Gary Burghoff is best known for his portrayal of Walter "Radar" O'Reilly in the television series M*A*S*H. Burghoff, a veteran of Broadway, played the same role in the feature film (1970), and was in the CBS series from 1972 to 1979. After he quit the show, Burghoff made infrequent television appearances and was a regular on Gene Rayburn's game show The Match Game (1979-81).

Burghoff played lovable loser Charlie Brown in the original 1967 off-Broadway cast of You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown... Other stars of M*A*S*H included McLean Stevenson (as Henry Blake) and Loretta Swit (as 'Hot Lips' Houlihan).