MASH Actor Dies: Allan Arbus, The Wisecracking Major Sidney Freedman on MASH, Passed Away From Heart Failure At 95 [VIDEO]

A former MASH actor dies: Allan Arbus passed away of heart failure in his Los Angeles home on Friday. He was 95. Arbus famously played Major Sidney Freeman on M*A*S*H, the popular television program based on the movie of the same name, which ran on CBS from 1972-1983. Arbus' daughter from his first marriage, Amy, confirmed his passing.

M*A*S*H, whose final episode titled "Farewell, Goodbye and Amen" was at the time the most watched television episode in history, became popular during it's run, and Arbus' frequent guest apperances as psychiatrist Major Sidney Freedman were eagerly anticpated by audiences who enjoyed his crackling dialogue and dry wit--often at his patients' expense. Arbus' Freedman character had a neverending supply of one-liners spoken with an acerbic delivery, and viewers ate it up during his 12 appearances on the long-running show, including that record-breaking final episode.

Former cast member Alan Alda, who played Hawkeye on M*A*S*H, spoke to the Archive of American Television about Arbus: 

"I was so convinced that he was a psychiatrist I used to sit and talk with him between scenes. After a couple months of that I noticed he was giving me these strange looks, like 'How would I know the answer to that?'"

Arbus didn't quit acting after M*A*S*H went off the air in 1983. He appeared in a string of television shows as both one-off and recurring characters throughout the 1980's and 90's, including, but not limited to: Cagney & Lacey, L.A. Law, Matlock, Law and Order, In the Heat of the Night, Mad About You, NYPD Blue, Judging Amy, and most recently as Uncle Nathan on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm.

But Arbus will forever be known as the wisecracking Maj. Freedman, as legions of M*A*S*H fans will remember the television acting icon. In a series featuring so many many actors who went on to larger and more famous careers in film and on television, like Alda, Arbus remained relatively anonymous, despite his place as one of the Emmy-winning show's favorite characters.

Arbus got into acting late, in his forties, after a successful career in fashion photography with his first wife, Diane Arbus. Diane and Allan ended their professional relationship in 1954, but Diane went on to create the black and white portraitures, which she is primarily known for, after their split. They divorced in 1969, and Diane committed suicide in 1971.

Arbus' portrayal of Major Freedman as a healer of psychological wounds for the fictional 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, which M*A*S*H depicts, will forever be his legacy as an actor. He embued the character with the joviality of a man who had seen the horrors of war and preferred to joke about them rather than let them bring him down. He'll forever be missed by fans of the show and his surviving family, including second wife, Mariclare Costello, their daughter Arin, and two daughters from his former marriage to Diane, Doon and Amy.