Jamie Farr is one of America's most well-known Arab-American celebrities. Jamie is of Lebanese ancestry and was born in Toledo, Ohio in 1930 as Jameel Farah. He appeared in several films including Blackboard Jungle.
In 1972, he got his big break in a small bit-part intended as a gag in one episode of a struggling TV show called M*A*S*H playing the challenging role of Maxwell Klinger a Lebanese-American from Toledo, Ohio with a cross-dressing fetish (which he was pretending to have to get a discharge and go home!) and the same name as a late 19th century/early 20th century German symbolist painter and sculptor. Jamie proved popular, memorable and worthy enough to be brought back for couple more times. Eventually, becoming a full time cast member, until the show's run ended in 1983.
Farr was also a judge on The Gong Show and has a golf tournament named after him.