Patrick Adiarte Passes On

Patrick Adiarte, who played Ho Jon in the first season of M*A*S*H and appeared in both The King and I and Flower Drum Song, died on April 15 2025 at the age of 81. The cause was pneumonia.

Patrick Adiarte was born on August 2 1942 in Manila, Philippines. During World War II, he, his mother, and his sister were imprisoned by the Japanese on the island of Cebu in February 1945. His father, who was working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a month later. It was in June 1946 that the family migrated to the United States so that Patrick Adriarte's sister could have surgery to repair scars she had incurred from a Japanese grenade. 

Both Patrick Adiarte and his mother appeared in small parts on Broadway in The King and I. Afterwards he attended the Professional Children’s School in New York City. Later in the decade he played Wang San in the Broadway production of Flower Drum Song. In the Fifties he appeared in the movie adaptation of The King and I (1956) as Prince Chulalongkorn as well as the movie High Time (1960). During this period he was mentored by dancer Gene Kelly. He appeared with Mr. Kelly on the NBC TV show Omnibus, demonstrating the evolution of tap dancing through the years.

In the Sixties Patrick Adiarte reprised his role as Want San in the movie adaptation of Flower Drum Song (1961). He also appeared in the movies John Goldfarb, Pease Come Home! (1965) and Step Out of Your Mind (1966). On television he was one of the dancers on Hullabaloo. He guest starred on the TV shows CBS Playhouse, Look Up and Live, It Takes a Thief, and Ironside. He also had a brief singing career with the songs "Five Different Girls," "Don't Let This Room Become Your World," and "Where You Gettin' Your Kicks Now."

In the Seventies he appeared as Ho Jon, the orphan who assists Hawkeye and Trapper John, in the first season of M*A*S*H. On television he guest starred on the shows Bonanza, The Brady Bunch, Hawaii Five-O, Temperatures Rising, and Kojak.

Later Patrick Adiarte taught dancing at Santa Monica College, among other places.

Patrick Adiarte was certainly talented. He was a gifted singer and dancer, as demonstrated in Flower Drum Song. And he was also certainly a gifted actor. He did a great job as the thoroughly American, thoroughly non-traditional Wang San in Flower Drum Song. He played college student T.J. Padmanagham  in Blake Edwards's High Time, and had the admittedly politically incorrect role of an Arabic prince in the spoof John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! Of course, many will always remember him as Ho Jon on M*A*S*H, a role for which he will probably always be remembered. While he may not have had a long career, Patrick Adiarte certainly made an impact.