MUMBAI: Award-winning writer Larry Gelbart, who wrote films like Tootsie and Oh, God! has expired. He died yesterday after a long battle with cancer. He was 81.
Gelbart, who won a Tony for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum an Emmy for M-A-S-H and was nominated for two Oscars, is best remembered for the long-running TV show about Army doctors during the Korean War.
M-A-S-H debuted on CBS in 1972, when the nation was embroiled in the Vietnam War. By its second season it had caught on and remained one of television‘s top-10 rated shows for a decade until its final episode in 1983.
The show, based on a book and a Robert Altman film by the same name, starred Alan Alda. Gelbart was brought into the project by producer-director Gene Reynolds who worked with him shaping the show.
After writing 97 half-hour episodes and winning an Emmy, Gelbart quit during the show‘s fourth season, showing health grounds.
Interestingly, Gelbart went on to write gags for Bob Hope, Jack Paar, Red Buttons, Jack Carson, Eddie Cantor and Joan Davis.
