RIP David Ogden Spiers

David Ogden Stiers, the actor best known for playing Major Charles Emerson Winchester III in "M*A*S*H*" and Cogsworth in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" has died. He was 75.

Stiers died peacefully at his home in Newport. He had been battling bladder cancer, his agent, Mitchell Stubbs, told The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Stiers was born in Peoria, Illinois the son of Margaret and Kenneth Stiers. He moved to Eugene while he was in high school, where he graduated from North Eugene High. He attended the University of Oregon for a time but soon left for San Francisco to pursue acting.

His first television credits include "The Mary Tyler Moore Show,""Charlie's Angels" and "Kojak." His voice can be heard off-screen in George Lucas' first feature film, "THX-1138."

But it wasn't until 1977 that Stiers joined the cast of CBS' military sitcom, "M*A*S*H*," after the departure of Larry Linville — who played Frank Burns — and starred opposite Alan Alda and Mike Farrell. Stiers was nominated for two Emmy awards for his turn as Winchester, in 1981 and 1982.

He would earn another Emmy nod in 1984 for his role as William Milligan Sloane, founder of the U.S. Olympic Committee, in the NBC miniseries "The First Olympics: Athens in 1896.”

Stiers also lent his voice to eight Disney animated features, most notably as Cogsworth in 1991's "Beauty and the Beast" and including "Pocahontas,""The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "Lilo & Stitch."

Stiers was also a gifted musician. He was the resident conductor of the Newport Symphony and had guest conducted for more than 70 orchestras across the world.

He continued working both in front of the camera and behind the microphone until 2015, with credits in video games, cartoons and television shows. (He appeared in a 2011 episode of "Leverage.")

Still, his most notable roles aside from his turn on "M*A*S*H*" might well be tied to his work on Disney's animated features. Facebook and other social media searches for his characters consistently contain references to Jumba Jookiba from "Lilo & Stitch:"

"Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten."


STIERS, David Ogden
Born: 10/31/1942, Peoria, Illinois, U.S.A.
Died: 3/3/2018, Newport, Oregon, U.S.A.

David Ogden Stiers’ westerns – actor:
The Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory (TV) – 1987 (Colonel Black)
Pochanontas – 1995 [voice of Governor Ratcliffe, Wiggins]
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (TV) – 1997 (Theodore Quinn)