10 Actors Who FREAKED OUT When Their TV Character Died

Few death scenes in TV history have ever made the tectonic impact of commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson) in the third season of M*A*S*H*.

The episode "Abyssinia, Henry" saw Henry be discharged and sent home to his wife and family, but the episode actually ended with the news that his plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan and he didn't survive.

Even with the show's expert melding of comedy and drama, it was a shocking, jarring moment, the execution of which ultimately left actor McLean Stevenson himself totally irate.

Though Stevenson decided to exit the show himself during season three, the show's producers Gene Reynolds and Larry Gelbart decided to use this as an opportunity to teach viewers a harsh lesson in the random horrors of war.

Worse still, they inflicted the same element of surprise upon the M*A*S*H* cast, who only received the script page announcing Henry's death mere moments before they filmed it.

This was done in an attempt to evoke realistically raw reactions from the tight-knit cast, and though it was certainly effectively to that end, Stevenson was extremely upset by it.

Stevenson, who was on set at the time the scene was being filmed, later admitted to being deeply hurt that the producers decided to bamboozle the cast like this.

The news of Henry's death had such a mood-killing effect on the cast that an end-of-season party was cancelled, and Stevenson left the set as soon as filming was completed.

Producer Gelbart later expressed remorse over Stevenson's reaction, but the damage had seemingly been done.