From what I understand, his performance in that role is what led the producers to consider him when McLean Stevenson retired.
One of my favorite Harry Morgan roles was in a movie that is hard to find nowadays, The Flim-Flam Man, with George C. Scott. Scott plays a seasoned con man who is almost outwitted by Morgan’s sheriff until newcomer Michael Sarazin (in his movie debut) turns the tables. Well acted all around, and it’s disappointing to find it unavailable in any form online. Watch it if you can find it.
There was a scene in which Steele wanted to scout out a new location for the MASH unit, closer to the front. He took Hawkeye and Frank with him. They started to get shot at by a sniper. Hawkeye and Frank got out of the jeep to take cover. Steele stayed in the jeep, unfazed by the sniper fire.
Steele: We could stay here and scout the location, or we could go back and have lunch.
H&F: Lunch!
Steele: Yeah, I’m getting pretty hungry.
Am I the only person in the universe that remembers that scene?
Yet, from Wikipedia:
I was very sad when I read about that when it happened.
I remember this as well, and I haven’t been able to watch a single MASH episode that features Col. Potter since without having it in the back of my mind.
Everyone makes mistakes, but sometimes they color other people’s judgements about you for years afterwards.
That said, RIP Harry.
Wow this is sad news. If you want to see Harry Morgan play a great “heavy”, check out The Big Clock starring Ray Milland.
I always enjoyed his work. He leaves quite a legacy.
Bri2k
How very odd. Images of Harry Morgan have been popping into my head all week. I attached no significance to this, other than fond memories, as I had mistakenly assumed him to have passed on long ago.
Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen, Colonel Potter.
Col. Potter is one of the greatest and best written television characters in TV history. Period.
He once said he would have played that character forever. I don’t blame him.
Wasn’t that Steele with three Es, not all in a row??
On one of the MAS*H reunion shows (where the stars got together and chatted, not a reunion in the sense of reprising their roles), Gary Burghoff said that nobody could keep a straight face in that episode. They all knew Morgan from Dragnet and dozens of other second-banana/straight-man roles and had no idea how naturally hysterical he could be, especially playing the over-the-top nutjob general. They showed several takes of the scene where Morgan/Steele reviews the troops and Burghoff and Stevenson especially kept losing it.
He was an early ‘old timer’ to become active in AIDS charities. One of his sons died of the disease.
I’d always assumed he was Jewish. (I knew Sherman Potter wasn’t, and obviously it didn’t make any difference, but just thought he was.) I suppose I thought so because his birth name was Bratsberg, but he was in fact Norwegian.
In any case, one of the most enviable careers you can imagine: he worked with everybody, only stopped working when he wanted to, and only gained people 4 points on the Celebrity Death Pool. He was basically a better known version of Charles Lane (who actually cost people a point or two if they named him on the CDP).
:’( I’ll always remember him first as Officer Bill Gannon, Joe Friday’s partner in Dragnet.
Did anybody have Michael Sarazin in he dead pool? He died earlier this year as well.
He was Taylor Barton in Support Your Local Gunfighter.
This makes me very sad. We just watched “Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen” the other night, and I always get so choked up when Col. Potter gets choked up before riding away on his horse.
Mr. Morgan was a fine actor.
Not now Marjorie, I’m inspecting the troops!
Oh shit, I think I killed him!
I’ve done this before: a couple of weeks ago I was searching YouTube for episodes of Gomer Pyle where the little Jewish guy is selling Gomer cheap watches or the suit that fell apart, out of the trunk of his car. That week the actor died.
In 1993, I went on a reading jag of everything I hadn’t yet read by Anthony Burgess, finishing up right before Thanksgiving. Guess who died that week?
Out of nowhere, I learned about Susan Travers, the only woman member of the French Foreign Legion. So I sought out and read her memoir “Tomorrow to be Brave.” Yup, she keeled over right then.
And last weekend I was watching Dragonwyk with Vincent Price and Gene Tierny. There was Henry Morgan. “Hey, there’s Henry Morgan! You know he’s still alive?” But not for long.
Today I noticed that it’s Eli Wallach’s birthday. “Wow, and he’s still alive!”
Look out: that was the me, the angel of death.
Then you will go through life quite confused. Harry Morgan = Sherman Potter.
I also was thrilled to see him still going well in Third Rock From The Sun. That was over ten years ago, now.
But 96! He sure had a good run.
Me too, and in “December Bride,” the show Pete and Gladys was spun off from. When he was on the new Dragnet I was already familiar with him.
One of the first times I remember seeing him was in “The Ox-Bow Incident”, opposite Henry Fonda.
He did quite a few westerns, and was very good in the genre.
As for MASH, his General Steele was one of my favorite characters of all time.
“There are no atheists in foxholes!”
and
“The Irish were rotten indian fighters!”
RIP Harry. Thanks for the memories.
Quit reading my posts!