People we love: McLean Stevenson

/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/mcleanstevenson-300×225.gif” alt=”” width=”300″ height=”225″ /> Edgar McLean Stevenson, Jr., November 14, 1927 – February 15, 1996

Born on this Day in 1927.

He was the loveable Lt. Colonel Henry Black on the TV series M*A*S*H for three seasons. But Stevenson left after not wanting to play second fiddle to Alan Alda’s Hawkeye Pierce. His character boarded a plane for home that was shot down over the Sea of Japan. The other actors weren’t told of this script development so that they would portray genuine emotion when that part of the story was revealed.

Stevenson later admitted that leaving M*A*S*H was a mistake, but was unable to return because of his character’s death. He later appeared on the Match Game and the subsequent Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour.

Stevenson was recovering from bladder cancer surgery in Los Angeles when he suffered a fatal heart attack on February 15, 1996. He was 68.

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