Saying Goodbye To Colonel Potter

I was saddened by the news that veteran character actor Harry Morgan has died at his home in Los Angeles. Morgan, who was 96 when he died, enjoyed a long career with a number of good roles, but will probably be most remembered as Colonel Potter in the classic TV comedy M*A*S*H.

Those of us who watch a lot of old movies will remember Morgan in countless films well before he became a regular on TV. In his first billed movie role, he played a guy named ‘Mouthy’ in the memorable 1942 classic To The Shores Of Tripoli, and it seemed to foreshadow what would be a long career of playing wisecracking characters and sidekicks.

A Detroit native who was born as Harry Bratsburg, he used the name Henry Morgan for the first couple of decades of his career, later changing to Harry Morgan. His deep, distinctive voice was always instantly recognizable as he moved effortlessly from movies to early TV, creating memorable characters like Pete Porter on December Bride in the 1950s, and later playing the same character on Pete And Gladys.  He will also be remembered by many as Jack Webb’s partner on the 1960s version of Dragnet.

Morgan was well established as a veteran character actor when he first became a regular on M*A*S*H in 1975 — in fact, he’d made an earlier appearance as a nutsy general — but he might have been nervous because he was following in the footsteps of a popular cast member, McLean Stevenson, who’d played the unit’s commander, Colonel Blake. But Stevenson was ready to move on after the early years of the show (even though it turned out to be a so-so career move) and Morgan was more than ready for his opportunity. By the time the show’s finale aired in 1983 (with a record-setting audience of 125 million!) he was a beloved mainstay of the cast.

Paul Desmond – “Theme From M*A*S*H (Suicide Is Painless)”