May 08, 2007

McLean Stevenson

http://mrsjones.mee.nu/images/mclean-stevenson1.jpg  

Born on November 14, 1927, McLean Stevenson was the great-grandson of United States Vice President Adlai E. Stevenson. Growing up as the son of a cardiologist, McLean only followed in his father’s footsteps through his acting. It wasn’t until he was in his early thirties that McLean started to seriously look into a career as a professional actor. Early on, Mclean was in the U.S. Navy then went to Northwestern University where he earned a B.A. in Theater Arts. After college, he had several jobs such as working at a radio station, selling medical supplies and insurance, directing at Northwestern and playing a TV clown in Dallas on a live TV show.

It was Mr. Stevenson’s cousin who advised him to seriously look into show business as a career. McLean was awarded a scholarship to the American Music and Dramatic Academy and followed up with his professional debut in 1962 in “The Music Man”. He went on to do summer stock in his home state of Illinois, commercials and guest appearances on several 60’s series and also established himself as a comedy writer.

It was in 1972, after the popularity of the movie "M*A*S*H", McLean Stevenson auditioned for the TV version of the show. Originally, McLean auditioned for the role of Hawkeye Pierce but was asked to play the role of Lt. Col. Henry Blake, created in the movie by Roger Bowen. McLean had finally made it big with the success of "M*A*S*H" and appeared in 70 episodes of the show (according to IMBD) before departing the series in 1975. McLean’s last episode, “Abyssinia, Henry”, is still one of the most loved episodes of the series, as well as the one which brought out the most feelings and tears in it audience. It’s still unclear as to the exact reasons McLean left the landmark series, one theory is the he didn’t like being upstaged by the character of Hawkeye and longed for a role where he would be the focus of attention. Unsubstantiated rumors claim that the character of Henry Blake was killed off out of revenge so that he couldn’t come back to the show at a later date asking to be reinstated. The CBS series continued to thrive for eight more years after Stevenson’s departure.

After leaving "M*A*S*H", McLean Stevenson entered into a long term contract with NBC. Stevenson had several series with NBC, the one most remembered is “Hello Larry”. McLean also appeared on several game shows and had guest appearances on other shows as well as occasionally guest hosting “The Tonight Show”.

In his later years, Mclean admitted that he regreted leaving "M*A*S*H" McLean Stevenson died at the age of only 68 on February 15, 1996 from a heart attack. Ironically, the day after McLean Stevenson died, the actor who played Henry Blake in the M*A*S*H motion picture, Roger Bowen, died of the same cause: heart attack.

 

Sources for this article:

Wikipedia

IMBD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted by: Bunny at 10:40 AM under "M*A*S*H"
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