at the age of 96. He was in a heck of a lot of movies and TV shows, and he was excellent in all of them -- The Ox-Box Incident, the judge in Inherit the Wind, Joe Friday's partner Bill Gannon on Dragnet. Heck, I remember an episode of The Partridge Family where he played a man trying to defraud them by pleading whiplash from a rear-end collission.
Without question, though, he's best known as Col. Sherman T. Potter from M*A*S*H (and AfterM*A*S*H).
For years, M*A*S*H was the best show on television by an order of magnitude, and the chemistry of the cast had a lot to do with that. But sometimes that chemistry changed. MacLean Stevenson's Col. Henry Blake was a good doctor thrust into a command situation; Larry Linville's Maj. Frank Burns was a bad doctor, someone who never should have been allowed near command or medicine, but he was conniving and ambitious (hah! Slytherin).
But when Stevenson left the show, Col. Potter came in and changed everything.
He was all military all the time... except that he understood the enlisted men. He valued results over protocol. And he valued life most of all. He was a great doctor, right up there with Hawkeye and B.J. and Winchester. He didn't run the tightest ship of all time, because he knew where to leave things loose -- and, heck, it was under his command that Klinger, of all people, became true regular army.
Such chemistry.
And we loved him, and we loved his wife Mildred and his horse Sophie, and he was the best commander you could possibly have for a mobile army surgical hospital, and I'm tearing up thinking about it because he was so damn good and I loved that show.
Rest well, Mr. Morgan, and thank you for the many years of fine performances. And for making us love an old Army doctor.
Although you did.
Or -- okay, it's not that complicated. Harry Morgan, one of America's finest character actors, passed away this morning at the age of 96. He was in a heck of a lot of movies and TV shows, and he was excellent in all of them -- The Ox-Box Incident, the judge in Inherit the Wind, Joe Friday's partner Bill Gannon on Dragnet. Heck, I remember an episode of The Partridge Family where he played a man trying to defraud them by pleading whiplash from a rear-end collission.
Without question, though, he's best known as Col. Sherman T. Potter from M*A*S*H (and AfterM*A*S*H).
For years, M*A*S*H was the best show on television by an order of magnitude, and the chemistry of the cast had a lot to do with that. But sometimes that chemistry changed. MacLean Stevenson's Col. Henry Blake was a good doctor thrust into a command situation; Larry Linville's Maj. Frank Burns was a bad doctor, someone who never should have been allowed near command or medicine, but he was conniving and ambitious (hah! Slytherin).
But when Stevenson left the show, Col. Potter came in and changed everything.
He was all military all the time... except that he understood the enlisted men. He valued results over protocol. And he valued life most of all. He was a great doctor, right up there with Hawkeye and B.J. and Winchester. He didn't run the tightest ship of all time, because he knew where to leave things loose -- and, heck, it was under his command that Klinger, of all people, became true regular army.
Such chemistry.
And we loved him, and we loved his wife Mildred and his horse Sophie, and he was the best commander you could possibly have for a mobile army surgical hospital, and I'm tearing up thinking about it because he was so damn good and I loved that show.
Rest well, Mr. Morgan, and thank you for the many years of fine performances. And for making us love an old Army doctor.
