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Alan Fudge

Alan Fudge built a wide-ranging acting career across the stage, film and television, becoming the kind of dependable character performer who could settle naturally into drama, comedy, crime stories and science fiction. Born in Wichita on February 27, 1944, he developed substantial stage experience before becoming a familiar presence on screen. Fudge spent three years acting with the APA-Phoenix Theatre and performed at Boston’s Charles Playhouse. His Broadway work began in the 1960s and included The School for Scandal, We, Comrades Three, The Wild Duck, You Can’t Take It With You, The Show Off, Pantagleize, The Cherry Orchard and Hamlet. He was also part of the original cast of War and Peace at the Lyceum Theatre in 1967. Television gave Fudge some of his most distinctive parts. In 1975, he was among the finalists for the regular role of B. J. Hunnicutt on M*A*S*H, alongside Mike Farrell and James Cromwell. Farrell ultimately won the role, but Fudge later appeared in the fourth-season episode “Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler?” as a wounded soldier who believes he is Jesus Christ. The episode was nominated for a Humanitas Prize. His other television roles included Lou Dalton in 7th Heaven, C. Crawford in Man from Atlantis and Jim Kimbrough in Eischied. He also appeared in television movies connected to established series, including Columbo: Columbo Goes to the Guillotine, Columbo: Columbo Goes to College, Matlock: The Witness Killings and Murder, She Wrote: A Story to Die For. On film, Fudge moved comfortably between large-scale thrillers, dramas and offbeat fantasy. His credits included Airport 1975, Bug, Capricorn One, Chapter Two, The Border, Brainstorm, The Natural, My Demon Lover and Edward Scissorhands. Across those varied projects, he brought the grounding presence of an actor whose craft had been shaped as much by the stage as by the camera.