Patrick Adiarte played the character Ho-Jon in the CBS-TV version of M*A*S*H*.
The Ho-Jon character was a houseboy in the 1970 film M*A*S*H*, where he was played by Kim Atwood, and the television series M*A*S*H, where he was played by Patrick Adiarte. It has been said that the name Ho-Jon is not actually Korean.
Character description[]
Ho-Jon was the Korean houseboy working at MASH 4077th under Hawkeye Pierce and Trapper John McIntyre. He was accepted at Hawkeye's old college, and the doctors tried to raise funds for him in the pilot episode. Later in the show, while he was still working, Ho-Jon also stole Hawkeye's poker winnings to bribe the border guards so that his family would be able to escape to South. However, in the pilot, after receiving the acceptance letter, he left the scene to tell his parents, who presumably lived nearby.
Kim Atwood played the Ho Jon character in the 1970 Robert Altman film version of MASH.
The character was dropped at the end of the show's first season, presumably as the character left for America as a medical student as was implied in the pilot.
Ho-Jon in the M*A*S*H* film[]
In the movie, Ho-Jon was forcibly conscripted into the army of the Republic of Korea and Hawkeye drove him to the induction center. The Korean doctor who examined Ho-Jon discovered that Hawkeye had given him drugs to induce hypertension and tachycardia (so he would fail any induction physical). The last that was seen of Ho-Jon, he was being lead away by South Korean soldiers while the doctor told Hawkeye he saw through the trick.
In the screenplay, Ho-Jon was wounded and sent to the 4077th. However, his surgery was unsuccessful and he died. The final film omitted this storyline, although a scene showing Ho-Jon in the operating room remained with overdubbed dialogue (Hot Lips: "That man's a prisoner of war, Doctor." Trapper: "So are you, Sweetheart; you just don't know it.") and a scene showing a jeep driving off with the deceased Ho-Jon, causing a brief pause in the poker game.
In the book M*A*S*H*: A Novel About Three Army Doctors (1968)[]
In the Novel, Ho-Jon was conscripted into the army and did return as a casualty but lived. Hawkeye then wrote to his old college who accepted Ho-Jon as a student, just as in the TV show. In the novel, they raised money for Ho-Jon by having Trapper John pose as Jesus, complete with a cross mounted on a jeep or hanging from a helicopter, and selling autographed photos. When Trapper was posing on the cross, he was usually drunk.
In the M*A*S*H TV series (1972)[]
In the CBS-TV Series, Hawkeye and Trapper auctioned off a trip to Tokyo with a nurse as the prize to raise money to send Ho-Jon to the states to go to Hawkeye's old medical school. Because the nurse in question was engaged, Hawkeye rigged the drawing so that Father Mulcahy won the prize (his ticket was taped to the bottom of the jar, so the nurse was easily able to pick it out.) The auction was a success and raised more than enough money (Pilot).
In I Hate a Mystery, after Hawkeye was accused of being responsible for a rash of thefts, Ho-Jon turned out to be the real culprit. He said he stole the items to sell for money to bribe the border guards so he could get the rest of his family out of North Korea (as well as swiping $300 of Hawkeye's poker winnings). The victims of theft allowed him to keep the items.
In The Moose, Ho-Jon helps Hawkeye and Trapper track down the head of the family of a young Korean girl who is serving as a "moose" (in this case, a personal bond-servant) - first to a soldier, then to Hawkeye when he wins her in a poker game - in order to bargain for her freedom. After being taught how to be her own person by the M*A*S*H staff, she asserts her independence and breaks away from her family to enter a convent school.
Ho-Jon does not return for the second season. It is assumed that he went to America to live with Hawkeye's father while attending college.