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McLean Stevenson
Stevenson inM*A*S*H (1972)
Born	Edgar McLean Stevenson Jr. (1927-11-14)November 14, 1927 Normal, Illinois, U.S.
Died	February 15, 1996(1996-02-15) (aged 68) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park,Hollywood Hills, California, U.S.
Other names	Mac
Education	Northwestern University
Occupation(s)	Actor, comedian
Years active	1962–1993
Spouses	Polly Ann Gordon ​ ​ (m. 1957; div. 1960)​ Louise Herbert ​ ​ (m. 1969; div. 1971)​ Ginny Fosdick ​ (m. 1980)​
Children	3
Family	Stevenson

Edgar McLean Stevenson Jr. (November 14, 1927 – February 15, 1996) was an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his role asLieutenant Colonel Henry Blake in the television seriesM*A*S*H, which earned him aGolden Globe Award in 1974. Stevenson also appeared on a number of television series, notablyThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,The Doris Day Show andMatch Game.

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Stevenson was born inNormal, Illinois (coincidentally, a town located in McLean County). He was the great-grandson of William Stevenson (brother of US Vice PresidentAdlai E. Stevenson), making him a second cousin once removed of two-time presidential nomineeAdlai E. Stevenson II. He was also the brother of actress Ann Whitney. His father, Edgar, was acardiologist. Their shared middle name, "McLean", came from Lottie McLean, Stevenson's paternal grandmother.

Stevenson attendedBloomington High School andLake Forest Academy. After high school, he joined theUnited States Navy, and served from January 1946 to November 1947 as ahospital corpsman. After his service he attendedNorthwestern University, where he was aPhi Gamma Delta fraternity brother, and graduated with abachelor's degree in theater arts.^[1]

Afterward, he worked at a radio station, played a clown on a live TV show inDallas, became an assistant athletic director at Northwestern, and sold medical supplies and insurance. He also worked as apress secretary for his cousin in the presidential elections of 1952 and 1956. He formed the "Young Democrats for Stevenson."^[2]

In 1961, Stevenson's cousin invited him to social functions where he met a few business luminaries. He followed his cousin's advice to look for a show business career. He auditioned and won a scholarship to theAmerican Musical and Dramatic Academy. He made his professional career debut inThe Music Man in 1962 and appeared regularly inWarsaw, Indiana, insummer stock productions. Before becoming a star, Stevenson appeared as a contestant on thePassword television game show in New York City, winning five pieces of luggage.^[3] After this he appeared in New York City on stage, and in television^[4] commercials. He also performed onBroadway, and began to establish himself as a comedy writer, writing for the American version ofThat Was the Week That Was—in whichAlan Alda appeared—andThe Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, performing occasionally on both shows. He was a regular on the 1970The Tim Conway Comedy Hour variety show on CBS.

During the late '60s and early '70s, he appeared in TV commercials for products such asKellogg's,Libby'sfruit cocktail,Dolly Madison andWinston cigarettes, in which he was shown sprinting around a parking lot of Winston delivery trucks and painting over the product slogan, replacing the "like" in "like a cigarette should" with the grammatically correct "as".

After guest-starring inThat Girl withMarlo Thomas, he was cast inThe Doris Day Show in 1969, playing magazine editor boss Michael Nicholson until 1971. Originally, he auditioned for the role ofHawkeye Pierce inM*A*S*H, but was persuaded to play Lt. Col. Henry Blake instead. Stevenson found his greatest success inM*A*S*H. The series quickly became one of the most popularsituation comedies of its time, and was eventually recognized as one of the top sitcoms in television history. He wrote the episode "The Trial of Henry Blake", and provided the story for another, "The Army-Navy Game", which earned him anEmmy nomination.

Despite the show's success, Stevenson began to resent (as didWayne Rogers) playing a supporting role to the wisecracking Hawkeye (played byAlan Alda), and asked to be released from his contract during the show's third season. The show's writers reluctantly penned him an exit in the final episode of the 1974–1975 season (entitled "Abyssinia, Henry"), in which Lt. Colonel Blake was discharged, only to board a plane that was shot down over theSea of Japan, killing everyone on board—a development added after scripts were distributed so the show's actors would display genuine emotion.^[5]

In an interview,M*A*S*H actressLoretta Swit commented that Stevenson wanted to be the star and felt oppressed as one of an ensemble of eight. She said that before Stevenson left the series he told her, "I know I will not be in anything as good as this show, but I have to leave and be number one."^[6] Although he had played ensemble parts for several years, he stated that the primary reasons for his departure were systemic problems with20th Century Fox, especially disregard for simple comforts for cast and crew on location,^[7] and the more lucrative opportunities presented to him at the time.^[8]

Stevenson was replaced in the series byHarry Morgan, a best friend of Stevenson who had guest-starred opposite him in the Season Three premiere episode "The General Flipped at Dawn". Morgan portrayedColonel Sherman Potter for the show's remaining eight seasons and starred in its short-lived spin-offAfterMASH.^[9]

Stevenson appeared as a guest panelist for several weeks onMatch Game in 1973 and 1974,^[10][11] and again in 1978 on the daytime and nighttime weekly syndicated version. In 1981, he became a regular panelist on the daily syndicated version ofMatch Game, staying with the show until its cancellation a year later. He would make occasional appearances on the subsequentMatch Game-Hollywood Squares Hour in 1983 and 1984.^{[citation needed]}

After his departure fromM*A*S*H, Stevenson's acting career declined. While occasionally filling in forJohnny Carson as guest host ofThe Tonight Show, Stevenson's first attempt at his own show was an NBC variety show special titledThe McLean Stevenson Show on November 20, 1975. The program finished 41st in the ratings that week and the planned series was ultimately scuttled. He then starred in a series of sitcoms:The McLean Stevenson Show (1976–77),In the Beginning (1978),Hello, Larry (1979–80) andCondo (1983). All four sitcoms were dismissed by audiences, lambasted by critics and all aired whileM*A*S*H was still in production. OnlyHello Larry lasted two seasons, all the others were cancelled in their first.^[2]

Stevenson guest-starred as Stan Zbornak's brother Ted in the hit sitcomThe Golden Girls in 1987, in addition to guest-starring in shows such asSquare One TV,The Love Boat,Diff'rent Strokes (as part of a cross-over with his seriesHello, Larry), andHollywood Squares. He filled in for Johnny Carson as guest host ofThe Tonight Show 58 times, and as a guest on the program in 1982, he brought his daughter Lindsey onto the set when she was just 16 weeks old.^[12] During the 1988–89 television season, he returned to a supporting TV role in an ensemble, playing Max Kellerman in the short-lived CBS series adaptation ofDirty Dancing.^[13]

Stevenson's career decline resulted in his becoming a target for industry jokes.Steve Daley wrote in 1985 that he had "worn out his television welcome",^[14] whileDavid Bianculli drafted "The Annual McLean Stevenson Memorial 'I'm Gonna Quit This Show and Become a Big Star' Award" early in his career as a critic.^[15] Stevenson commented in 1990 that some of the criticism was justified, conceding that leavingM*A*S*H was the biggest mistake of his career.^[5] "I made the mistake of believing that people were enamored of McLean Stevenson when the person they were enamored of was Henry Blake," said Stevenson. "So if you go and doThe McLean Stevenson Show, nobody cares about McLean Stevenson."^[5] Stevenson admitted that his problem was finding something of the caliber ofM*A*S*H, saying "I've never been able to work with a group that's as talented or scripts that are as good. I did some terrible shows. But nobody made me do it. I did everything by choice."^[16]

Stevenson's screen credits include theDisney movieThe Cat from Outer Space as a friend of Frank Wilson (played byKen Berry) along with hisM*A*S*H replacement Harry Morgan. He also was a co-host of thesyndicated daytime talk showAmerica, which lasted 16 weeks between September 16, 1985, and January 3, 1986.^[17]

Stevenson was recovering frombladder cancer surgery at theEncino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center on February 15, 1996, when he suffered a sudden fatal heart attack.^[18][19] He was cremated and his ashes are interred inForest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.^[20]

By coincidence,Roger Bowen, who portrayed Henry Blake in the 1970 movieM*A*S*H, died of a heart attack the day after Stevenson's death.^[21]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toMcLean Stevenson.

• McLean Stevenson atIMDb
• McLean Stevenson atFind a Grave

• 1927 births
• 1996 deaths
• 20th-century American male actors
• American male film actors
• American male television actors
• American Musical and Dramatic Academy alumni
• American television talk show hosts
• Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe (television) winners
• Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
• Contestants on American game shows
• Lake Forest Academy alumni
• Male actors from Illinois
• Military personnel from Illinois
• Northwestern University School of Communication alumni
• People from Normal, Illinois
• Stevenson family
• United States Navy corpsmen
• World Football League announcers

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