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David Ogden Stiers, Major Winchester on 'M*A*S*H,' Dies at 75
David Ogden Stiers, the tall, balding, baritone-voiced actor who brought articulate, somewhat snobbish comic dignity to six seasons of the acclaimed television series “M*A*S*H,” died on Saturday at his home in Newport, Ore., a small coastal city southwest of Salem. He was 75.
His death was announced on Twitter by his agent, Mitchell K. Stubbs, who said the cause was bladder cancer.
Mr. Stiers joined the cast of “M*A*S*H” in 1977, when Larry Linville, who had played the pompous and inept Maj. Frank Burns, left the show. The series, a comedy-drama set in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War, required a foil for its raucous, irreverent, martini-guzzling leads, Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda) and B.J. Hunnicutt (Mike Farrell), and Mr. Stiers’s imperious Maj. Charles Emerson Winchester III seemed to fit the bill.
Winchester’s upper-class Boston priggishness, however, turned out to be balanced by impressive medical skills, a heartfelt appreciation of the arts, real wit and a surprising level of compassionate humanity. Winchester was, unlike Frank Burns, a worthy adversary.
From the beginning, Mr. Stiers said, he felt confident about playing Winchester. “It’s just a matter of isolating the traits” from others in his own personality, he told The Salt Lake Tribune in 1977. But he confessed to one definite difference between himself and his aristocratic character. “Where he wears a smoking jacket to bed,” he suggested, “I often wear nothing but socks.”
The role earned Mr. Stiers two Emmy nominations (in 1981 and 1982). He was nominated a third time, in 1984, for his lead role in “The First Olympics: Athens in 1896,” a dramatic mini-series.
In a statement after his death, Loretta Swit, who played Maj. Margaret (Hot Lips) Houlihan on “M*A*S*H,” called Mr. Stiers “my sweet, dear shy friend,” adding, “Working with him was an adventure.”
David Allen Ogden Stiers was born on Oct. 31, 1942, in Peoria, Ill., the son of Kenneth Stiers and the former Margaret Elizabeth Ogden. The family later moved to Eugene, Ore., where David graduated from high school...
...In early 2009, at 66, Mr. Stiers announced that he was gay and “very proud to be so” in a blog interview that was reported by ABC News. His secrecy, he said, had been strictly about the fear that openness about his sexuality might affect his livelihood. Now he regretted that.
“I wish to spend my life’s twilight being just who I am,” he said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/04/o...mash-dies.html
Last edited by krystian; 03-05-2018 at 11:07 PM.
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Senior Member
He grew up here in Eugene, right around the corner from where we live.
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Senior Member
I still watch MASH from time to time. It still makes me laugh.
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flower planter
Originally Posted by
fuego
...In early 2009, at 66, Mr. Stiers announced that he was gay and “very proud to be so” in a blog interview that was reported by ABC News. His secrecy, he said, had been strictly about the fear that openness about his sexuality might affect his livelihood. Now he regretted that.
Didn't know that. What I do remember tho is that the final show was and still is THE most watched series finale ever:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/24673...s-finales-ever
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Administrator
Originally Posted by
krystian
And it will never happen again. With the exception of Friends, Home Improvement and Seinfeld, they're all older programs when you didn't have hundreds of channels. And Friends which was the latest still ended 14 years ago.
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Senior Member
Originally Posted by
fuego
...In early 2009, at 66, Mr. Stiers announced that he was gay and “very proud to be so” in a blog interview that was reported by ABC News. His secrecy, he said, had been strictly about the fear that openness about his sexuality might affect his livelihood. Now he regretted that.
“I wish to spend my life’s twilight being just who I am,” he said.
So sad that he will now spend eternity in fire and brimstone.
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Senior Member
Originally Posted by
Romans828
So sad that he will now spend eternity in fire and brimstone.
That's the terrible deception
They come out and are proud to be gay and want everyone to know it......until they die and realise the error
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