Frank Burns (television)

Major Frank Burns was a surgeon and medical officer in the Korean War of 1950-1953, serving in the United States Army as second-in-command of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. His role in the M*A*S*H* movie was originated by Robert Duvall, and in that case was the combination of two different characters from the original novel by Richard Hooker. The more well-known version came from the M*A*S*H TV series, and there he was portrayed for five seasons by Larry Linville, who was admired for creating a classic combination of neuroses in one meltdown of a man. "A dangerous little man with a scalpel" was not a jibe from Burns' nemesis Hawkeye Pierce, but the opinion of Linville himself.

TV Series History
From the very first episode, Burns was a chronic pain in the side of both the acerbic Pierce and the much put-upon CO, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake. There was almost no action anyone could take, silly or serious, that did not end up in one of his reports. He was in fact a pain on many levels, the saddest of which was his lack of surgical skill and almost non-existent devotion to his young wounded charges.

(TBC...)