Radar Check

During his seven-year stint as the sensitive Cpl. Walter ‘Radar” O’Reilly on the hit TV show M*A*S*H, Gary Burghoff played a character who was a model of military precision. “Radar was the one who could get things done,” says Larry Gelbart, executive producer of the Korean War series, which aired from 1972 to 1983. “You had the feeling he made the camp run.” But in real life the Emmy-winning father of three chose a less regimented approach, turning down lucrative paydays to spend more time with his family. The result? By 1991, Burghoff was on the brink of bankruptcy. “I was down to my last $500,” says Burghoff, now 56, explaining that his theater work dried up and he lost his gig as a pitchman for British Petroleum. “The money ran out.”

Thanks to some fast work with a paintbrush, though—and faith that God would provide—Burghoff’s fiscal fears are now largely behind him. His canvases of North American wildlife sell for up to $25,000 each at 15 galleries across the U.S. His acting prospects have picked up too: In September he begins starring in a nine-month, 120-city tour of Neil Simon’s Last of the Red Hot Lovers, and he is host of a new series airing on public television, Pets: Part of the Family, which showcases the exploits of animals and their owners. “It’s family entertainment, wholesome. It teaches values and has deep messages,” Burghoff says of the series, adding that he would have done it even if he’d been offered a part in “an action movie for $10 million.”

For Burghoff, money has never been a priority. “I didn’t leave M*A*S*H a wealthy man,” he says. “I could have renegotiated my contract, but money wasn’t the most important thing in my life.” Spurning several sitcom offers during the ’80s—including a part on Newhart—he instead chose regional theater. “I wanted to pick the number of weeks I’d work and spend the rest of the time with my family,” he says. With good reason: Burghoff, whose marriage to first wife Janet, a surgical technician, ended in divorce in 1979, regrets that because of his 16-hour workdays on M*A*S*H he missed out on the early years of the couple’s daughter Gena (now 24 and an actress in Los Angeles). “You either want to be rich and famous, or you want to be a daddy,” he says. “You can’t do both.” But by 1991, Burghoff (remarried to Elisabeth Bostrom, a dental assistant for the developmentally disabled) was unemployed. The actor, who had become a born-again Christian around the time he left M*A*S*H, prayed for help—and says he got an answer: “A little voice said, ‘Paint.’ ” So he picked up a brush—something he had been doing casually for a few years—and began to make a name as an artist. And an income.

He chose animals as his subject because, as he explains, “I’m an animal person.” Growing up in Bristol, Conn., the younger son (his brother David, now 62, is a retired industrial engineer) of Ann, a homemaker who directed local theater productions, and Rodney, an executive at a clock-making company, both now deceased, Burghoff was fascinated by the fauna surrounding the family house. “I’d catch snakes, newts, spiders,” he recalls, “and put them in display cases, then let them go.”

Later, it was the acting bug that got his attention. After graduating from high school, where he played drums and performed in plays, he headed to New York City, getting his big break playing the lead in the Off-Broadway musical You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. That led to the role of Radar in the 1970 film M*A*S*H, a part he reprised two years later on the TV series. “He cares deeply about what he’s doing,” recalls Burghoff’s former M*A*S*H costar Loretta Swit. “At the same time, he’s always looking for fun.”

These days, fun for Burghoff means summering at his three-bedroom cabin in Connecticut (the rest of the year he lives with his wife and their two sons—Miles, 13, and Jordan, 11—in a modest A-frame home on a one-acre property north of Sacramento). In residence are a slew of animal friends—a dog and several cats—plus hundreds of nearby angelfish, newts and frogs. “I want the world to be innocent, kind and gentle,” says Burghoff. “Animals have never let me down in those qualities. When you allow yourself to connect with animals, [their] simplicity and joy are contagious.”

Galina Espinoza

Maria Eftimiades in Connecticut