David Ogden Stiers, Major Charles Emerson Winchester III in 'M*A*S*H,' Dies at 75
David Ogden Stiers, the actor who famously played Major Charles Emerson Winchester III in M*A*S*H has died, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed on Saturday. He was 75 years old.
"My dear friend and client of 30 years is gone," representative Mitchell Stubbs of Mitchell K. Stubbs & Associates said in a statement to THR on Saturday. "David had wisdom and talent in so many different areas. I wish people could know the beautiful heart that he had. His friends and family knew, as he told us so."
Stiers died at his home in Newport, Oregon, and had been battling bladder cancer, The Oregonian reported on Saturday.
In his most famous role as Major Charles Emerson Winchester III on CBS's smash-hit sitcom M*A*S*H, filling in for actor Larry Linville after he left the show, Stiers played a blue-blooded surgeon and straightman to the cast's practical jokers. In real life, however, Stiers gave back as good as he got to his cast members. "To repay Stiers for all his pranks on us, we had his dressing room painted orange and purple over Thanksgiving break. When we came back, we were waiting for him to rant. He said nothing. Finally, one of us asked, 'What's new?'" co-star Jamie Farr remembered in THR's oral history of M*A*S*H in February.
Stiers was nominated for two primetime Emmys for his role as Winchester, in 1981 and 1982; he later won a primetime Emmy for his role as U.S. Olympic Committee founder William Milligan Sloane in the NBC miniseries The First Olympics: Athens 1896 in 1984.
Stiers also acted in the ABC series North and South and the 1987 Showtime TV movie J. Edgar Hoover.
Aside from his live-action work, Stiers was a prolific voice actor, working in eight Disney animated features including 1991's Beauty and the Beast (in which he played Cogsworth), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (the Archdeacon), Pocahantas (Governor Ratcliffe) and Lilo & Stitch (Dr. Jumba Jookiba). He also voiced Kamaji in the English-dubbed version of Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away.
Born in Peoria, Ill., Stiers moved with his family to Eugene, Ore. and graduated from North Eugene High School in 1960. In 1969 he moved to New York City and studied drama at Julliard and joined the Houseman City Center Acting Company.
That M*A*S*H ep with the injured pianist is one of those moments that has stuck with me since the moment I first saw it. The line "I can play the notes, but I can not play the music" sums up how I feel about my playing a whole lot of the time. And I don't think any other actor on that show could have delivered that scene and made it feel that real.
RIP.
_________________ Alan
"This is a true story, except for the parts that didn't happen." - Steven Wright
What a great actor. Winchester was pompous and arrogant to the hilt, but down deep, he was a good guy. He could even be one of the guys sometimes and have a drink with Hawkeye and B.J. and even sometimes play practical jokes. M*A*S*H is my favorite show of all-time and this is such a loss.
The main thing for me with him was how much the writers of MASH were able to pivot the tone of the Swamp once he joined the cast. He was so different in tone from Frank Burns as a foil for Hawkeye and BJ that they were able to create a more rounded character, and he played it brilliantly. Arrogant without the Animal House target vibe And the role that music played throughout his character's arc was beautifully done as well.
I don't recall much of his voice work, but do remember the appearance he made on TNG, and thought he did a fine job there as well.
A while back I listened to the audio book of Tom Wolfe's A Man In Full. When I saw that Stiers was the narrator I think I half expected it to sound like Winchester reading a book, but he did a fantastic job with all of the characters and moods of the story. A very talented man.
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