David Ogden Stiers, Major Winchester From ‘M*A*S*H & Martian Manhunter In Justice League Pilot Passes Away At 75! RIP
NYT reports:
- 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.
More at NYT.
He is remembered fondly his role on MASH as well guest appearances on Murder She Wrote, Star Trek The Next Generation and even his turn as Martian Manhunter in the going nowhere Justice League TV pilot. He was also a renowned voice actor for animated films. David Ogden Stiers will be remembered as a versatile and memorable actor.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Odgen Stiers’ family, friends and fans.
