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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsM*A*S*H*' STAR DAVID OGDEN STIERS DEAD AT 75
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
(11,400 posts)Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(114,691 posts)samnsara
(18,281 posts)oasis
(51,585 posts)lapfog_1
(30,053 posts)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
(24,717 posts)Thank You!
jmowreader
(51,372 posts)Duppers
(28,239 posts)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
(32,528 posts)hlthe2b
(106,029 posts)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
(22,456 posts)CottonBear
(21,613 posts)Dennis Donovan
(24,717 posts)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
(11,444 posts)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
(24,717 posts)Both of whom do an OUTSTANDING job narrating American Experience, but DOS's is something we will not hear again.
chuckstevens
(1,201 posts)7wo7rees
(5,128 posts)3catwoman3
(25,377 posts)Charles was one of my favorite M*A*S*H characters.
Thunderbeast
(3,528 posts)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
(24,717 posts)TeamPooka
(25,228 posts)dhill926
(16,953 posts)thanks for reminding me. Man...
Codeine
(25,586 posts)He was a truly fine actor.
WillowTree
(5,330 posts)lame54
(36,790 posts)Glad they went the other way when they replaced Frank
Lucky Luciano
(11,400 posts)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
(1,068 posts)That was High Society brought to a battlefield in The Korean War.
Chicago1980
(1,968 posts)This is my childhood memory of Mr. Stiers...
[youtube]
Siwsan
(27,250 posts)Weed Man
(304 posts)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
(304 posts)sinkingfeeling
(52,961 posts)TeamPooka
(25,228 posts)Docreed2003
(17,711 posts)burrowowl
(17,977 posts)Gothmog
(153,987 posts)orangecrush
(21,480 posts)ailsagirl
(23,758 posts)Loved his character on M*A*S*H*
StevieM
(10,536 posts)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
(2,143 posts)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
(10,536 posts)Last edited Sun Mar 4, 2018, 11:26 PM - 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
(304 posts)Klinger returned the favor by giving Winchester the leftovers from the party. Said, this was donated anonymously, with a smile.
Loved that episode
dalton99a
(84,066 posts)Miles Archer
(18,960 posts)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
(36,012 posts)This wasn't the best part of the episode but all I could find:
Elwood P Dowd
(11,444 posts)Turns out he was gay I think.
spooky3
(36,012 posts)El Supremo
(20,377 posts)Part of their excellent Mark Twain series 40+ years ago.
47of74
(18,470 posts)Liberalagogo
(1,770 posts)What a quality person he was. Everything he did was great. I loved him as Cogsworth in Beauty & the Beast (1991)
Lithos
(26,449 posts)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
(1,770 posts)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
(37,648 posts)Who thinks that s/he will get bladder cancer, of all things? You can't even protect against that. Terrible.
Weed Man
(304 posts)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
(37,648 posts)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
(304 posts)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
(37,648 posts)RhodeIslandOne
(5,042 posts)Did a number of audio books and video games like Icewind Dale.
RIP
The Genealogist
(4,735 posts)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
(18,470 posts)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
(48,718 posts)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
(3,112 posts)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
(22,471 posts)Here's to his memory.
GoCubsGo
(32,930 posts)RainCaster
(11,498 posts)Sigh.
Liberal In Texas
(14,434 posts)"Dead Zone" TV series.
left-of-center2012
(34,195 posts)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
(24,567 posts)stopwastingmymoney
(2,143 posts)I like your sig line too
brettdale
(12,556 posts)May he rest in peace.
CTyankee
(64,859 posts)I remember his character so well!.
It's not fair!