M*A*S*H*' STAR DAVID OGDEN STIERS DEAD AT 75

[elleng]

David Odgen Stiers -- best known for playing Major Charles Winchester on "M*A*S*H" -- has died after a battle with bladder cancer ... according to his agent.

The actor joined the cast of "M*A*S*H" in 1977, playing an arrogant aristocrat and talented surgeon who filled the void left by the departure of the show's Frank Burns character. Stiers did it splendidly too ... earning himself 2 Emmy nominations.

http://www.tmz.com/2018/03/03/mash-star-david-ogden-stiers-dead-at-75/

[Lucky Luciano]

1. .

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

2. ...

[samnsara]

3. i didnt know he was so young!

[oasis]

4. Enjoyed his performance. May he rest in peace.

[lapfog_1]

5. bad audio but...

[elleng]

9. THANKS!

Just now watching MASH on Sundance, an episode wherein he played a major role attending to dying patients, and discussing death with them.

[Dennis Donovan]

13. Poor audio or not, that brought me back to 1983...

Thank You!

[jmowreader]

55. After MASH ended, he did a lot of conducting

[Duppers]

63. IRL he loved classical music and was a conductor

From Wiki...

Stiers was the associate conductor for the Newport (Oregon) Symphony Orchestra and the Ernest Bloch Music Festival.[8] He also guest-conducted over 70 orchestras around the world, including the Oregon Mozart Players, the Vancouver Symphony, the Virginia Symphony, the Oregon Chamber Players, the Yaquina (Oregon) Chamber Orchestra, as well as orchestras in San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Chicago and Toronto.[9][10][11]

[Eliot Rosewater]

6. loved his performance in those episodes

[hlthe2b]

7. Ohh... that is a loss

I really came to enjoy him--not only on MASH, but a couple of guest stints on Frasier, his role in the Dead Zone and a lot of voice work he did over the years.

RIP... You will be remembered and missed.

[Takket]

8. He will always be Timicin to me

[CottonBear]

36. I saw that episode recently. RIP. N/T

[Dennis Donovan]

10. He narrated Ric Burns' exceptional "New York" documentary...

His "Chahles" was exquisite on M*A*S*H, but his narration of the Ric Burns "New York" series was so... damn, the best!

[Elwood P Dowd]

17. +10000

I have the DVD set of that. Took me a week to watch them all, but they were incredible. Been a few years, so maybe it's time to view them again.

[Dennis Donovan]

20. His narration was, well, unique from David McCullough's or Oliver Platt's...

Both of whom do an OUTSTANDING job narrating American Experience, but DOS's is something we will not hear again.

[chuckstevens]

33. And Chicago "City of the Century" on PBS

[7wo7rees]

41. Available now on Amazon prime video n/t

[3catwoman3]

11. Splendidly, indeed.

Charles was one of my favorite M*A*S*H characters.

[Thunderbeast]

12. My favorite M"A"S"H" elisode

featured Stiers consoling a pianist who fell into depression after losing an arm in combat. Finding music played by one hand, his patient recoiled. Major Winchester lamented that as much as he wished, he did not posess the musical "gift".

After over 50 years playing with my guitar, I can relate to Winchester's frustration.

Stiers was a master of that role.

[Dennis Donovan]

15. I couldn't have stated it better myself...

[TeamPooka]

24. That one and the "stuttering" episode. He gave heart and soul to a character created as a heavy.

[dhill926]

50. Oh hell yeah...

thanks for reminding me. Man...

[Codeine]

14. He was in THX-1138 as well.

He was a truly fine actor.

[WillowTree]

16. Fine actor. May he rest peacefully.

[lame54]

18. Charles was a great character...

Glad they went the other way when they replaced Frank

[Lucky Luciano]

67. They were always very good at creating completely new characters.

Trapper John —> BJ Honeycutt
Burns —> Winchester
Colonel Blake —> Potter

These were very different characters! No shortcuts or cheap ways of trying to continue the old character.

[apkhgp]

19. Charles Emerson Winchester III...

That was High Society brought to a battlefield in The Korean War.

[Chicago1980]

21. North & South

This is my childhood memory of Mr. Stiers...

[youtube]

[/youtube]

[Siwsan]

22. A man with a very long and impressive acting career

[Weed Man]

23. I shall drink brandy in his memory

I remember that episode where Potter was the last guy in his unit that received a French brandy saved since WWII. Shared it with everyone and Winchester commented that the brandy would be very smooth.

[Weed Man]

68. Here's the episode

[sinkingfeeling]

25. R.I.P. Loved that show.

[TeamPooka]

26. He had a wonderful role in a film named BAD COMPANY starring Ellen Barkin & Laurence Fishburne

[Docreed2003]

27. ...

[burrowowl]

28. Fine Actor May he Rest in Peace

[Gothmog]

29. May he rest in peace

[orangecrush]

30. RIP

[ailsagirl]

31. Excellent actor

Loved his character on M*A*S*H*

[StevieM]

32. R.I.P. Charles Winchester was a great character. He gave Hawkeye and B.J. an opponent who, unlike

Frank Burns, could compete with them at their level. You saw that on the first episode he was in. They left a snake in his bed and when Pierce got back to the swamp it was waiting for him in his own bed. We saw a wry smile come over Charles's face.

He also could show you a decent, human side that Frank Burns rarely, if ever, could. He was usually the antagonist but he had a good heart that made you like him.

[stopwastingmymoney]

48. Yes, so much

I loved Charles and was reading down the thread thinking about what I could add.

There are many good comments above, but yours is the best I think, thank you for putting it so well.

Given a selection in the DVR, I'll always choose a good Charles episode. Remember when he came back from RnR...married?

[StevieM]

53. Thank you for the kind words. Yes, I do remember that episode. I believe he was in Tokyo.

Last edited Mon Mar 5, 2018, 12:26 AM - Edit history (1)

My favorite Charles episodes include:

1) When he stayed with Hawkeye while he waited for news from the States on Pierce's sick father. I remember two lines in particular. "I have a father. You have a dad;" and the toast at the end. "To our fathers. And their sons."

2) When Charles stood up for the stuttering soldier, and we later learned that his sister Hanoria stuttered in a tape she sent him. Actually, I also liked the episode where he took an interest in a soldier who was a concert pianist and whose hand was permanently injured in battle.

3) When Charles gave sweets to the orphan children, anonymously, and later learned that they were sold on the black market. Charles was angry at first but then learned that they were sold to buy a month's supply of rice and cabbage. He said to the director of the orphanage. "It is very inappropriate to give desert to a child who has not yet had dinner." We also learned that his family has a tradition of going out on Christmas and doing acts of charity anonymously.

[Weed Man]

69. The third!!! I remember this episode well.

Klinger returned the favor by giving Winchester the leftovers from the party. Said, this was donated anonymously, with a smile.

Loved that episode

[dalton99a]

34. R.I.P. to a fine talent.

[Miles Archer]

35. Following the Frank Burns character was an amazing feat

Over time, the character was given many layers. At first, the Winchester character may have seemed like a distant cousin of Burns, but he soon transcended it. Primarily "unlikable," like Burns, but the writers (and Stiers) revealed the humanity under the arrogance.

R.I.P., Mr. Stiers.

[spooky3]

37. Awww. He was in one of my favorite Frasier episodes, "Fathers and Sons."

This wasn't the best part of the episode but all I could find:

[Elwood P Dowd]

58. Was that the one where they suspected he had an affair with their mother?

Turns out he was gay I think.

[spooky3]

60. Thats the one. He was charming. Nt

[El Supremo]

38. He was in the PBS rendition of Innocents Abroad.

Part of their excellent Mark Twain series 40+ years ago.

[47of74]

39. RIP Major

[Liberalagogo]

40. Another gay actor lost to the ages.

What a quality person he was. Everything he did was great. I loved him as Cogsworth in Beauty & the Beast (1991)

[Lithos]

65. There will always be gay actors...

And Mr. Stiers was indeed a professional who was great in almost everything he did.

What I hope for the ages is that he will be one of the last who do not have to wait (in his case until age 66) to no longer balance what the world thinks in order to maintain a professional career vs being comfortable in his skin.

L-

[Liberalagogo]

66. It was sad that he had to wait

until 2009, to officially come out. I knew about him bad in college in the 80s. I guy I knew had a fling with him.
I mean look at what Ellen had to go through when she came out in the 90s. It took her a while to bounce back.

[Honeycombe8]

42. Oh,no. Too young. Bladder cancer?

Who thinks that s/he will get bladder cancer, of all things? You can't even protect against that. Terrible.

[Weed Man]

70. My grandfather had bladder cancer.

He survived that, and lived to be around 95 or so (we aren't sure of his age because he lied about it, during the Holocaust)

Back in 1991, after my sister's wedding, he was critical and was not expected to survive. He rallied, and lived for another 10 more years, before passing on with natural causes..

So yeah, cancer sucks, my father died of leukemia in 2014 at the age of 67. It was his father that passed in 2001.

I recently went through genetic testing to determine if I am at risk of cancers. They tested everything and I found out I'm not prone to any cancer. Which is amazing considering both sides of my family have had cancers.

[Honeycombe8]

71. Wow. You are so lucky. I didn't know you could be tested.

Tested to see if you're prone for cancers? Does ins. cover that? Of course the risk would be, if the ACA is cancelled, ins. cos. might not take you, if your tests show you are prone.

Glad you are not prone. Lucky.

[Weed Man]

72. My mom has been after me for months to get myself tested.

I did that last year, and found out that I'm clear of any abnormalities of my genes.

But my health is ok otherwise, I've dropped 40 pounds in the past year (a big accomplishment), and I'm diabetic, so knocking on wood.

[Honeycombe8]

73. Rockin' it!

I lost 30 # years ago after gaining that weight slowly over years after quitting smoking. Losing that 30 # took so long and was so hard. So I know what it took to lose 40! Rockin it!

[RhodeIslandOne]

43. Great voiceover actor too

Did a number of audio books and video games like “Icewind Dale”.

RIP

[The Genealogist]

44. I remember watching M*A*S*H* with my grandparents

Grandma was kind of a stuffy lady who didn't go in for a lot of TV. Hell, I don't think they bought a TV until the late 60s or so. They could afford it, the programming was vulgar(common) But boy she loved watching M*A*S*H*, and I enjoyed watching it with my grandparents. Grandpa reminded me in a lot of ways of Colonel Potter. When I was a kid, I didn't care much for Winchester, I thought he was a hateful man! But as I grew up, I came to appreciate the fact that David Ogden Stiers did a fantastic job of portraying the character. Sad knowing he has passed. RIP.

[47of74]

59. Same

My mom used to like watching M*A*S*H* when it was first on but I didn't get in to it until I was older and it was going in syndication.

Col. Potter reminded me of my Grandpa as well. Morgan was just a few years older than my Grandpa.

Yeah, Stiers did such a great job portraying Major Winchester. Took real talent to pull of a character like Winchester. RIP Major.

[question everything]

45. While his character was arrogant

I remember two episodes when his softer side showed:

One, there was a character who was stammering, "Charles" was on his side, I think. Because the last scene he was listening to an audio letter from his sister who was... stammering.

The second, perhaps was the finale, he taught a a group of Chinese prisoners a Mozart quintet and then, when they were all killed, he had the record and just threw it away.

Too young. And getting too close for comfort.

[ClusterFreak]

64. There was a third episode that I remember too.

The one in which Hawkeye's dad needs some delicate surgery and Hawkeye was having trouble getting any news about how things were going. He and Charles shared some sincere reflections on their lives as sons of two very different kinds of dads. It was a nice episode. It was the same episode where the MASH bowling team finally beat the Marines, that was the funny part of the episode.

[DinahMoeHum]

46. Awww damn. Hard to take.

Here's to his memory.

[GoCubsGo]

47. Dammit.

[RainCaster]

49. I shall raise a glass to him tonight

Sigh.

[Liberal In Texas]

51. RIP...We were just watching an old show with him today.

"Dead Zone" TV series.

[left-of-center2012]

52. Met him once in San Diego

He stayed at a hotel where I worked around 1983,
while he was appearing in a play at the 'Old Globe Theater' in Balboa Park.

He came up to the desk for mail/messages. Very friendly and a decent guy.

[rpannier]

54. I loved him as Charles. The poolball scene with George Wendt is a classic

[stopwastingmymoney]

56. Thank you for that

I like your sig line too

[brettdale]

57. Gentlemen

May he rest in peace.

[CTyankee]

61. Oh, no1

I remember his character so well!.

It's not fair!

[lunamagica]

62. ...