George William Bailey was born on August 27 1944 in Port Arthur Texas Bailey started college at Lamar University in Beaumont and eventually transferred to Texas Tech University in Lubbock but he did not complete his studies He worked at local theater companies during the mid 1960s until his move to California in the 1970s Here he began work on television series such as Starsky and Hutch 1975 Charlies Angels 1976 and CHiPs 1977 He eventually got a movie debut role in the Chuck Norris movie A Force of One 1979 before landing the role of Luther Rizzo in MASH 19721983 In 1993 he returned to Texas to study again at Southwest Texas State University In 1994 he graduated with a Bachelors degree of Fine Arts Theatre and for the 19992000 school year he was the Artist in Residence