LOS ANGELES -- Emmy Award-winning actor Harry Morgan, who played Col. Sherman T. Potter in the classic sitcom "M.A.S.H." and hard-nosed Officer Bill Gannon in the iconic TV cop show "Dragnet," died Wednesday. He was 96.
Morgan, a Detroit native, died at his home in Los Angeles after a bout with pneumonia, his daughter-in-law, Beth Morgan, told the Associated Press.
Morgan's eight-year run on "M.A.S.H.," the pinnacle of his seven-decade acting career, began when he was 60 and had already appeared on Broadway and in dozens of TV shows and more than 50 films.
Three years after it debuted, he joined the show in 1975 as the new commanding officer of the unorthodox 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, which patched together the wounded during the Korean War.When the show's two-hour finale aired in 1983, 77% of the people watching television were tuned in, making it the most widely watched show in history.
Shortly before the final episode was broadcast, Morgan told the Los Angeles Times, "There'll never be another 'M.A.S.H.' There's nothing in the way of doing your best work on this set. Absolutely nothing." Although his character was a traditional Army man, Morgan fit right into the free-wheeling spirit of the show.
"He was an imp," said Mike Farrell, who starred as B.J. Hunnicutt and worked with Morgan and Alan Alda. "As Alan once said, there's not an un-adorable bone in the man's body. He was full of fun, and he was smart as a whip."
Although he set out to be a lawyer, Morgan fell into acting and stayed. The son of an auto mechanic, he was born Harry Bratsberg in Detroit on April 10, 1915. He grew up in Muskegon, where he played high school football and was a member of the champion debate team.
Morgan attended the University of Chicago but left in the 1930s to sell office equipment in Washington, D.C. As a salesman during the Depression, he had free time, so he joined a theater group. In fall 1937, he went to New York City and appeared in several Broadway productions, using the name Harry Bratsburg. In 1941, he and his actress wife, Eileen, headed for Hollywood. Within months, he was offered a contract with 20th Century Fox and, going by Henry Morgan, promptly made six movies, starting with "To the Shores of Tripoli."
Morgan went on to appear in "High Noon" (1953), "The Glenn Miller Story" (1954), "Inherit the Wind" (1960), "Support Your Local Sheriff!" (1969) and his personal favorite, 1943's "The Ox-Bow Incident."
One of his early TV credits was "December Bride," in which he played Pete Porter, the wry-humored, henpecked neighbor who cracked jokes about his wife, the never-seen Gladys. At this time, he started using Harry as his first name to avoid being confused with television comic Henry Morgan.
After seven years on "December Bride," Morgan appeared opposite Cara Williams in an early 1960s spinoff, "Pete and Gladys." Until "M.A.S.H.," Morgan was best-known for his role as Gannon in "Dragnet," a show that he had first appeared on in the 1940s on the radio. In 1967, he replaced Ben Alexander as the partner of Jack Webb's Sgt. Joe Friday. He remained a fixture for four seasons.
The role of Colonel Potter came along after McLean Stevenson left "M.A.S.H." in 1975. It was not Morgan's first appearance on the antiwar comedy, based on the hit 1970 film -- his portrayal of a demented general had earned him an Emmy nomination the same year he joined the series.
Even so, Morgan was nervous about replacing Stevenson's Lt. Col. Henry Blake, a popular -- and goofy -- character. Morgan's Potter was much more spit-and-polish, yet he had a sentimental side. He received eight Emmy nominations for the role and won once, in 1980.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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