Larry Linville, the actor who brought the snivelling weaseltry of Major Frank Burns to life, died from complications of pneumonia at age 60 last night.
IMHO, Frank Burns was the character that held the show together (followed closely by MacLean Stevenson’s Col. Blake). The show nosedived after he left.
“It’s nice to be nice to the nice,” as Frank might have said.
Swirly Thing alert!!
I always felt kind of sorry for him. He was excellent as Burns, way better than Robert Duvall in the movie.
Because his character was such an unlikeable ninny, however, it really worked against him, I think. He never did much else of any import in Hollywood.
Wonder if he, Leonard Nimoy and the guy who played Doctor Smith ever had any drunken pity-parties at some Sunset Strip bar …?
“We are here for this – to make mistakes and to correct ourselves, to withstand the blows and to hand them out.” Primo Levi
“Who is this?..Mommy?..Mommy who?..OOOHHH, MY Mommy! Hi Mommy!”
Frank was a gem, to be sure, and I have the impression that LL was a generally decent person IRL, in spite of having to work his way through alcoholism and years of cancer illness. Sorry to see him go.
P.S. No offense to David Ogden Stiers personally, but Maj. Winchester was just incredibly annoying 95% of the time.
MST3K: Best lil’ puppet show on the planet.
I always liked Larry Linville’s performance as Burns. The character was always beliveable and was a good foil for Hawkeye & Trapper.
Rest in peace Ferret Face.
Zev Steinhardt
Y’know, I always liked the Winchester character better’n Burns.
I thought the upitty Boston snob brought new life to the Hawkeye-B.J. relationship.
Hmmmm … if he was just 60 now, that would mean he was only about 30 when the show went on the air. Younger, in fact, than both Alda and Rogers. What an odd thought.
Go to a vet that’s also a taxidermist. Either way, you’ll get your cat back. Sig courtesy of the amazing WallyM7
So long, Ferret Face… 
Wrong thinking is punished, right thinking is just as swiftly rewarded. You’ll find it an effective combination.
Oh, this is sad news! Thanks for letting us know.
Let’s commemorate Larry Linville and his character by sharing favorite Frank Burns MAS*H moments.
I’ll go first:
In one of the numerous “practical joke” episodes (the one with Sidney Freedman), we find out that BJ is the mystery practical joker. Sidney finds him one morning filling a air-raid shelter dugout hole thingie with water. BJ asks Sidney to yell “AIR RAID!!” and when he does, Frank comes running out of the Swamp, hysterically yelling “AIR RAID! AIR RAID! AIR RAAAAAID!” He trips over the sandbags around the hole and falls into the muddy water. He comes up sputtering. A totally Frank Burns moment.
Now that I think of it, Larry Linville was a great physical comic. I think it was the mannerisms that made the character.
“Frank Burns eats worms.” - Hawkeye Pierce, teachiing the Korean locals English. Leading up to the line already cited: “You tell 'em ferret face.”
Thanks for the laughs.
“Smithers, release the hounds.” -C. Montgomery Burns
I read his obit in the paper today. It said that he had cancer, and died at Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, here in Flint.
Regardless, he was funny as hell as Frank Burns, and it’s a damn shame to lose him. He’ll be missed.
Cristi, Slayer of Peeps
I made my husband join a bridge club. He jumps next Tuesday.
(title & sig courtesy of UncleBeer and WallyM7!)
Cold as this may seem,it IS kinda fitting.
Remember when Hawkeye was teaching the Koreans to speak English? One phrase he taught them was “Frank Burns eats worms!”.How appropriate!
Rich “G7SUBS”
[QUOTE]
Originally posted by Milossarian:
**I always felt kind of sorry for him. He was excellent as Burns, way better than Robert Duvall in the movie.
Because his character was such an unlikeable ninny, however, it really worked against him, I think. He never did much else of any import in Hollywood.
to be fair though, robert duvall’s character wasn’t really all that close to LL’s. in the movie frank burns wasn’t as ninny-like, and was more religious. (taught the korean children to read from the bible)
one of my favourites, and really the only one i can think of right now, is the one he wasn’t really even shown in…
i love the part where they’re in the colonel’s office and he’s telling them the story of where frank was after he disappeared…
went to tokyo, kept seeing hot lips everywhere, attacked a general…then, while they’re all laughing…“but wait, get this, they’re sending him home”…
“so long ferret-face!”
<removes hat>
thanks for the good times
Cecil said it. I believe it. That settles it.
It was always too bad that he left before the show allowed its minor characters to develop more. Loretta Swit hung in and as a result, Major Houlihan managed to change considerably from the chronically cranky sexual partner of Maj. Burns to the somewhat more fragile commanding nurse who couldn’t allow herself to show weakness and didn’t know how to deal with the short-timers she was forced to work with. What made Winchester a better character was that he was allowed to show more of himself (e.g. the episode where he helps the now one-handed piano player to recover a sense of self worth) than Frank ever was.
In some respects, the growth of the show in later years can, I think, be attributed to the loss of Larry Linville and the others who felt they wanted more than the show offered. Larry Linville was a damn good actor (much better than Wayne Rogers) and deserved more from the show.