---
name: "Larry Gelbart"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/larry-gelbart"
fi1m_id: "larry-gelbart"
imdb_id: "nm0312205"
tmdb_id: 18267
wikidata_id: "Q1806065"
roles: ["Writer","Director"]
born: "25 February 1928"
died: "11 September 2009"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 2
average_as: "writer"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-17T18:32:38.925686+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Larry Gelbart

## Identity

Larry Gelbart

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/larry-gelbart
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** larry-gelbart
- **IMDb ID:** nm0312205
- **TMDB ID:** 18267
- **Wikidata ID:** Q1806065
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Gelbart, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1806065, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0312205/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/18267

Writer and director. Born 25 February 1928 in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.. Died 11 September 2009.

## Details

- **Work:** Writer, Director
- **Born:** 25 February 1928, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
- **Died:** 11 September 2009
- **Active:** 1972–1982
- **Also known as:** Ларри Гелбарт
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 2: 1 directing, 1 writing
- **Academy Awards:** 2 Oscar nominations
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1970s 85 (1), 1980s 85 (1)
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Gelbart, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1806065, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0312205/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/18267

## Streaming the US now

- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Tootsie*](https://film.one/film/tootsie.md) (85)
- **Disney+:** [*M*A*S*H*](https://film.one/tv/m-a-s-h-1972.md) (85)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Larry Gelbart

> Larry Gelbart's comedy gives capable people plenty of ways to make fools of themselves. We warmly recommend his farce and ensemble writing, with a reservation about the moments when the characters start explaining how decent they are.

Michael Dorsey dresses as Dorothy Michaels to secure a soap-opera role in *Tootsie* (1982), bringing his difficult temperament along. Larry Gelbart's writing finds trouble in Michael's belief that he knows what he is doing. We laughed at that confidence, because Gelbart and co-writer Murray Schisgal keep finding complications it cannot account for. Sydney Pollack lets the characters treat the situation seriously, so the farce can grow out of their behaviour. There is affection here for Michael's ability, without much indulgence for his vanity.

The quick dialogue had years of practice behind it: radio comedy, television work for Sid Caesar's *Caesar's Hour*, and the book he co-wrote for *A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum* (1962). With producer Gene Reynolds, he helped develop *M*A*S*H* (1972) and served as its principal writer and producer for the first four seasons. The Korean War setting gives the doctors a continuing problem: how to save lives inside an organisation that keeps delivering casualties. The ensemble's different responses keep that situation from becoming one repeated joke. The writing makes room for people to be funny while taking their work seriously.

After leaving the series in 1976, Gelbart concentrated on feature screenplays, but the weaknesses in the two works are related. *M*A*S*H* sometimes explains its decency too insistently, alongside jokes that have gone stale. In *Tootsie*, Michael gets too much authority to tell us how women are treated. Gelbart and Schisgal scrutinise his vanity while leaving some comfortable assumptions about men and women alone. Lange and Garr make their characters interesting enough that we want the screenplay to let them complicate his education more often.

Later television films included *Barbarians at the Gate* (1993), which took corporate greed as its subject. The movement between stage, film and television suits a writer whose dialogue works through people wanting things, defending themselves and getting in one another's way. Start with *Tootsie* for an evening; give *M*A*S*H* longer, and allow for the occasional lecture.

## Biography

Larry Gelbart was an American comedy writer, playwright and screenwriter. Born in Chicago on 25 February 1928, he began his career writing for radio comedians while still in his teens and later contributed to television variety shows including Your Show of Shows.

He developed the long-running television series M*A*S*H, which aired from 1972, and co-wrote the book for the Broadway musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962). Gelbart received an Academy Award nomination for the screenplay of the 1982 film Tootsie, on which he also received story credit. Other screen credits include Oh, God! (1977) and Neighbors (1981).

Gelbart died in Beverly Hills on 11 September 2009.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, nytimes.com.*

## On Fi1m (2)

### Directed (1)

- *M*A*S*H* (1972), Fi1m 85, Teleplay, Writer, Story, Director, Producer, Creator — [page](https://film.one/tv/m-a-s-h-1972.md)

### Wrote (1) — the average rests on these

- *Tootsie* (1982), Fi1m 85, Screenplay, Story — [page](https://film.one/film/tootsie.md)

## Complete filmography (26)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself* (2003), Writer
- *Bedazzled* (2000), Screenplay
- *Weapons of Mass Distraction* (1997), Screenplay
- *Frasier* (1993), series, as Joe (voice) — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/tv/frasier.md)
- *Barbarians at the Gate* (1993), Writer
- *Mastergate* (1992), Writer
- *Blame It on Rio* (1984), Writer, Executive Producer
- *AfterMASH* (1983), series, Writer, Director, Creator
- *Tootsie* (1982), Screenplay, Story — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/film/tootsie.md)
- *Neighbors* (1981), Screenplay
- *Rough Cut* (1980), Screenplay
- *United States* (1980), series, Writer, Producer
- *Movie Movie* (1978), Writer
- *Oh, God!* (1977), Screenplay
- *Karen* (1975), series, Writer, Producer, Creator
- *Roll Out* (1973), series, Producer, Creator
- *M*A*S*H* (1972), series, Writer, Director, Producer, Story, Teleplay, Creator — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/tv/m-a-s-h-1972.md)
- *A Fine Pair* (1968), Co-Writer
- *On My Way to the Crusades, I Met a Girl Who...* (1967), Writer
- *Not With My Wife, You Don't!* (1966), Screenplay
- *A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum* (1966), Writer
- *The Wrong Box* (1966), Writer, Co-Producer
- *The Thrill of It All* (1963), Story
- *Judy Garland, Robert Goulet & Phil Silvers Special* (1963), Writer
- *The Notorious Landlady* (1962), Screenplay
- *Startime* (1959), series, Writer

## Awards

### Academy Awards — 0 won, 2 nominated

- 1983: Best Writing, Original Screenplay (nominated), for *Tootsie*
- 1978: Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (nominated), for *Oh, God!*

### Other awards — 4 won

- Edgar Awards 1990: Edgar Awards (won)
- Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical 1990: Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (won), for *City of Angels*
- Tony Award for Best Author 1963: Tony Award for Best Author (won), for *A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum*
- Tony Award for Best Musical 1963: Tony Award for Best Musical (won), for *A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/larry-gelbart