Maxwell Klinger

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This article is about the M*A*S*H character.. For the German artist, see Max Klinger.

Klinger
MASH* character
Corporal Maxwell Klinger, as played by Jamie Farr, dressed as a woman, his trademark gag
Rank	Corporal (formerly) Sergeant (currently)
Gender	Male
Hair color	Black
Eye color	Brown
Home city	Toledo, Ohio, USA
MASH (film)>Film portrayer	None
MAS*H (TV series)>Television portrayer	Jamie Farr
First appearance	"Chief Surgeon Who?"

Maxwell Q. Klinger is a fictional character from the M*A*S*H television series played by American actor Jamie Farr.

A Lebanese-American hailing from Toledo, Ohio (just as Jamie Farr is in real life), Maxwell Q. Klinger served as an orderly and later a company clerk assigned to the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital unit during the Korean War. Klinger was proud of his family, and of his hometown, which he regularly mentioned (including Tony Packo's Cafe, a real-life local attraction). He is also a Toledo Mud Hens baseball fan.

B.J. Hunnicutt remarked that Klinger was actually the sane one by always trying to get out, while the rest of the camp were crazy for accepting their situation and making the most of it. Making no secret of his disdain for the Army, Klinger constantly tried to get a discharge. Outside the occasional outlandish desertion attempt (he once attempted to escape by posing as a Korean woman, and by trying to fly out on a hang-glider in season 2), he was unwilling to accept a dishonorable discharge and instead tried to convince his commanding officer to grant him a medical discharge on the basis of mental instability (then called a "Section 8" in military jargon).

This often involved continually crossdressing, part of the joke being that he never affected any feminine characteristics other than the outfits themselves. In the episode Radar's Report Frank Burns and Margaret Houlihan, having had enough of Klinger's antics demand that Klinger be discharged from the Army. In response Henry Blake called for a psychiatrist to examine Klinger. This psychiatrist, Dr. Freedman examined Klinger and offered to support Klinger's discharge if Klinger would agree to sign a statement saying that he was a transvestite and a homosexual. Klinger refused, saying that he was only crazy and that he wanted out, that he was neither a transvestite nor a homosexual - knowing that being discharged for such reasons would follow him for the rest of his life.

Klinger also engaged in other bizarre behaviour like trying to eat a Jeep piece by piece, dressing as Moses or as a civilian laborer, faking amnesia or delirium, and wearing heavy clothing during a heat wave. At one time he tried to get a medical discharge by eating his way out in a program he called Food for Freedom (Colonel Potter called it Suicide by Salami), and another time by pole-sitting in freezing weather wearing his fur coat, setting a camp record when Colonel Potter ordered him to stay up. He even went so far as to appear on guard duty stark naked before a visiting general. Other attempts include faking deaths in the family, pretending that he received the throne as Zoltan, King of the Gypsies, and threatening to set himself on fire, waving a jerrycan around. Thoughts of what his family at home would think of his antics were no deterrent, especially since one of his uncles tried the same trick and regularly sent Klinger his own dresses.

His commanding officers were never fooled, and Klinger was continually frustrated. The commanders largely tolerated his antics because they were entertaining, and Klinger was otherwise a conscientious and reliable orderly who made a point of never letting his schemes interfere with his duties. At one point Klinger almost got a medical discharge when his hearing was apparently damaged by a bomb explosion, but the injury wasn't permanent and Klinger regained his hearing - and retained his post at the 4077.

Eventually, Klinger gave up wearing women's clothing, a change demanded by Farr because he felt his children would be ashamed of his appearing in women's clothing week after week on national television. Some fans regretted the change and viewed it as a symbol of Klinger more or less accepting the army, which contradicted his role as the schemer trying to get out (although he didn't give up on get-rich-quick plans). He took over Radar O'Reilly's job of company clerk with reasonable seriousness, eventually getting promoted to Sergeant. Klinger also did a near pitch perfect impression/impersonation of Colonel Potter, which he used several times to manipulate others into giving the unit supplies or information that would have required the Colonel's direct approval (which was often hard to obtain, since he was frequently in surgery when he would be needed on the phone).

At the end of the Korean War, Klinger had fallen in love and married a native Korean woman, Soon Lee (Rosalind Chao). In the final M*A*S*H episode, Klinger reversed his decade-long attempt to leave Korea, and decided to stay to help search for her relatives (inspired by real US troops choosing to stay in Korea after the war). In the short-lived spin-off to the series called AfterMASH, we learn that soon after the end of the war, Klinger and his wife returned to the United States having found her family. Klinger, though, was disowned and ostracized by his own family for marrying a Korean, and found his hometown unwelcoming to a mixed-race couple. In desperation, Klinger begins resorting to petty crime to make ends meet, and is caught and put on trial. Klinger contacts Colonel Potter seeking help, and a deal is struck, for Klinger and his wife to move to St. Louis, Missouri and work at the hospital that Colonel Potter now administrates, in exchange for dropping the charges. Klinger and Soon Lee make the move, and Klinger studies for a Civil Service Exam, while he and Soon Lee await their first baby.

Klinger was the first main character introduced on the MASH TV series that was not in the movie or novel. Originally introduced as a bit character in the early first season episode "Chief Surgeon Who?" as a simple gag of a soldier who wanted out of the army and was trying to fake his way to a "Section 8" medical discharge, he made such an impression on the producers and audience that he became a recurring character throughout the season, and by the second season was a regular member of the cast.

Quotes about Klinger's attempts

Colonel Potter: "Every time you lie, your nose gets smaller."
Klinger: "I'll be back!"
Colonel Potter: "I'll be here."
Klinger: "You can get discharged for being fat?"
Colonel Potter: "Klinger, you have no brothers."
Klinger: "Whoever said that was lying."
Colonel Potter: "You said that!"
Klinger: "Right, I was lying."
Klinger: (in a gypsy costume) "My tribe awaits me."
Henry Blake: (reviewing Klinger's file) "Here's an oldie but a goodie...half of the family dying, other half pregnant. Klinger, aren't you ashamed of yourself?"
Klinger: "Yes sir... I don't deserve to be in the army."
Henry Blake: "Klinger, I've never hit a woman before!"
Henry Blake: "Klinger, it is my considered opinion that no one is going to believe you are pregnant."
Klinger: "When I was born my father said to my mother, "Thanks a lot for the 8 lb nose." "

Trivia

A "Klinger" is a sexual slur for a heterosexual transvestite (clearly inspired by above)
It was never established what the "Q" stood for in Maxwell Q. Klinger.

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External links

[Finest-Kind.net] - M*A*S*H website with character profile
[Best Care Anywhere] - M*A*S*H website with character profile

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