On a show like M*A*S*H, guest stars appear all the time. It just so happens that one of them had a major fan: his father.
Outsiders, let’s take a look at this situation through the helpful eyes of an article from MeTV.
Art Kortheuer wrote into The Charlotte Observer newspaper in Charlotte, N.C., back in 1983 with his personal favorite show from M*A*S*H on CBS. The paper had asked fans to write in with their fave episodes.
See, Kortheuer has a reason for liking an episode titled Smilin’ Jack. It aired on CBS in 1976 during Season 4 of M*A*S*H.
‘M*A*S*H’ Guest Star’s Father Writes At Length About Son’s Scene With Radar
Dennis Kort plays a young, wounded soldier who cannot seem to find his fighting spirit anymore. Kort happens to be Art Kortheuer’s son. That was his on-screen and stage name.
When looking at his son’s work on the show, Art calls his son’s character “a quiet, curly red-headed young man probably just out of his teens” and “battle-weary.”
“The G.I. has an especially effective scene with Radar, who commiserates with him,” Kortheuer writes.
The father, though, talks at length about the M*A*S*H episode’s conclusion.
“In the closing scene, the G.I. is helped into a truck to be driven off once again into action,” Kortheuer writes. “Not knowing what may happen to him, but realizing the situation he and the rest of the G.I.s are in.”
Dad Reveals That His Son Played Key Role As Guest Star
Then, the father says that the G.I. in the episode was his son.
“The young man who plays the wounded G.I. is my son, whose professional name is Dennis Kort,” Kortheuer writes. “Dennis, 30, has been a professional actor since his teens. He has appeared in many TV commercials and been a guest star not only on M*A*S*H but also on The Waltons, Eight Is Enough, The Rookies, CHiPs, COP [sic, should be CPO] Sharkey. He also played the box-boy in the supermarket managed by John Denver in Oh, God.”
When it comes to The Waltons, Kort had the role of “The Genius” in an episode. It’s the one where John-Boy Walton, played by Richard Thomas, has to look out for a teen boy who excels academically but suffers socially.
Kort made numerous appearances in TV shows and movies between 1973-83. It appears, though, that he did not do any more work in the show business world on-screen after that year.
Dad, though, never stopped seeing his son as a star in his eyes.
M*A*S*H had a very successful run and is now on TVs worldwide thanks to syndication
