Actor Larry Linville found his perfect role in 1972 in one of television's greatest comedy series, "M.A.S.H." Somehow he was picture perfect as disagreeable surgeon Maj. Frank Burns, butt of many jibes from the show's two stars.
This role was used by the show's writer to satirize some aspects of military life. Linville filled this role until 1977, when he left to pursue other interests and was replaced by a new Major, stuffy but able Boston brahmin Charles Emerson Winchester.
Linville had studied at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and first worked in live theater doing Shakespeare and appearing on Broadway and elsewhere.
His initial appearance on TV was in "Judd for the Defense." He also had appearances in such shows as "Mannix,"Mission Impossible," "The F.B.I.," "Bonanza," "Night Court," and "Murder, She Wrote," usually playing a bad guy.
Some of Linville's funniest scenes on "M.A.S.H." involved his seamy, illicit romance with W.A.C. officer Hotlips Houlihan. Always the pair would be found out and embarrassed by the show's central character, Dr. Hawkeye Pierce.
At age 60, Linville had surgery that removed a part of a lung. Two years later, in 2000, he died of cancer.
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