Henry Blake (TV)

"I never claimed to be a junior General MacArthur. Look, I'm a doctor. All I try to do is patch kids up and run a hospital."

- Lt. Col Henry Blake

Lieutenant Col. Henry Braymore Blake was one of the protagonists of the M*A*S*H television series during the show's first three seasons.

Blake was portrayed by McLean Stevenson.

Blake was a native of Bloomington, Illinois. He married a young woman named Lorraine and had three children with her - two daughters and a son. Even though he loved his wife and children very much, Henry had something of a roving eye and carried on a series of affairs over the years.

In addition to being a medical doctor, Blake also became an officer in the United States Army. During the first part of the Korean War Blake was assigned to be the commanding officer of the 4077 MASH. Blake was a very laid back commanding officer, preferring to be a friend first and a leader second. He quickly became friends with his subordinate surgeons Hawkeye Pierce and Trapper John McIntyre. Blake was especially close to Radar O'Reilly, and in many ways became a father figure that had been absent from the younger man's life.

Even though he was a happy-go-lucky type, Henry took his duties as a surgeon quite seriously. Blake let Trapper and Hawkeye get away with quite a bit as they outclassed every bit of surgical talent in Korea, but would put his foot down from time to time.

Frank Burns and Margaret Houlihan both disliked Henry due to his laid back attitude in running the camp. They both sent reports up to Henry's superiors several times, and went so far as trying to have him court martialed for helping Nurse Meg Cratty in her efforts to take care of civilians on either side of conflict.

Blake eventually acquired all the points required for discharge and was allowed to return home to the US. Unfortunately the plane he was on was shot down over the Sea of Japan, with Henry and everyone else on board killed in the crash.

The Army soon decided it wasn't such a good idea to leave Frank Burns in command, and soon appointed Colonel Sherman Potter as the new CO of the 4077. Potter found people weren't too thrilled with him at first, and would later say his first few days trying to fill Blake's shoes were uneasy ones. He was able to grow into his role and became a successful CO, remaining such for the remainder of the war.

Trivia

 * McLean Stevenson decided to leave at the end of the third season. The knowledge of Blake being killed off was kept from the cast, and was only given to Gary Burghoff right before the scene was filmed.  The cast had been expecting a message that Blake had gotten home OK.  The emotional impact was quite significant, with even Frank Burns shedding tears over Blake's loss.  The reaction of the public was such that the producers decided not to write any more of the main characters out of the series in that fashion.


 * Stevenson later regretted leaving the series when he did in light of the popularity of the show as the years went by.


 * The show maintained that Blake was discharged after earning all the points necessary to be sent home, however the points system was not used for doctors during the Korean War.