Great Television Characters

#2

Frank Burns

played by Larry Linville

in M*A*S*H

What makes a great television character? nobility, sense of what is right, open minded and tolerant of others, well loved by the other characters on the show, maybe that does make a great character but Major Frank Burns posses none of these qualities.

The character of Frank Burns did originally appear in the novel written by Richard Hooker (where he was a Captain) where the character was borderline incompetent and egotistical. In the 1970 film version by Robert Altman he was promoted to Major and played by Robert Duvall and possessed many of the "qualities" of his book counterpart.

Larry Linville played the role in the M*A*S*H series from the beginning in 1972 until 1977, whilst the character Linville played was at times borderline incomptent, he could also be described as a pompous twit who was VERY obsessed with military order.

The character of Frank Burns was said to be the exact opposite of Linville in real life, who was considered friendly and courteous thought reportedly Linville could be high-strung, a similiar trait he shares with Frank. He was said to have based Frank on, "Every idiot I've ever known."

Frank was often at odds with Hawkeye (Alan Alda) and Trapper (Wayne Rogers) and later B.J (Mike Farrell) due to his belief in military disipline and unquestioning patriotism. In the early years of the show he and Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan (Loretta Swit) are a secret couple., their relationship often consisted of excessive sentimentality and sappy nicknames. Frank is married and a wife back in America when all this is happening.

Burns and Houlihan would later have a falling out and split up, she married Donald Penobscot, another career military office. Larry Linville's last appearance in the show was the final episode of the fifth season in which Margaret and Penobscot got married. The character was written out at his request, Linville had commented that there was actually a very dark aura hovering over Frank, that Frank was not all that stable, yet still operating on patients and felt the character of Frank Burns had gone as far as it possibly could. Linville and Frank Burns left the series off screen.

Linville still worked occasionaly but never matching the success of M*A*S*H. He died aged 60 in 2000 of lung cancer.