Allan Arbus Dies: MASH Star Dead At 95 From Congestive Heart Failure

Actor Allan Arbus, best known for his role as the quick witted psychiatrist on MASH, died on Friday from congestive heart failure, his wife told Reuters.

"At 95, doctors didn't want to do surgery and Allan didn't want it at all," Mariclare Costello Arbus told Reuters about her husband.

"He just slowed down. He just got weaker and weaker and was at home with his daughter and me."  

According to IMDB.com, Allan Arbus has been featured in over 70 titles from TV shows, to TV movies and feature films. Arbus' first major work was a film by Robert Downey Sr. titled "Greaser's Palace."

In 1972 Arbus became famous for his recurring guest role on the 1970's classic "MASH" as Dr Sidney Freedman. The good doctor would often visit MASH 4077 and engage in the antics alongside Dr. Hawkeye Pierce and his two sidekicks "Trapper" and BJ.

MASH was a comedy mixed with the drama and real life suffering of the Korean War. The show's main character was "Hawkeye," a general surgeon drafted into the US Army. While the show was mostly light hearted, it did dive deep into the issues of human suffering and the psychological toll working as a doctor in a warzone can have.

That is where Sidney Freedman (Allan Arbus) came in. The droll Dr. Freedman would show up a few times each season for the MASH doctor's weekly poker game. No doubt some emergency would come up and the brilliant Dr. Freedman would have to get to work.

In one such episode guest starring John Ritter, Allan Arbus' Freedman was attending the poker game when Ritter's character got a gun and held a doctor hostage in the shower. Dr. Freedman was able to help the troubled patient and the two walked off to speak together at the end of the episode.  

Allan Arbus leaves behind a wife and three children. He will forever be remembered as a beloved character from MASH. In the words of Dr. Sidney Freedman, "Ladies and gentleman take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice."