His huge closet of women’s clothing certainly made Corporal Maxwell Klinger a standout among the personnel in the hit series M*A*S*H, but it also made actor Jamie Farr a star.
The military drama set during the Korean War followed a team of medical and support staff at the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital and was led by Alan Alda’s Captain Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce.
However, it was Klinger’s hilarious wardrobe choices, which he used to try to get himself discharged from the army, that quickly gained popularity with viewers… although this wasn’t originally the plan.
Jamie, 89, admits he was first hired to appear in only one episode of the popular war satire. “I got this call from my agent: ‘They’re doing the TV series at 20th Century Fox. It pays $250 for the day,’” he told Closer.
“They took me over to the dressing trailer and there was a women’s Army Corps uniform hanging there… I literally needed to pay rent and buy food, so I put them on. When they took me out to the stage, the whole crew started laughing.”
FLAMBOYANT DRESSER
While Klinger’s dresses started off as a one-episode gag, everyone knew they had struck gold.
Throughout the seasons, Klinger became a fully fleshed-out character that struck a chord with a lot of viewers.
Jamie, who was drafted into the army in 1957, was one of two cast members who actually served in Korea, the other being Alan, and he admits it wasn’t unheard of for men to try what they could to be discharged.
“I never met anybody who wore a dress, but there was a guy in boot camp who used to jump out the window to try to break his leg,” says Jamie.
“You know, the idea for Klinger came from [comedian] Lenny Bruce. [While serving in the navy in WWII] he showed up wearing a dress. He got thrown in the brig, I got 11 years on a TV series.” And those 11 years were some of the best years of his life, with the actor admitting that the cast of MASH was a “dream”.
“I’ve done a lot of shows where the actors are never that friendly with one another,” he added.
“For our series, they built a special little area for us away from where they set up the cameras. We would sit in there and run lines back and forth until we had those scenes crackling. It was a perfect dream cast.”
Sadly, over the years many members of the cast have passed away including Harry Morgan (who played Colonel Potter), Larry Linville (Major Burns), Wayne Rogers (Captain Trapper John), just to name a few.
“These were wonderful souls who became friends,” Jamie recalled.
Following his success on MASH, the actor went on to star in The Cannonball Run and Scrooged, but he still credits his greatest achievement as his marriage to wife Joy.
In fact, the pair, who share two children and one grandson together, recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.
Jamie admits that the secret to having such a long and happy marriage is to simply agree with your wife.
“Just say yes,” he says. “It’s not easy, and we had a lot of tough times when I was out of work. But when you have arguments, you know you’ll never win, so just give in.”
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