A group photo of MASH personnel. Here they are posing for a souvenir photo for General Douglas MacArthur who is scheduled to visit the camp. The scene is from Season 3 "Big Mac".
M*A*S*H was an ensemble show built around its main cast of up to 8 actors playing the roles of the key staff of the 4077th MASH. Over the years, the series endured many changes in its main cast as some members left and were replaced by others.
Supporting the main cast was a large recurring cast who played various doctors, nurses, supporting staff, patients and civilians. Many of these recurring characters became highly recognizable and an important ingredient in the atmosphere of the MASH as a close knit military community. Also notable was the appearance of many guest stars playing one-off roles. Some of these were already established actors while others were young aspirants at the beginning of their careers. Many young actors who had their first break with M*A*S*H would go on to make significant contributions in film and television elsewhere.
Main characters[]
Note: Years in parenthesis mark when the character appeared on the show; those without years were on the show for the entire series.
- Alan Alda as Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce
- Gary Burghoff as Corporal Walter Eugene "Radar" O'Reilly (1972–1979) *
- William Christopher as 1st Lieutenant/Captain John Patrick Francis Mulcahy
- Jamie Farr as Corporal/Sgt. Maxwell Q. Klinger
- Mike Farrell as Captain B.J. Hunnicutt (1975–1983)
- Larry Linville as Major Franklin Delano/Marion Burns (1972–1977)
- Harry Morgan as Colonel Sherman T. Potter (1975–1983)
- Wayne Rogers as Captain John Francis Xavier "Trapper" McIntyre (1972–1975)
- McLean Stevenson as Lt. Colonel Henry Braymore Blake (1972–1975)
- David Ogden Stiers as Major Charles Emerson Winchester III (1977–1983)
- Loretta Swit as Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan
The TV series drew most of its main characters from the 1970 film of the same name however new actors were used except for Gary Burghoff who reprised his role as Radar. Klinger, Potter and Winchester were new characters who did not exist in the 1970 film while the roles of Hawkeye and Trapper were reversed - in the film, Trapper was a chest specialist and Chief Surgeon instead of Hawkeye.
Loretta Swit as Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan, and Alan Alda as Hawkeye Pierce are the only two actors who appear both in the first episode and the last episode. Their two characters, along with Father Mulcahy, all appear in both episodes; however, Mulcahy was played by George Morgan in the pilot only, and William Christopher for the rest of the series. Only Alan Alda was present in every episode of the series. The Season 4 episode Hawkeye consists of Hawkeye doing a monologue while in the home of a Korean family. He speaks almost without stopping in order to avoid falling asleep with a concussion. No other main cast character appears.
Whenever a character left the series, the producers experimented by filling the gap with a character who was wholly dissimilar from his predecessor:
- Trapper, every bit as much a womanizer and prankster as Hawkeye, was replaced by B.J. Hunnicutt, a devoted family man who tended to take life in stride (though he had a knack for practical jokes).
- Henry Blake, a buffoonish but likable and friendly draftee, a competent surgeon but inept as a military commander, was replaced by Colonel Potter, a career soldier who understood the rule book better than anyone else but still earned a great deal of respect from the draftee doctors of the 4077th.
- Frank Burns, an almost incompetent doctor and rather unintelligent person in general, but fiercely loyal to the military, was replaced by draftee Major Winchester, who is as skilled a surgeon than Hawkeye, if not better, but frequently outwits the other doctors as well as showing more humanity than they give him credit for having.
- Radar began the series as a wise-to-the-ways-of-the-Army-and-the-world teenage boy who was forced to become a man by the war (the way the character was portrayed in the book and feature film), became over time a pure and innocent midwestern youngster with an unflappable ability to keep the M*A*S*H running like a well-oiled machine. This incarnation was replaced (in his job function) with Maxwell Klinger, who was already well known to lie and scheme on a daily basis and who was the epitome of disorder, but learned to handle the day-to-day affairs of the unit tolerably well, though never up to the standard set by Radar.
Unlike many other series where characters that left the show are never referred to again, Henry Blake, Trapper, Frank Burns and Radar are regularly referred to in the rest of the series. Radar would appear again in the spinoff AfterMASH.
Recurring characters[]
The M*A*S*H series frequently used recurring characters, as either supporting staff or visitors to the 4077th. While they were not given "star" credit, their familiarity to the viewers is an integral ingredient to the success of the show.
- Patrick Adiarte as Ho-Jon (first season).
- Allan Arbus as Major Sidney Theodore Freedman, M.D., a psychiatrist frequently summoned in cases of mental health problems.
- G.W. Bailey as Staff Sgt. Luther Rizzo, the lazy head of the camp's motor pool.
- Sorrell Booke as Brigadier General Barker (first season).
- Timothy Brown as Captain Dr. Oliver Harmon "Spearchucker" Jones (first season).
- Joshua Bryant as Private/Sergeant Jack Scully, a grizzled combat veteran who has a fling with Houlihan.
- Roy Goldman as Corpsman Roy Goldman.
- Odessa Cleveland as Nurse Ginger Ballis.
- Johnny Haymer as Staff Sgt. Zelmo Zale, the supply sergeant.
- Enid Kent as Nurse Bigelow.
- Jeff Maxwell as Pvt. Igor Straminsky, a not terribly bright mess tent assistant and officers' club bartender.
- Linda Meiklejohn as Lt. Leslie Scorch.
- Kellye Nakahara as Nurse Keilani Kellye, the most prominent recurring nurse character below Major Houlihan.
- John Orchard as "Ugly" John (first season), an Australian anesthesiologist.
- Karen Philipp as Lieutenant Maggie "Dish" Schneider (first season).
- Peter Riegert as Igor.
- Marcia Strassman as Nurse Margie Cutler (first season).
- Todd Susman as the P.A. System Announcer (voice only).
- Dennis Troy as various corpsmen/drivers/MPs.
- Frank Pettinger as various corpsmen/drivers.
- Sal Viscuso as the P.A. System Announcer (voice only).
- Loudon Wainwright III as Captain Calvin Spalding (third season only).
- Edward Winter as Lt.Col./Col. Sam Flagg, a borderline mad U.S. intelligence agent.
- G. Wood as Brigadier General Hamilton Hammond (first season).
- Herb Voland as Brigadier General Crandall Clayton.
- Multiple actors (Beeson Carroll, Mike Henry) as Lt. Col. Donald Penobscott
- Multiple actresses (Shizuko Hoshi, Frances Fong, Eileen Saki) as Rosie of Rosie's Bar, a popular eating and drinking establishment close to the camp.
- Multiple actresses as various Nurses - see List of Nurses (more than 70 in all)