Having invested 57 years in the business, actor Jamie Farr can assess it with authority.
Farr, 77, is best known for his role as Sgt. Maxwell Klinger in the popular M*A*S*H television series. He’s in Jacksonville to star in “Lend Me a Tenor” at the Alhambra Theatre & Dining. The show opens Wednesday.
“It’s a wonderful business if you are successful in it,” Farr said.
That’s the catch, of course.
“It’s tough. What are you selling? You are selling yourself. It’s not a table or a chair or a food item,” he said.
“It’s like a politician when you run for an office. They either buy you or they don’t buy you,” he said.
“You hope there are more people who buy you.”
He doesn’t know what advice to offer aspiring performers other than: “One day you’re drinking the wine and the next day you’re crushing the grapes.”
Farr, the son of a Lebanese meat cutter, has been able to sell his skills and talent for decades, having been captivated by the entertainment business during his childhood in Toledo.
A biography shows that he was born Jameel Joseph Farah on July 1, 1934, and won $2 in a local talent contest at the age of 11.
Farr’s first film role was in “Blackboard Jungle” in 1955, after which he served in the U.S. Army in Korea and Japan. He met comedian Red Skelton and began working with him before, during and after serving in the Army, and also appeared on “The Danny Kaye Show.”
While Farr’s career has involved radio, TV, game shows, movies, Broadway, dinner theater, voice-overs and writing, he is most famous for his role as Sgt. Maxwell Klinger in the M*A*S*H series.
The series ran weekly from 1972-83. It remains in syndication.
Cpl. Klinger (later a sergeant) was written as a character who dressed like a woman so that he would be sent home on a Section 8 discharge.
Farr decided that the character didn’t need to dwell on the clothing; he just wore the dresses and gowns as he did his daily duties, while other characters reacted to him.
He dropped the dresses later in the series. Klinger took the clerk’s job held by Cpl. Walter Eugene “Radar” O’Reilly after actor Gary Burghoff left the show.
Farr said he stays in touch with other actors from the series, including Loretta Swit, who appeared at the Alhambra to star in “Amorous Crossing” last fall. Swit played the role of “Hot Lips Houlihan” in M*A*S*H.
(Swit told the Daily Record last year about her 104-year-old mother. Farr said Nell Swit died recently. An obituary shows she died in July at the age of 105.)
He’s worked with many of the most memorable performers of the 1950s and after. He’s also survived a tough business.
“I’ve met a lot of wonderful people in it. I’ve met a lot of nasty people in it, and it’s not a nice business, either,” he said.
“As my agent once said, nobody hires you because they want to do you a favor. They hire you because you’re bringing something.”
Asked how he deals with nasty people, he said that in the early days, he pretty much had to put up with it. Now, he ignores it.
It’s not an easy business, either.
“This is hard work,” he said. “People think it’s easy. It’s not. Look at me. I’m away from home now,” he said. He lives in Southern California.
“It’s not easy to be on the road. You need your rest, especially if you are carrying a show and then you have double show days. I’m not a kid,” he said.
Farr said he stays in shape by using a treadmill, eating healthy foods and making sure he is resting enough.
After all, the Alhambra offers eight shows a week – nightly Tuesday-Friday and two shows a day Saturday-Sunday. “And it is a high-energy show,” Farr said.
Farr also has been starring in performances of “Tuesdays with Morrie,” the story of a journalist, Mitch, and Morrie, his former college professor. Sixteen years later, Mitch is reunited with Morrie, who has Lou Gehrig’s Disease. The visits become a weekly pilgrimage and a lesson in the true meaning of life.
Farr said that dinner theater, along with other performances outside of MA*S*H, helped identify him with the public as Jamie Farr and not just as Maxwell Klinger.
For 2012, he has an offer in North Carolina to perform in “Tuesdays with Morrie,” he has his annual LPGA golf tournament that benefits charities, and he has a speaking engagement.
He is married and has two grown children and a grandson.
His primary advice, based on “Tuesdays with Morrie,” is “enjoy yourself.”
Alhambra is the longest running professional dinner theater in the nation and in its first few decades featured the likes of Sid Cesar, Betty Grable, Bob Crane, Mickey Rooney, Dawn Wells, Vivian Vance, Sal Mineo, Tab Hunter, Sandra Dee, Morgan Fairchild, Esther Rolle, Jay Thomas and Sandy Dennis.
In fact, Burghoff appeared in a 1982 production, “Boney Kern.” Burghoff appeared in 181 “M*A*S*H” episodes from 1972-80.
Theatre Partners LLC, headed by Craig Smith, bought the theater, in Southside along Beach Boulevard, in November 2009.
The Alhambra describes “Lend Me a Tenor” as a Tony Award-winning Broadway farce set in 1934. It revolves around renowned tenor Tito Merelli, who is scheduled to appear in “Otello” as a fundraiser.
“Even before the star leaves his hotel room, everything begins to unravel. Chaos ensues when Merelli’s wife, who has mistaken an autograph-seeker hidden in his closet for a secret lover, leaves him a ‘Dear John’ letter,” says the Alhambra.
“Lend me a Tenor is a chain-reaction of mistaken identity, plot twists, double entendres, innuendoes and constant entrances and exits through many doors.”
“Lend me a Tenor” runs through Oct. 16.
Show times are 8 p.m. for evening shows Tuesday through Sunday. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the buffet is served at 6:30 p.m.
Saturday matinees are 1:15 p.m. Doors open at 11 a.m. and the buffet begins at 11:15 a.m.
The Sunday matinees are 2 p.m. Doors open at noon and the buffet begins at 12:15 p.m.
Tickets start at $42 for adults and $35 for children and include dinner, the show and parking. For information, visit www.alhambrajax.com.
356-2466