Hawkeye Pierce

Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce was the lead fictional character of the book M*A*S*H (and sequel books) (by Richard Hooker, the pen name of Dr. H. Richard Hornberger), the film M*A*S*H and television series M*A*S*H. The character was played by Donald Sutherland in the film and Alan Alda on television.

About the character

He is a drafted US Army surgeon called to serve at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) during the Korean War. Between long, intense sessions of treating critically wounded patients, he makes the best of his life in an isolated Army camp with heavy drinking, carousing, and pulling pranks on the people around him, especially the unpleasantly stiff and callous Major Frank Burns and Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan.

Related Topics:
Draft - US Army - Surgeon - Mobile Army Surgical Hospital - Korean War - Major Frank Burns - Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan

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Changes in the character

Although the Robert Altman film followed Hooker's book somewhat in structure, much of the dialogue was improvised and thus departed even from Ring Lardner, Jr.'s screenplay. The screenplay itself departed from the book in a number of details (e.g. Frank Burns became a major instead of a captain, and was identified with the zealously religious officer that Pierce and tentmate "Trapper" John MacIntyre got removed from their tent and, subsequently, the camp) but on the whole left the main characters and the mood intact.

Related Topics:
Robert Altman - Ring Lardner, Jr. - "Trapper" John MacIntyre

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Hawkeye in the television series

The television version of Hawkeye proved to be a somewhat different character: While his professional and social life was much the same, he also gradually evolved into a man of conscience trying to maintain some humanity and decency in the insane world into which he has been thrust.

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Developed for television by Larry Gelbart, the series departed in some respects radically from the film and book. The character of Duke Forrest was dropped altogether, and Hawkeye became the center of the MASH unit's medical activity as well as the dramatic center of the series itself. In the book and the film, the Chief Surgeon had been "Trapper" John MacIntyre; in the series, Pierce had that honor. In the book and the film, Hawkeye had played football in college (Androscoggin Community College); in the series, Alda's Hawkeye was hardly the football-champ type. He seemed to resemble Groucho Marx, with his quick wit and 'madcap' antics.

Related Topics:
Larry Gelbart - Football - College - Androscoggin Community College - Groucho Marx

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Interestingly, Hawkeye had been married in the book and the film; at the beginning of the series, he was married as well, but references to his marriage were eventually dropped and it was made clear that he was single. Presumably this alteration rendered his romantic dalliances (chiefly with nurses) more morally acceptable in the eyes of Gelbart and the other series officials. (In general, Gelbart tried to make the series less deliberately offensive and more "politically correct" than the film while nevertheless retaining some of its anarchic spirit.) Also, in early episodes, Hawkeye tells his father in a letter to say hello to his mother and sister, but in later episodes, he is an only child and his mother died when he was young.

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