McLean Stevenson Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018
McLean Stevenson began in show business at age 31. During the 1960s, he worked in night clubs and comedy cabarets, did summer stock theater and some television before moving to Hollywood, where he worked as a comedy writer for Tom Smothers. He eventually began acting in sketches. Mr. Stevenson is best known as the fumbling commanding officer, Lt. ...
[on leaving M*A*S*H (1972)] I probably got too big for my britches. The biggest mistake I made was I thought everybody loved McLean Stevenson. It was Henry Blake that people loved. So when I went out and did The McLean Stevenson Show (1976), nobody gave a damn.
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Briefly worked as an assistant Athletic Director for Notre Dame.
Was press secretary for his cousin Adlai Stevenson during the latter's two presidential campaigns.
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Spoke often at youth groups and organizations, promoting the acting field.
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Originally auditioned for the role of "Hawkeye Pierce" on M*A*S*H (1972), before being convinced to take the role of "Henry Blake".
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The unexpected death of Stevenson's "Henry Blake" character, from M*A*S*H (1972) at the end of the third season (1975), caused such a strong fan backlash, with countless letters of hate mail being received over the character's death, that the show's writers and producers all agreed that in the future, should one of their actors wish to leave, they would never give that actor's character a tragic send off.
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One legacy of Stevenson is a word coined from his first name. "McLeaning" is a term used in media, especially television, to refer to cases when a character is killed off because the actor who played him decided to leave the show, as happened to "Henry Blake", when McLean Stevenson left M*A*S*H (1972).
9
After the news of Col. Blake's death on M*A*S*H (1972) (He left at the end of the third season) shocked the world, the very next night on The Carol Burnett Show (1967), the opening shot was of Henry Blake in a smoking raft, waving his arms, hollering, "I'm OK! I'm OK!".
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Served in the Navy.
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In the season finale of the first season of M*A*S*H (1972), the name of his character's (Henry Blake) wife is Mildred. In the second season, her name was changed to Lorraine. When he was replaced by Harry Morgan, Morgan's character, Colonel Potter, had a wife named Mildred.
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Was still in the hospital recovering from surgery when he suddenly went into cardiac arrest and died.
To research for his role as an army surgeon on M*A*S*H (1972), McLean Stevenson thoroughly studied a book on the history of medicine loaned from Alan Alda. Months later, that knowledge proved extremely useful when he came upon a person who was critically wounded in a car accident. Drawing on his research, he was able to keep the person alive until help arrived.
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Interred at Forest Lawn (Hollywood Hills), Hollywood, California, USA, in the Columbarium of Valor.
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Stevenson died one day before Roger Bowen. Bowen played the role of "Col. Henry Blake" in the movie, MASH (1970); Stevenson played the role on TV's M*A*S*H (1972).
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Cousin of Democratic presidential candidate (1952 and 1956) Adlai Stevenson.
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Grandfather was Vice-President Adlai E. Stevenson, who served under President Grover Cleveland from 1893 to 1897.
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McLean's father was Edgar McLean Stevenson, whose mother was named Lottie Bell McLean. He was born and raised in McLean County, Illinois.
$500,000
