Shirley MacLaine is the only living member of the main cast of Around the World in Eighty Days (1956). But that’s not too surprising as there were only four people in the main cast. But of the dozens of stars who had featured cameo roles in the movie, only Glynnis Johns is still alive.
I just re-watched The Aristocrats, which I vaguely remember as being “recent,” and was kind of surprised how many of the comedians–less than half, but a lot of them–are now dead. Mostly from old age, but Robin Williams and Richard Jeni by their own hand. And goddamn Carrot Top is still with us!
What bothered me about that ep is that Potter is too young to win a tontine.
I think Potter said at one time he lied about his age to get into WWI. Meaning he said he was older than he was. Even if he was 18, and entered the service in 1917, that only puts him at 52 at the close of the Korean War. Way too young to be winning a tontine unless you have horrible mortality in your subgroup. Potter should be shocked, not resigned, when he’s the winner at that point.
His age is inconsistent and also unrealistic. When he is introduced, he says he is 51. OK, he was born in 1900 or perhaps 1901.
Harry Morgan was 60 when he began playing the role. Why de-age him so much? Ah, to make him the right age for WW1…which he was supposed to be lying to get in. He could have been born in 1895 and perhaps been the right age to be in the big war. And looked closer to the age Morgan really was.
Note: Later they reveal he is actually 62, Morgan’s real age more or less. This makes him born in 1890…so he turned 15 in 1905, pre-WW1.
His age and history in the Army is all over the place. You can read about it in the Inconsistencies section on this site.
62 is too old, that’s mandatory retirement today for anyone below general.
Alda was 36 when the show started, really too old for the part even then, for someone who should be in his late 20s.
I think the 62 year old age and the other backstory just doesn’t match up. A twentysomething Potter going off to war is going to tell a different story about it. But mostly the MAS*H producers only occasionally cared about the specific years the Korean War actually took place.
Is it implied in the show he was in WW2? I just re-watched it with my wife and didn’t catch it. Or just the book, which are definitely quite different?
Not as far as I remember. The MASH Wiki entry on Hawkeye indicates that the TV version of the character was drafted to serve in Korea after completing his residency in Boston.
The only such implication that I recall is one episode (don’t remember which one), where Frank says something about “the war,” and Hawkeye replies, “Which war, Frank? I’ve been in two.”
I always thought that was a weird line. Nothing else about Hawkeye or his general outlook on the military suggests that he was a WWII vet.
I wonder if that line was in a first season episode; if so, it might suggest that the writers and producers were still evolving the characters, and were using more references to the characters as they existed in the novel.