Jamie Farr
If you’re old, or just a big fan of the TV show MASH (both of which apply to me), you know Jamie Farr as the wisecracking, cross-dressing Corporal Klinger. But if not for a lot of persistence on his part, kindness on others’, and a keen sense of timing, Mr. Farr would have gone pretty much unnoticed.
Jameel Farah (Farr’s birth name) was the Lebanese-American son of immigrants in Toledo, OH. He loved acting and writing comedy, and when he was in the Army he served by entertaining the troops with a USO traveling show, which is where he met the famous comedian Red Skelton. (Incidentally, Jamie Farr, Mike Farrell, and Alan Alda are the three MASH cast members who actually served in the Korean War.) He had a lot of fun and learned a lot too, but shortly after he transitioned from regular Army to active reserves, it looked like his career in show business was over. His father, who owned and ran a grocery store, passed away and Jameel needed to go back home to help out his aging mother. When Red Skelton heard about this, he gave Jameel a full-time writing job for his comedy show, and sent him cash to make sure his mother was taken care of. This act of kindness is what Jamie Farr credits his career for, since it enabled him to keep writing rather than be a grocer for the rest of his life.
Jameel persisted in his dream and went on to get a number of small Hollywood gigs, mostly writing and appearing in bit parts on movies and TV shows, and changed his name to Jamie Farr. As people my age and older know, having a name reflecting any kind of ethnicity (other than Northern/Western European) was a death sentence for a show biz career at the time. He got a one-episode job appearing on the new TV show MASH as a cross-dressing corporal…the joke was that he was trying to convince the Army that he was “crazy” by dressing in women’s clothing so that he could get a Section 8 discharge but the Army wasn’t going for it. He made such a splash in that one-episode role that the studio decided to keep him on the show as Corporal Klinger for a few more episodes, which over the years turned into many seasons plus a role on the sequel series AfterMASH. His character evolved from being a talking sight gag to being one of the MASH unit’s most trusted, reliable and caring members.
Jamie Farr is now 87 and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He still writes and makes appearances, and has a podcast. Here endeth the lesson on Jamie Farr.
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