Death of ‘Trapper John’…

For anyone old enough to remember tuning in to weekly episodes of M*A*S*H throughout the seventies and eighties will no doubt be familiar with the face of actor Wayne Rogers who played Trapper John in the early years of the series.

After the release of the original movie in 1970 Rogers joined the cast of the follow up television show which would become one of the longest and most popular shows in American television history.

For three seasons Rogers played the role of Trapper John, sidekick to the lead character, Hawkeye Pierce played by Alan Alda. Those early episodes set the tone for the hundreds to follow but despite his popularity it wasn’t enough to carry him through a contract dispute which led to his departure along with McLean Stevenson who played the Colonel-in-charge and the butt of many jokes.

Rogers would later move into a highly successful career in property development and investments whilst making regular appearances in the television show Murder She Wrote during the nineties.

For a lifelong fan of M*A*S*H it is strange to think of the man pictured as an eighty two year old, he was a good comic actor who became a household face rather than name in a pioneering show which did much to bring home to roost the realities of combat to an increasingly despondent American public.