'M*A*S*H' actor David Ogden Stiers is No More|| "He is dies at 75 Years old

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Stiers was born in Peoria, Illinois, in 1942. He was nominated for two Emmy awards for his performance as Winchester in "M*A*S*H," the popular series that ran for 11 seasons from 1972 until its high-rated finale in February 1983.
The show, based on a 1970 movie, centered on Army surgeons and staffers during the Korean War. Characters such as chief surgeon Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce (Alan Alda) dished out wry humor as they dealt with the stress of wartime, battlefield injuries physical and psychological, and death.

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He joined the cast in 1977, filling the void left after the departure of actor Larry Linville's Frank Burns from the show but by the series' end he was as much a part of the team as the original cast.
Stiers was also known for the eight Perry Mason TV movies he made between 1986-88 in which his prosecuting attorney invariably lost to Raymond Burr’s Mason, and more recently he had recurred on the USA Network series “The Dead Zone” from 2002-07 as the Rev. Eugene Purdy, the chief antagonist to star Anthony Michael Hall’s Johnny Smith.

In addition Stiers worked repeatedly for director Woody Allen, appearing in “Shadows and Fog,” “Mighty Aphrodite,” “Everybody Says I Love You” and “Curse of the Jade Scorpion” (in which he played a mysterious hypnotist).

On “MASH” Stiers’ Major Winchester was witty where Frank Burns had been vapid — with his Harvard education, a match for Alan Alda’s Hawkeye in the operating room and, unlike Frank, a worthy adversary in the ongoing battle of the pranks in the Swamp. So it was always poignant when an emotional crack opened in his self-satisfied mien.

In the season eight episode “Morale Victory,” Winchester is proud of saving a wounded soldier’s leg, only to learn that the minor injury to the young man’s hand is all that matters to him, as he is a concert pianist. The soldier feels he has no reason for living, but in a powerful performance by Stiers, Winchester provides him with piano music written for a single hand and shows him the empathy necessary to save him.

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For his work on the sitcom set in the Korean War, Stiers was twice Emmy-nominated for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy or variety or music series, in 1981 and 1982. Variety recalled that he earned a third Emmy nomination for his performance in the NBC miniseries “The First Olympics: Athens 1896,” as William Milligan Sloane, founder of the U.S. Olympic Committee.
The actor, with his educated, resonant voice, was much in demand for narration and voiceover work, and for efforts as the narrator and as Cogsworth the clock in Disney’s hit animated film “Beauty and the Beast,” he shared a Grammy win for best recording for children and another nomination for album of the year.
He had more than 150 film and television credits, including appearances on the Mary Tyler Moore Show and several Perry Mason television movies.