Gary Burghoff Hand Deformity Photo

One of the scenes where burghoff openly showed his left hand came as part of another gag the show pulled. At the start of the scene, radar could be seen walking across a dirt road while two other military personnel walked away from the camera. Gary burghoff was born with a birth defect called polands syndrome, which affected the development of his fingers on that hand. You can see this in the photo below, clearly showing his left fingers while holding a football in his very first scene on the show. Poland had dissected a convict known as george elt, who was said to be unable to draw his hand across his chest.

The hand was also dissected and preserved for posterity in guy's hospital museum where it remains today. That bottom right image where his hand is visible was actually from his first scene in the series. You know, i knew this but could never find one of the scenes that showed this. You've done me a good service. During his tenure on m a s*h, burghoff made an effort to conceal his left hand from view. Even though the actor occasionally had to use both hands, he would frequently arrange himself such that the camera could only show one side of his body. Anyone see his left hand born with several fused fingers but in that moment, all the confidence that had made radar oreilly so beloved seemed to vanish. He smiled awkwardly, lowered his gaze, and tried to brush it off. Before he could answer, loretta swit sitting just two seats away slammed her hand on the table. Showing it on camera, especially in the same frame as his right hand, would draw attention to the unique condition hed lived with since birth. This resulted in some of his fingers being significantly shorter than average.