Patrick Adiarte, the actor and dancer who starred in classic sitcom M*A*S*H and also had a role in The Brady Bunch has died of pneumonia at the age of 82. His niece Stephanie Hogan confirmed the news to The Hollywood Reporter. saying he died on Tuesday (April 15). He became hugely popular playing Ho-Jo, the cabin boy to Hawkeye Pierce (played by Alan Alda) and Trapper John McIntyre (Wayne Rogers) on the iconic TV series M*A*S*H, which ran for 11 years between 1972 and 1983. He left in season two when money was raised for him to head to the states to attend medical school.

On the small screen he also guest starred in a special three-part The Brady Bunch story in 1972 which saw the family decamp to Honolulu for a family vacation. He played a construction gofer who gives the Brady kids a tour before they meet with all kinds of chaos after Bobby (Mike Lookinland) discovers a small tiki idol that could be cursed.

Other TV roles included appearances on episodes of classic shows It Takes a Thief, Ironside, Bonanza, Hawaii Five-O and Kojak.

He also made waves on the big screen playing Prince Chulalongkorn, the son of Rita Moreno’s Tuptim in The King and I in 1956. He had earlier appeared in the stage version of the show playing one of the royal children. He worked with Yul Brynner on both the stage and screen versions and considered him a surrogate father.

He was mentored by Hollywood icon Gene Kelly who directed him in the stage version of Flower Drum Song in 1958. He played the wise-cracking, Americanised second son Wang San, a role he reprised for the 1961 Universal film which also starred Nancy Kwan and James Shigeta.

While promoting the stage show on televison Gene Kelly sung his praises. The pair demonstrated how tap dancing had evolved over the years, with Gene proclaiming, “If there’s gonna be another Fred Astaire, I think it might as well be Pat.” Gene also helped him get a job a a dancer on Italian television for about a year.

Patrick's journey to success was far from conventional. Born in Manila in 1942, just three years later he, his sister, Irene, and their mother, Purita, were imprisoned by the Japanese on the island of Cebu in February during World War II. Irene, then 5, and Patrick, then 2, were burned when the Japanese lobbed grenades at them when the family tried to escape. A month later, his father who was working as a captain for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, was killed.

The family relocated to New York in June 1946 in order for Irene to have what would be the first of several surgeries to remove the extensive scars on her face caused by the grenade fire.

In the midst of deportation threats Patrick landed a role in the stage version of The King and I alongside his mother who was a dancer. With the help of John F. Kennedy, who was then the Senator for Massachusetts, congress granted the family American citizenship in February 1956.

When his run in The King and I finished he studied at the Professional Children’s School, where classmates included Liza Minnelli and Marvin Hamlisch.

He was married to singer and actress Loni Ackerman from 1975 until their 1992 divorce. His sister died in 2016. In addition to his niece, survivors include his nephew, Michael.