Alan Alda has written a touching tribute to the late Wayne Rogers for The Hollywood Reporter. It was published Wednesday (January 6th) online and will also appear in print. Here’s a brief excerpt:
Wayne Rogers and I had never met before the day we began rehearsing for M*A*S*H. We were strangers, but we both knew we somehow had to find a relationship like the one the characters we played had.
We went out to dinner that night and over a long meal and a bottle of wine, we promised each other that we would give the show everything we had. We both thought it could be more than a sitcom, and we wanted to treat it as seriously as anything we’d ever been asked to do.
Be sure to read the full tribute here.
I was saddened to learn of Wayne Rogers’ death. I’m an avid MASH fan and have watched the original shows, re-runs and DVDs ad infinitum and think that one of the most genuine relationships in the show was the Hawkeye/Trapper friendship, impeccably illustrated by Alda’s & Rogers’ performances in S3E1 (Check Up).
Wayne Rogers’ infectious laugh is probably his character’s most memorable trait and even though the physical world has lost it, we will always hear it as Trapper and Hawk prank their way through the unit, the war and our hearts.
RIP Mr. Rogers