Acting legend Harry Morgan, best-known for his role as Colonel Sherman T. Potter on “M*A*S*H” has died. He was 96.
Mr. Morgan was already well-known on the big and small screens by the time he took his full-time role on the medical Korean War drama. He started in TV’s “Dragnet” and the movie “High Noon” as well as dozens of others.
He actually started on M*A*S*H in 1974, guest starring as a crazy General named Bartford Hamilton Steele, in a September 1974 episode. He was so good, that the shows producers brought him back next season to replace McLean Stevenson as the leader of the army hospital. He stared until the end of the show’s run in 1983.
Mr. Morgan won an Emmy in 1980.
Born in Muskegon, Mich., Mr. Morgan started acting while at the University of Chicago. He acted on Broadway and early productions under his birth name, Harry Bratsberg. He changed his name to Harry Morgan in 1942, when he starred in his first film, the acclaimed “To the Shores of Tripoli.”
Mr. Morgan was one of three former “M*A*S*H” stars who acted in the failed spinoff “After MASH.”
Mr. Morgan was married to Barbara Bushman Quine in 1986. His first wife, Eileen Decton, died in 1985, after about 45 years of marriage.
In 1997. his wife accused him of battery, and Mr. Morgan completed a six-month domestic violence program.
Mr. Morgan also appeared in three episodes of “3rd Rock from the Sun” as well as an episode of “The Simpsons.”
Leave a Reply