Actor, voice over artist, and musician David Ogden Stiers died March 3 at his Newport, Oregon home as a result of bladder cancer at the age of 75.
Stiers is best known as the stodgy arrogant blue blood Boston doctor Charles Emerson Winchester on “M*A*S*H” – where he appeared in 131 episodes. He also played the role of Reverend Gene Purdy on “The Dead Zone”.
Stiers actually appeared in over 150 film and television productions including voice overs for a number of animated Disney films.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7w1iT21nHQ
He made his television debut in 1971 as the voice of an announcer in “THX 1138”. Along with narrating a number of programs, his other television appearances include “Kojak”, “Charlie’s Angels”, “Mary Tyler Moore”, “The Paper Chase”, “North and South” – books I and II, “Alf”, “Matlock”, “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, “Murder, She Wrote”, “Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman”, “Ally McBeal”, “The Outer Limits”, “Justice League”, “Lilo & Stitch”, “Touched by an Angel”, “Stargate: Atlantis”, and “Rizzoli & Isles”, Stiers also directed two episodes of “M*A*S*H”.
His film roles include the George Burns movie “Oh, God”, “Harry’s War”, “The Man with One Red Shoe”, a number of Perry Mason films, “The Alamo: Tihrteen Days to Glory”, “The Accidental Tourist”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “Pocahontas”, and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”.
Steirs made his Broadway debut in 1973 in a revival of the play “The Three Sisters”. He also appeared in “The Beggar’s Opera”, “Measure for Measure”, “Scapin”, “Next Time I’ll Sing to You”, “Ulysses in Nighttown”, “The Magic Show”, “Beauty and the Beast”, and “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas”.
He was born David Allen Ogden Stiers on October 31, 1942 in Peoria, Illinois but later moved to Eugene, Oregon where he graduated from high school. Stiers got his acting start on the theatrical stage performing Shakespearean plays including the roles of King Lear and Richard III. He moved to New York City to study drama at Julliard.
On one episode of “M*A*S*H” Stiers was seen playing a french horn. In real life he played the french horn at Julliard and was a resident conductor at the Newport Symphony Orchestra where he conducted in over 70 concerts.
Openly gay, Stiers never married and a list of survivors is not known.
feature photo credit: By CBS Television – This file has been extracted from another file: MASH Cast 1977.JPG, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31400511