a small remembrance of harry morgan of dragnet and m*a*s*h:
ONE FRIDAY IN THE FALL OF 1955, I WENT TO SEE...
ONE FRIDAY IN THE FALL OF 1955, I WENT TO SEE...
THE MOVIE "STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND" STARRING James Stewart and June Allyson, but came away from it remembering only the kindly face of the guy who played Sergeant Joe Bible, the flight engineer. I watched the way he walked, heard the tenderness in his voice, saw the wry smile, sharp sense of humor, and imagined him as the wonderful uncle that every kid should have. For some odd reason, the man's face and mannerisms enthralled me. That same year, I went to see another James Stewart movie called The Far Country, with a cast that included Ruth Roman, Walter Brennan, Corrine Calvet, and John McIntire; and there he was again as a character named Ketchum. My trouble was, I had yet to catch his name. It was not until the year of 1963 that I found out who he was; as I caught a glimpse of him on the television show, Have Gun - Will Travel, starring Richard Boone, and he was playing Sheriff Ernie Backwater.
His name was Harry Morgan.
I now had a name that I could attach to that good-natured face; and that was around the same time as I had seen him on the television show The Untouchables, playing the gangster Bugs Moran; as well as witnessing his face on the big screen in How the West Was Won, where he played Ulysses S. Grant. I then happened to cross the path of a fellow by the name of Buck Grady, who had opened a shoe store on Main Street in Fremont, Nebraska called Buck's Shoes. I was in town to celebrate the 2nd year anniversary of my graduation from Central Lutheran Theological Seminary in 1962; and one summer morning, I walked past the shop and stopped short. In the window was a large photograph of Harry Morgan as General Grant and another one of him as Bugs Moran. I went inside the store and introduced myself to Mister Grady, and asked why he had the photographs of Harry Morgan in the window of his store. It turned out that Buck had gone to high school with Harry back in 1933, when Harry still had the last name of Bratsburg, that the both of them had been on the statewide debating team which had happened to win the state championship that year, and that the two of them had kept in touch after Harry had gone off to the University of Chicago in 1935 to study pre-law but turned to acting, instead; then departed for the City of New York, where he joined The Group Theater formed by Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford, and Lee Strassberg.
Harry was in the original production of Clifford Odet's play The Golden Boy along with Karl Malden and Lee J. Cobb, did you know that? said Grady.
No, sir, I answered.
Are you a fan of his?Grady asked.
Yes, sir, I said.
Good for you, he replied. Harry is the finest friend that a man could ever have.
In a way, that is exactly what I thought he would be. Over the years I had watched him playing sheriffs, judges, soldiers, thugs, and police chiefs; then officer Bill Gannon on Dragnet, always standing next to Jack Webb, who had a craggy face that reminds me of a current television detective by the name of Lt. Joe Kenda - Homicide Hunter on the ID Channel; and seemed fond of always saying: "My name is Friday - I'm a cop." Dragnet was aired from 1967-1970 and then disappeared from view. I missed seeing Harry's face and his wry sense-of-humor. As for Jack Webb's ever-present furrowed brow, not so much.
In 1974, Harry popped-up on the small screen once again. This time on a show called M*A*S*H. He was a guest star and his name was now General Bradford Hamilton Steele, in an episode called: The General Flipped at Dawn. By 1975, a fellow by the name of McLean Stevenson had left the show and Harry replaced him, probably due to his wonderful portrayal of Bradford Hamilton Steele in 1974; playing Colonel Sherman T. Potter, a good-humored and caring father figure, who took care of the people under his command. On his first day as the commander of the Korean hospital camp, when he became aware that the men under his command were engaged in a covert moonshine-operation, instead of reprimanding them, he said: "Had a still in Guam in World War Two. One night it blew up. That's how I got my purple heart." He remained on the show until it came to an end in 1983; and when the final two-and-one-half hour episode aired on February 28th of 1983, entitled Goodbye, Farewell and Amen, it became the most watched television show in history with a 77 million viewership.
Harry, who had been nominated for an Emmy 9 times, won it in 1980 for playing Sherman T. Potter of the 4077th M*A*S*H unit. When he passed-away in December 0f 2011 at the age of 96, his M*A*S*H co-star, Mike Farrell, who played B.J. Hunnicutt, said of him: He was a wonderful man, fabulous actor and a dear and close friend since the first day we worked together. As Alan Alda said, he did not have an unadorable bone in his entire body...At a press conference when our show ended, someone asked Harry if working in M*A*S*H made him a better actor. Harry replied by saying: "I don't know about that, but it made me a better human being." It's hard to imagine a better one...
...It sure is, Mike...
His name was Harry Morgan.
I now had a name that I could attach to that good-natured face; and that was around the same time as I had seen him on the television show The Untouchables, playing the gangster Bugs Moran; as well as witnessing his face on the big screen in How the West Was Won, where he played Ulysses S. Grant. I then happened to cross the path of a fellow by the name of Buck Grady, who had opened a shoe store on Main Street in Fremont, Nebraska called Buck's Shoes. I was in town to celebrate the 2nd year anniversary of my graduation from Central Lutheran Theological Seminary in 1962; and one summer morning, I walked past the shop and stopped short. In the window was a large photograph of Harry Morgan as General Grant and another one of him as Bugs Moran. I went inside the store and introduced myself to Mister Grady, and asked why he had the photographs of Harry Morgan in the window of his store. It turned out that Buck had gone to high school with Harry back in 1933, when Harry still had the last name of Bratsburg, that the both of them had been on the statewide debating team which had happened to win the state championship that year, and that the two of them had kept in touch after Harry had gone off to the University of Chicago in 1935 to study pre-law but turned to acting, instead; then departed for the City of New York, where he joined The Group Theater formed by Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford, and Lee Strassberg.
Harry was in the original production of Clifford Odet's play The Golden Boy along with Karl Malden and Lee J. Cobb, did you know that? said Grady.
No, sir, I answered.
Are you a fan of his?Grady asked.
Yes, sir, I said.
Good for you, he replied. Harry is the finest friend that a man could ever have.
In a way, that is exactly what I thought he would be. Over the years I had watched him playing sheriffs, judges, soldiers, thugs, and police chiefs; then officer Bill Gannon on Dragnet, always standing next to Jack Webb, who had a craggy face that reminds me of a current television detective by the name of Lt. Joe Kenda - Homicide Hunter on the ID Channel; and seemed fond of always saying: "My name is Friday - I'm a cop." Dragnet was aired from 1967-1970 and then disappeared from view. I missed seeing Harry's face and his wry sense-of-humor. As for Jack Webb's ever-present furrowed brow, not so much.
In 1974, Harry popped-up on the small screen once again. This time on a show called M*A*S*H. He was a guest star and his name was now General Bradford Hamilton Steele, in an episode called: The General Flipped at Dawn. By 1975, a fellow by the name of McLean Stevenson had left the show and Harry replaced him, probably due to his wonderful portrayal of Bradford Hamilton Steele in 1974; playing Colonel Sherman T. Potter, a good-humored and caring father figure, who took care of the people under his command. On his first day as the commander of the Korean hospital camp, when he became aware that the men under his command were engaged in a covert moonshine-operation, instead of reprimanding them, he said: "Had a still in Guam in World War Two. One night it blew up. That's how I got my purple heart." He remained on the show until it came to an end in 1983; and when the final two-and-one-half hour episode aired on February 28th of 1983, entitled Goodbye, Farewell and Amen, it became the most watched television show in history with a 77 million viewership.
Harry, who had been nominated for an Emmy 9 times, won it in 1980 for playing Sherman T. Potter of the 4077th M*A*S*H unit. When he passed-away in December 0f 2011 at the age of 96, his M*A*S*H co-star, Mike Farrell, who played B.J. Hunnicutt, said of him: He was a wonderful man, fabulous actor and a dear and close friend since the first day we worked together. As Alan Alda said, he did not have an unadorable bone in his entire body...At a press conference when our show ended, someone asked Harry if working in M*A*S*H made him a better actor. Harry replied by saying: "I don't know about that, but it made me a better human being." It's hard to imagine a better one...
...It sure is, Mike...
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