How old was Radar at the beginning of the show?

In the Episode entitled "Bombed" (Season 3) Radar tells someone on the phone he is 19.

He was probably in the 18-19 range throughout the series.

How close was the actor to that age?

Originally posted by *~PinkLady59~*
How close was the actor to that age?

Not very.
According to the IMDB, Gary Burghoff was born in 1943,which means he was pretty close to thirty (!) when the series premiered.
I never understood why an actor would leave a hit series, but I guess if you were in your thirties and still playing a virginal teenager, you'd wanna run for the hills too.

;)

Originally posted by dummygally
How old was Radar at the beginning of the show?

Apparently he was 18 at the beginning. If you saw the episode when he was bitten by the dog and had to start the rabie shots, you'll remember that after finding out the dog tested negative he makes a remark about being able to live to be 19.

Bughoff (pronounced BURG-GOFF) looked much older in his latter seasons.