M*A*S*H Easter Egg - Radar

That is a fact. Gary Burghoff is missing the better part of all of his fingers on his left hand. This can be clearly seen on the unedited version of the pilot episode. During the opening scene, we see him holding a football with his left hand, looking for choppers. His left hand with its missing digits can be clearly seen. This had to hidden during the rest of the series because a soldier with missing fingers would have been discharged from the Army.

Just to clarify, according to Gary's biography, he was born with three fingers on his left had slightly smaller than normal.

This is absolutely true. My aunt and Gary Burghoff actually "dated" when they were in 8th grade together. This is one of the first things she told me when I was asking all about him since I always watched M*A*S*H with my Dad when I was little. You'll notice, Radar is ALWAYS carrying something (i.e. clipboard, etc). Every now and again, you'll see he has nothing in his hand and if you look closely it's noticeable. Usually he'll put it in his pocket as well. His hand is slightly deformed, but he has all fingers.

The reason Radar was given a Teddy bear, was so he would have something to clutch with the deformed hand. My grandmother was friends with his mother, and remembers seeing Gary when he was like 2years old.

James Doohan (Scotty on Star Trek) was also missing fingers from military service. The only time you saw his left hand on camera was as he was cuddling a 'tribble'

Don't forget Telly Savalas, and his false finger ... right hand i belive .. you can see it in that "players hotel" or club thing he was promoting.

Larry Hovis on Hogans Heros (Sgt. Carter, the character who blew things up all the time) had in his contract that he would never appear on camera w/o gloves on each hand. Strange thread to continue, but true