Who played Frank Burns in the 1970 M*A*S*H film?

Robert Duvall played Frank Burns in the 1970 M*A*S*H film.

Duvall's Major Franklin “Frank” Burns is a rigid, sanctimonious Army surgeon whose devotion to regulations clashes with the irreverent doctors around him. Hawkeye Pierce and Duke Forrest resent Burns's incompetence and self-righteousness, especially after he begins a relationship with head nurse Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan.

The film presents Burns as both a comic antagonist and a symbol of the military bureaucracy the surgeons reject. His conflict with Hawkeye escalates until Burns attacks him and is removed from the unit in a straitjacket. That broad, satirical treatment helped define M*A*S*H's blend of wartime absurdity and anti-authoritarian comedy.

Viewers familiar with the television series often associate Frank Burns with Larry Linville, who played the character throughout the show's early seasons. Linville's performance made Burns one of television's best-known comic villains, but he was not the film actor. The movie's other principal performers also changed for television, including Alan Alda as Hawkeye and Wayne Rogers as Trapper John.