# R.I.P., 'Father Mulcahy' (William Christopher) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** celebrity-death\ **Created:** [January 1, 2017, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-father-mulcahy-william-christopher/776018 "2017-01-01T02:02:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-father-mulcahy-william-christopher/776018/1 "2017-01-01T02:02:18Z")
[‘MASH’ Actor William Christopher Dies](http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/MASH-Actor-William-Christopher-Dies-409038385.html). William Christopher died in the early hours of this morning. He was 84. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-father-mulcahy-william-christopher/776018/2 "2017-01-01T02:03:37Z")
Boy, death just won’t take a holiday this year. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-father-mulcahy-william-christopher/776018/3 "2017-01-01T02:05:08Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Boy, death just won’t take a holiday this year. Nearly six hours of potential reaping left, on this coast. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-father-mulcahy-william-christopher/776018/4 "2017-01-01T02:11:07Z")
Great role for a talented actor. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-father-mulcahy-william-christopher/776018/5 "2017-01-01T02:31:01Z")
He was on Gomer Pyle too. [https://goo.gl/images/GmU3oo](https://goo.gl/images/GmU3oo) Hogan’s Heroes [https://goo.gl/images/rdyYWT](https://goo.gl/images/rdyYWT) Always a versatile supporting actor on classic tv. He did get type cast after MASH. RIP ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-father-mulcahy-william-christopher/776018/6 "2017-01-01T03:08:58Z")
Jockularity, jockularity. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-father-mulcahy-william-christopher/776018/7 "2017-01-01T03:10:42Z")
So long, Padre. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-father-mulcahy-william-christopher/776018/8 "2017-01-01T03:11:02Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > Jockularity, jockularity. Not so jocular _now_, is it, Padre? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-father-mulcahy-william-christopher/776018/9 "2017-01-01T03:19:28Z")
I am **ACRIMONIOUS**! :smack: :mad: ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-father-mulcahy-william-christopher/776018/10 "2017-01-01T03:28:33Z")
Before his acting career he worked for Lionel answering mail under the name of “Engineer Bill”. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-father-mulcahy-william-christopher/776018/11 "2017-01-01T03:32:22Z")
He owned that part. Forced them to turn it from a bit part to something present in most episodes. Sad to see him go. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-father-mulcahy-william-christopher/776018/12 "2017-01-01T03:57:20Z")
His best line wasn’t even delivered by him: Hawkeye: And now for the moment no-one has been waiting for: the Father Mulcahy sound-alike contest. Radar: It seems that Private Simpson has come down with a case of hepatitis. He’s the most remarkable shade of yellow.\* Crap in a hat! (Oh, sorry, father!) \ ***Private _Simpson_? Shade of yellow? In 1977? I’m spooked.** ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-father-mulcahy-william-christopher/776018/13 "2017-01-01T04:19:23Z")
Incidentally, it was exactly one year ago today that Wayne Rogers died. ---
**Author:** ![Magicicada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c67d28/32.png) [@Magicicada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magicicada)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-father-mulcahy-william-christopher/776018/14 "2017-01-01T04:22:32Z")
I grew up in an overwhelmingly Baptist town. Man, was it ever a disappointment to move to a Catholic area and find out all priests weren’t just like Father Mulcahy. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-father-mulcahy-william-christopher/776018/15 "2017-01-01T06:11:20Z")
Oh my God. No. ☹ \*Requiescat in pace. \* ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-father-mulcahy-william-christopher/776018/16 "2017-01-01T14:13:14Z")
_Hawkeye makes an oblique comment about the size of a patient’s male organ, then realises Father Mulcahy is standing beside him._ Hawkeye: “Sorry, Father.” Father Mulcahy: “That’s alright. I just mentally translate comments like that into Latin and they don’t seem so bad.” Jamie Farr has lost a life-long friend in real life. RIP. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-father-mulcahy-william-christopher/776018/17 "2017-01-01T16:44:05Z")
I remember the episode in which the characters were interviewed for a documentary for American television. The reporter asked him a question, to which he replied something like “When the doctors cut into a patient and it’s cold, you know the way it is now, today, steam rises from the body and the doctor will will warm himself over the open wound. Could anyone look on that and not feel changed?” Very moving, and from what I heard, they were told this anecdote by someone who worked in a real MASH unit in Korea. (They had technical advisors who served in similar real-life roles.) ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-father-mulcahy-william-christopher/776018/18 "2017-01-01T16:50:23Z")
At least 84 was a long life. But he had an autistic son, who is going to have a lot of difficulty processing this. My thoughts are with his wife (if she is still alive) and his other son right now. They have a tough task. He wrote a very moving and unsentimental book about life with his autistic son. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-father-mulcahy-william-christopher/776018/19 "2017-01-01T18:29:28Z")
They left his nickname out of the series - “Dago Red” (after communion wine) - but I think at least once they called him “Losing Pitcher” - in 1950, a nickname for the ballplayer of the same surname. May this loss be the last win for 2016. Haven’t heard of any more for the day. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-father-mulcahy-william-christopher/776018/20 "2017-01-01T18:48:03Z")
I’ve been to places where ‘the Padre’ was less-than-respected force in name, but dammit, brought comfort to _anyone_ when they needed it. Rest well, our Padre, rest well. Tripler You are an inspiration. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-father-mulcahy-william-christopher/776018.md?page=2)