Who is Hawkeye Pierce in M*A*S*H?

Show

M*A*S*H

Played by

Alan Alda

First episode

“Pilot”Season 1, Episode 1, aired September 17, 1972

Role

Lead

Network

CBS

Occupation

Chief surgeon, 4077th MASH

Show run

1972 to 1983

Also known as

Benjamin Franklin Pierce, Hawkeye, Captain Pierce, Hawk

Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce is the sharpest surgeon and the sharpest tongue at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. Played by Alan Alda in every episode of M*A*S*H, he uses humor to stay sane in a war he hates.

On M*A*S*H, Hawkeye Pierce's story runs through B.J. Hunnicutt (Best Friend), Margaret Houlihan (Head Nurse), Frank Burns (Rival), Sherman Potter (Commanding Officer), Charles Winchester (Bunkmate), and Radar O'Reilly (Company Clerk).

Who is Hawkeye Pierce?

Hawkeye is a drafted Army surgeon from Crabapple Cove, Maine, stationed at the 4077th MASH near the front lines of the Korean War. Early in the first season Colonel Blake names him chief surgeon over the higher-ranking Frank Burns, because Hawkeye is simply the better doctor. He lives in a tent called the Swamp, where he and his bunkmates run a still and a nonstop comedy act.

His nickname comes from the hero of The Last of the Mohicans, a gift from his father, a small-town doctor Hawkeye adores. He has no patience for salutes, uniforms, or Army paperwork, and he would rather wear a bathrobe than his insignia. In the operating room, though, he is focused, fearless, and furious at every life the war takes.

Personality and comedy

Hawkeye is the show's fastest talker. He chases nurses, needles Frank and Margaret, drinks heavily, and treats rank as a punchline. With Trapper John in the early years and B.J. Hunnicutt after that, he turns the Swamp into a base of operations for practical jokes and schemes against Army nonsense.

Under the jokes is a conscience the show takes seriously. Hawkeye refuses to carry a gun, fights brass who treat soldiers as numbers, and sometimes snaps at the people he loves when the casualties pile up. As M*A*S*H grew more dramatic in later seasons, Hawkeye's anger and grief became as central to the character as his wit.

Key storylines

Hawkeye sees nearly every commander, bunkmate, and clerk come and go. He loses Trapper, who ships home while Hawkeye is away, and gains B.J. as a new best friend. In "Hawkeye," he spends a whole episode talking nonstop to a Korean family to keep himself conscious after a head injury, and in "Comrades in Arms" he and Margaret finally make peace while trapped under shelling.

The series finale, "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen," opens with Hawkeye in a psychiatric hospital. With help from Sidney Freedman, he faces a buried memory from a refugee bus that broke him. He returns to the 4077th for the last days of the war and plans to go home to Maine as a country doctor.

Behind the scenes and legacy

Alan Alda was the only actor to appear in every episode of M*A*S*H, and over the years he also became one of its key writers and directors. He won Emmys for acting in the role as well as for directing "Dear Sigmund" and writing "Inga," and he won six Golden Globes. He directed and co-wrote the finale himself.

That finale drew about 125 million viewers and became the most-watched television episode in US history at the time. Hawkeye remains one of television's defining characters: a funny, angry, compassionate doctor who made a 1970s sitcom about the Korean War into a statement about every war.

Hawkeye Pierce: frequently asked questions

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