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August 18, 2008: Jamie Farr, best known as the Corporal Max Klinger on "M*A*S*H" (CBS, 1973-83), is currently starring in Flamingo Court Off-Broadway.
Flamingo Court is a new comedy at New World Stages. Jamie Farr and Anita Gillette are various characters in a Florida community of retirees that isn't so much a vacation destination as it is a last resort! In the sunset of their lives, the residents do whatever it takes to grab hold of one last chance. Each of three one-act comedies focuses on the resident of a different apartment in the titular South Florida complex.
 Question: How did you get started in acting?
Answer: As a child growing up in Toledo , Ohio I always gravitated towards the movies. It was a great way to spend your time as a kid for a dime. And I loved listening radio, especially Vaudeville and Broadway. There was a Magazine that I read called Theater Arts and on the back page there was an advertisement for the Pasadena Playhouse, which was a drama school. I went to the library to research it, and a lot of people from the Pasadena Playhouse went into the movies, so I decided that I wanted to attend school there. I applied and was accepted. I cashed in my savings of war stamps and war bonds, which I had collected in war bonds books since I was a kid. And for 600 dollars tuition I got on a train from Toledo , Ohio and went to Pasadena , California and enrolled in school. While I was there, a talent scout for MGM saw me in a mainstage production. They called me in to screen test for a role in the blockbuster movie Blackboard Jungle starring Glenn Ford and Sidney Poitier. I got the part. I was a kid in high school watching an MGM movie in Toledo , Ohio , and then I was in an MGM movie.
Q: What do you like most about being a professional actor?
A: It is very dedicated and devoted work, especially theater. Theater is probably the hardest in all the elements of performing. In movies, you can retake scenes. You can perfect something at your own leisure. Even in live TV, you have the ability to edit and do the scene over again. In theater, you can’t do that. If you make a mistake in theater then it’s there and you have to make sure you don’t compound it. Theater requires dedication. You’re doing eight shows a week and get one day off. You know on your day off you are either doing your laundry or shopping for groceries or all of those other things. And also you have to keep your performance level at the best you can. Actors are just like regular people and you may have gotten some terrible news, or you might be sick, or you might have a toothache, but you go ahead and do it and give your performance. You know when you have given a good performance and the audience appreciates it. That’s the target you aim for: to give your best performance. It’s like that old Irving Berlin saying, “The show must go on.” It’s a challenge.
 Q: What’s your favorite performance outlet?
A: My favorite is television, I love television. Movies are too slow. I love a weekly series because it presents new challenges and you must shoot it within a certain amount of time. You get work with a new script every week, which gives you new challenges. Live theatre is the same show over and over and you want to make sure you reach the top performance every night, but you have to be there every single night.
Q: Do you have a favorite role that you’ve played?
A: Yes, Klinger on M*A*S*H. I owe my fame to that character and show, and it was such a privilege to be on that show. Without that show, I wouldn’t have been famous. I had a great time with that character because he was unique and outlandish. It was a wonderfully written show and had so many wonderful actors. It is an iconic show, and to this day it’s the largest watched show in television. When it aired 200 million people were in the country and 125 million were watching the program. And I thoroughly enjoyed playing Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls. That was a lot of fun. I’ve been very fortunate.
Q: What type of character research did you do for Flamingo Court ?
A: I didn’t do research. This is not your method actor kind of a show. This is what you call pure entertainment. You come in, sit down and entertainment is what you get. I’ve lived on this planet long enough to know the character. The audience loves it! The show doesn’t really have an agenda, like so many new comedies. This is a kind of that screwball comedy that you just have fun with. With everything going on in the world, it is a relief. It reminds me of when I was growing up in the depression when they made comedic movies to give people a relief. With this show, people can have some fun and leave thinking, “Gee, I had a good time!”
 Q: What was the best part about working with Anita Gillette on Flamingo Court ?
A: Anita is a wonderfully well-rounded actress--and I don’t mean that physically! She certainly knows what she’s doing. She’s done 14 Broadway shows and been nominated for a Tony. She is a lot of fun to work with and is genuinely talented. Anita is a kind lady with a sensitive soul. When she gets her performance right on target, she has the best time. She plays three totally different characters, like I do. She plays a romantic widow then an older woman with Alzheimer’s and an outlandish garish hooker. I also must compliment the rest of the cast; they are all wonderful. The audience knows that the performers are having fun and enjoying themselves. I am very privileged to be with them on the stage. We are all looking for the same thing: to give the audience a good performance.
Q: Can you learn comedy or is it something you’re born with?
A: You know there’s an old saying about comedians: “There are comedians that open a funny door, and there are other comedians who open a door funny.” The comedian who’s born with comic skill opens a door funny. I think it is inherent. I know I have always had that gift. A comedian is somebody who has a tickle in himself and presents that tickle to other people. You know, Comedy is very subjective, what makes one person laugh doesn’t always make another laugh.
Q: If you weren’t an actor what would you be?
A: I think I’d probably be a chef, and I’ve thought about this. I enjoy food and cooking. Cooking is very creative. When my wife and I first got married I didn’t get a single job for a year. I was at home anxiously waiting for a phone call for a job, and I made all of the meals. I really enjoyed it! Now we have a big country kitchen back in California , and I still enjoy cooking. It’s a lot of fun when you’re not only cooking with the wine but also sipping it!
Q: What’s your favorite aspect about working Off-Broadway?
A: I don’t know of any other thing. To me, theater is theater whether you’re doing it on the Great White Way or off of an alley somewhere. You have a play, you have an audience, and they pay for a ticket. It’s all the same to me. When I do regional theatre it’s the same thing there—you go through rehearsals, hit your marks, use your props, and give the best possible performance you can.
More about Jamie Farr:
JAMIE FARR (Dominic, Harry, Arthur) is best known as the Corporal Max Klinger on "M*A*S*H" (CBS, 1973-83). His first film role was Santini in "The Blackboard Jungle." Appearances on "The Red Skelton Show" and "The Danny Kaye Show" followed, but it was his work as Corporal Klinger that brought the actor the most fame. His other screen credits include "The Greatest Story Ever Told," and "Cannonball Run." Farr toured with The Will Rogers Follies and played Oscar Madison in a national tour of The Odd Couple; he made his Broadway debut in the hit revival of Guys and Dolls. More recently, he appeared in Moon Over Buffalo as well as the comedy-thriller play, Catch Me If You Can. Jamie is still hoping to get back on a successful TV series, and we all hope it will be soon. One of his proudest accomplishments was in 1985 when he received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And in 1983 Jamie received an honorary Doctor of Performing Arts Degree from the University of Toledo . Jamie’s greatest passion aside from acting is golf and, as everyone knows by now, he has for over twenty years sponsored the internationally acclaimed LPGA Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic Presented by Kroger which is seen yearly on ESPN2. Farr is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate for Humanity from the Owens Medical College of Ohio.
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