Frank Burns
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| M*A*S*H character | |
 Frank Burns as portrayed by Larry Linville. |
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| Frank Burns | |
|---|---|
| Rank | Major (captain in Richard Hooker's original novel and later Lieutenant Colonel after leaving) |
| Gender | Male |
| Hair color | Brown |
| Eye color | Blue-green |
| Home city | Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA |
| Film portrayer | Robert Duvall |
| Television portrayer | Larry Linville |
| First appearance | M*A*S*H: A Novel About Three Army Doctors |
| Last appearance | "Margaret's Marriage" |
- For other characters named Burns, see Burns (disambiguation).
Major Franklin "Frank" Marion Burns aka "Ferret Face" was a character in both M*A*S*H the film and the television series. In the movie, Burns was portrayed by Robert Duvall, and in the series he was portrayed by Larry Linville.
The character is radically different in the movie and the television series; in the film, Frank is a brooding religious fanatic, while in the television series he is an officious, frenetic, pompous twit obsessed with military order.
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[edit] Movie
In the movie, Frank Burns is portrayed as a very religious man who prays for all the souls to be saved. He also is a firm believer in military discipline who dislikes the undisciplined manner of both Hawkeye Pierce and Trapper John McIntyre. When the new head nurse, Major Margaret "Hot Lips" O'Houlihan (The "O" in her last name would be dropped for the TV series) arrives, the pair soon fall for each other.
When the two meet in O'Houlihan's tent to dictate a letter condemning Hawkeye, they soon begin having sex. What neither of them know is that a microphone had been planted underneath O'Houlihan's bed. Every sound the pair made during their lovemaking is heard in the clerk's office. Soon Trapper decides that this has to be shared with the rest of the camp, and he puts Burns and O'Houlihan on the PA.
The next morning, Burns gets into a fight with Hawkeye when the latter asks Burns how O'Houlihan was in bed, demonstrating noises. As a result, Burns attacks Hawkeye physically, and is next sent to a psychiatric hospital in a straitjacket. This is the last the audience sees of him in the movie.
In the original novel, Frank was only a captain, not a major. He was promoted presumably for dramatic and story conflict. His medical skills are not greatly focused on in the book, but in both the movie and the television series, it is directly or indirectly suggested that Burns is an incompetent surgeon who blames others for his surgical errors. The book's portrayal of Burns is essentially a less-exaggerated version of the television character. It should be noted that the film's Major Burns was a combination of two characters from the novel--the small-minded twit Captain Burns (who had a liaison with Major O'Houlihan, as in the film, but did not live in The Swamp) and the religious fanatic Major Hobson (whom Hawkeye and Duke had ousted from The Swamp due to his obsessive praying).
[edit] Television series
In the television series, Major Frank Burns was played by Larry Linville. The character of Frank Burns was said to be diametrically opposite of Larry Linville in real life, who was generally a friendly, courteous, well-read man. (Reportedly, Linville could also be high-strung, and this trait played into his TV character.) He based Burns "on every idiot I ever knew". While the TV Burns would appeal occasionally to religious and moral values (typically in the process of showing himself up), the emphasis in storylines was more on his surgical and personality shortcomings, than on his sanctimony.
[edit] Personal life
Burns is a firm believer in discipline and unwavering patriotism (he keeps a photograph of Joseph McCarthy in his tent), and dislikes intensely the fact that Pierce and McIntyre are so laid back. At the beginning of the series, Burns and Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan are a couple and their romance scenes were played in a way that could be described as a soap opera parody, with the main jokes being excessive sentimentality, sappy nicknames ("Oh, Margaret, you're my snug harbor--I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have you to sail into.") and casual references to Frank's wife, Louise (whom he is said to have only married for her money). It is hinted at in the second season that Hot Lips really is not happy with Frank and, deep down, she knows he's not the man they both like to think he is, but she clings to him anyway because he's the only other person in the camp who shares her opinion that strict discipline is the only discipline (though even at her worst she showed more humanity than Frank), and because of their common contempt of Hawkeye and Trapper. Though Frank is hopelessly in love with Hot Lips, he is unwilling (he routinely lies on his tax returns to the IRS and receives secret kickbacks on patients prescriptions (Episode 84/Season 4)) to divorce his wife; when it was discovered (Episode 86/Season 4) that Frank's wife had heard of the affair and tried to get a divorce, Frank lied about Hot Lips' beauty and the whole affair to get the divorce off. This puzzled Radar, who thought Frank would have been happy to leave his wife and marry Hot Lips, but as Hawkeye noted, Frank did not want to leave "his mommie" (His wife owns the house and stocks in her name.) Furthermore, Houlihan is not his first extramarital affair, as he also slept with his receptionist twice a week back home (Episode 92/Season4). In episode 120 Season 5 Frank is also exposed on at least one occasion as having bought a Korean National Treasure on the Black Market. Despite the fact that he detests enlisted men, several episodes seem to point to Burns as having elements of trust in, if not concern for, Radar. He is also quite simple-minded: when Trapper's friend (Episode 48/Season 2), an Army CID officer, is working undercover as an engineering officer, Frank very willingly accepts the man's far-fetched story that the US Army Corps of Engineers is attempting to make MASH hospitals amphibious. In Episode 92/Season 4 he refuses to believe that a Sgt lost money gambling on the grounds gambling has been prohibited so he concludes that the "missing" money must have been stolen.
[edit] As a surgeon
Burns is portrayed as a barely-passable surgeon; throughout the series it is stated that he only became a doctor to please his beloved mother, and/or for the money (more than a few episodes spotlighted Frank's seemingly insatiable greed, making it a driving factor in his personality). He admits in different episodes that it took him twice as long to graduate medical school (having flunked out of two) as normal, and only passed his first year by buying the answers to a final exam. He stayed in medical school hoping to cure the acne that plagued him beyond his teen years, and would have settled for becoming a male nurse if he'd been able to master folding hospital corners in bedsheets.
Burns' bungling in surgery has led to more than one headache; it is suggested that only the intervention of other doctors has averted the death of his patients in some instances. His insufficient surgical skills were a constant source of humor throughout the series, even after he left. In the pilot episode, when Frank is chastising Hawkeye for his behavior in the operating room, Hawkeye replies "If you want to question my conduct as a soldier that's one thing, but as for my conduct as a doctor, if you seriously want to question that, I'm afraid I'll have to challenge you to a duel." Hawkeye then asks Frank if he's tired after "all that malpractice" he put in. Later, when Hot Lips threatens to file a formal complaint about the insult, Hawkeye retorts that he'll file a countercomplaint about Frank "posing as a doctor and as a human being!"
During an inquiry (In the episode "Novacaine Mutiny"), Burns quizzes a military lawyer about his service record, and is told "If you hadn't been drafted as a doctor, you'd have been assigned as a pastry chef." [Yet Frank's culinary talents are also suspect; he once was injured in his eye during a sniper attack while trying to crack an egg, an episode he passed off as an injury from "shell fragments" when putting in for a Purple Heart. Even the Korean doctors (North and South alike) are aware of Burns's ineptitude. In the next-to-last episode when the 4077th buries a time capsule, Frank's replacement Major Winchester points out that they did not include any mementos from the "infamous Major Burns", and Hawkeye replies "I thought about putting in Frank's scalpel, but I didn't want to include any deadly weapons."
[edit] As a soldier
With military weapons Frank has been demonstrated as inept, in a early episode during a poker game he shoots a lamp with a .45 automatic pistol and in a later episode he runs over Colonel Potter's jeep with a tank (Episode 77\Season 4). In Episode 85\Season 4 Frank borrows an old fashioned .45 cavalry pistol and then shoots himself in the foot trying to return it to the weapons bin.
Burns often tried to undermine Commanding Officer Lt. Col Henry Blake due to Blake's rather lax approach to those under his command and in his desire to take control himself. Several times he went over Blake's head to complain about events at the camp; one example of this is when Pierce was appointed chief surgeon over Burns, who appealed directly to General Barker (Sorrell Booke). Initially ready to send Hawkeye packing, Barker winds up so thoroughly impressed with him that he tells Col. Blake to give Burns a high colonic and send him on a ten-mile hike (with full pack) as punishment for wasting his time. Henry once threatened to note in Frank's personnel file that Frank did not work and play well with others. Frank spent most of his time on the series battling and antagonising virtually everyone in the camp, specifically his tentmates and his commanding officers. By the fifth season he was the show's main antagonist and, essentially, the closest thing the series had to an actual villain (aside from the enemy North Koreans and Chinese)--a fact commented on by B.J. upon hearing of his removal ("This reduces the enemy to just North Korea!"). He also seems to not know army regulations as well as he says he does. In the episode Officer Of The Day, when Col. Flagg brought a prisoner to be treated so he could execute him later and Hawkeye and Trapper refuse to release him, Frank ordered them to release him (which they didn't do), which is against army regulations.
When Blake left, and died on his way home, Burns (who actually cried when he heard of Blake's death, one of the few times he ever showed any genuine humanity) was initially slated to take command of the camp. However the Army soon appointed a new Commanding Officer, Sherman T. Potter. He was so upset that he ran away and returned several days later. Everyone except Burns liked the new CO from the start, even Major Houlihan. Burns did not get along with Potter, often making insulting comments regarding Potter's age. Potter in turn referred to Burns as the camp's "head twerp".
[edit] Departure
Eventually, Burns and Houlihan had a falling out. Houlihan married Donald Penobscot, another career military officer, and wasted few opportunities of praising Donald and her love for him. The two left on their honeymoon, leaving Frank alone and heartbroken, despite the fact he was already married. During their honeymoon, Burns was sent on leave to Seoul. While there, he suffered a breakdown and started running wild throughout the city (Was told he went through a window) with the Military Police in pursuit until he accosted a General's wife (whom he mistakenly thought was Houlihan) in a public bath. As a result of a psychiatric examination after his capture, he was sent back to the States. Potter, Radar, Pierce and Hunnicutt, have one last toast in Frank's honor. Hawkeye's last words on the matter, "Good-bye Ferret Face." However, to everyone's disgust, Burns was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and posted to a VA Hospital in Indiana. Burns was replaced with Major C.E. Winchester III, who by contrast, was considered an excellent surgeon even by the people who disliked him. Winchester also had a relatively more bearable personality.
Burns was written out of the series at the request of Linville. Linville, who once commented that there was actually a very dark aura hovering over Frank, believing that Frank was not all that stable yet he was still operating on patients, felt that the character of Frank Burns had gone as far as it possibly could, with the way the series had developed.
[edit] Decorations
Several times throughout the series, the awards that Major Burns had earned during his service in the army could be seen on his uniform. He had earned the following:
National Defense Service Medal
At least twice Burns tried to claim a Purple Heart for minor injuries he incurred at the camp, but quick work by Hawkeye and either Trapper or BJ made sure Frank could never keep the spurious award.
[edit] Trivia
- In episode 10 Season 1 a picture of Frank Burns mother is seen; in fact it is a "stock picture" which can be seen in a Tarzan movie.
[edit] External links
- Finest-Kind.net - M*A*S*H website with character profile
- Best Care Anywhere - M*A*S*H website with character profile
| Preceded by Henry Blake |
Interim Commanding Officer of MASH 4077th (TV series) 1975 |
Succeeded by Sherman T. Potter |
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