David Ogden Stiers  (October 31, 1942 – March 3, 2018) was an American film, stage, television, and voice actor.

Born in Peoria, Illinois, Stiers was primarily raised in Oregon. He attended the University of Oregon before enrolling at the Juilliard School in New York City, from where he graduated in 1972. He went on to appear in numerous productions on Broadway, and originated the role of Feldman in The Magic Show, in which he appeared for four years between 1974 and 1978.

In 1977, he was cast as Major Charles Emerson Winchester IIIon the television series M*A*S*H, a role he would portray until the series' conclusion in 1983, and which earned him two Emmy Award nominations. He appeared prominently in the 1980s in the role of District Attorney Michael Reston in several Perry Mason television films, and voiced Cogsworth in the 1991 Walt Disney film Beauty and the Beast, as well as Dr. Jumba Jookiba in Disney's Lilo & Stitch (2002) and its sequels. He appeared in television again on the supernatural drama series The Dead Zone as Reverend Gene Purdy, a role he portrayed from 2002 to 2007.

Stiers continued to contribute voice work for films and television productions in his later years, narrating M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water (2006) and having a recurring role on the animated series Regular Show. Stiers spent his later years as a conductor of the Newport, Oregon Symphony Orchestra. He died at his home in Newport of bladder cancer on March 3, 2018.

Cause of death Bladder cancer

Education North Eugene High School

Alma mater 

University of Oregon
Juilliard School

Occupation

• Actor
• voice actor
• conductor

Years active1971–2017

Employer Newport Symphony

Notable work : 

• M*A*S*H
• Beauty and the Beast
• The Dead Zone

AwardsTV Land Impact Award (2009)

Early life

Stiers was born in Peoria, Illinois, the son of Margaret Elizabeth (née Ogden) and Kenneth Truman Stiers. He attended Urbana High School as a freshman; one of his classmates was Roger Ebert. Stiers moved to Eugene, Oregon, where he graduated from North Eugene High School and briefly attended the University of Oregon.

Stiers subsequently moved to San Francisco, where he performed with the California Shakespeare Theater, San Francisco Actors Workshop and the improv group The Committee, whose members included Rob Reiner, Howard Hesseman and Peter Bonerz. In California, he worked for the Santa Clara Shakespeare Festival for seven years. Stiers relocated to New York City in the 1960s to study at the Juilliard School(Drama Division Group 1: 1968–1972). During his studies, Stiers was mentored by actor John Houseman, whose City Center Acting Company he later joined.

Career

Early acting credits

Stiers first appeared in the Broadway production The Magic Show in 1974 in the minor role of Feldman, which ran for four years. This was followed by several other Broadway productions, including The Three Sisters and The Beggar's Opera. Subsequent early credits included roles on the television series The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Kojak, and Rhoda. Stiers also appeared in the pilot of Charlie's Angels as the team's chief back-up.

M*A*S*H (1977–1983) In 1977, Stiers joined the cast of the CBS sitcom M*A*S*H. As Major Charles Emerson Winchester III, Stiers filled the void created by the departure of actor Larry Linville's Frank Burns character.[9] In contrast to the buffoonish Burns, Winchester was a well-spoken and talented surgeon who presented a different type of foil to Alan Alda's Hawkeye Pierce and Mike Farrell's B.J. Hunnicutt. Burns usually served as the butt of practical jokes instigated by Pierce or Hunnicutt, was frequently inundated by insults for which he had no comebacks, and his surgical skills were often harshly criticized. Winchester, however, presented a challenge to his colleagues' displays of irreverence because his surgical skills could match or even outshine their own, and when it came to pranks and insults, he could give as good as he got; his aristocratic manner and aversion to puerile behavior served as the target for his fellow surgeons' barbs and jokes. At times, however, Winchester could align himself with Pierce and Hunnicutt and, a few tantrums aside, he held considerable admiration for his commanding officer, Harry Morgan's Col. Sherman T. Potter. For his portrayal of the pompous but nonetheless multifaceted Boston aristocrat, Stiers received two Emmy Awardnominations. Other television work

After M*A*S*H completed its run in 1983, Stiers expanded his work on television with regular guest appearances on North and South; Star Trek: The Next Generation; Murder, She Wrote; Matlock; Touched by an Angel; Wings; and Frasier, along with a recurring role in Season 1 of Two Guys and a Girl as Mr. Bauer. In 1984, he portrayed United States Olympic Committee founder William Milligan Sloane in the NBC miniseriesThe First Olympics: Athens 1896 for which he received another Emmy nomination.[12] Beginning in 1985, Stiers made his first of eight appearances in Perry Mason made-for-TV movies as District Attorney Michael Reston. He had guest appearances on ALF and Matlock. He appeared in two unsuccessful television projects, Love & Money and Justice League of America (as the Martian Manhunter). In 2002, Stiers started a recurring role as the Reverend Purdy on the successful USA Network series The Dead Zone with Anthony Michael Hall. In 2006, he was cast as the recurring character Oberoth in Stargate Atlantis.

Voice work

Stiers provided voice work for dozens of film and television projects. His first work was on one of George Lucas' earliest films, the critically acclaimed THX 1138, in which he was incorrectly billed as "David Ogden Steers". Stiers voiced PBS documentary films such as Ric Burns' project New York: A Documentary Film, 2010 Peabody Award winner The Lord is Not on Trial Here Today and several episodes of the documentary television series American Experience, including Ansel Adams (2002), also directed by Ric Burns. In 1992, he voiced Mr. Piccolo in the animated English-dubbed version of Porco Rosso. He collaborated with Disney on eight animated features, including 1991's Beauty and the Beast (as Cogsworth, also providing the opening narration), 1995's Pocahontas (as Governor Ratcliffe and Wiggins), 1996's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (as the Archdeacon), 2001's Atlantis: The Lost Empire (as Mr. Harcourt), and 2002's Lilo & Stitch (as Jumba Jookiba).

He lent his voice to the direct-to-video Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman (2003) as the Penguin. Stiers did voice work for Solovar in a two-part episode "The Brave and The Bold" of Justice League and voiced Solovar again in a Justice League Unlimited episode "Dead Reckoning". He voiced Mr. Jolly from Teacher's Pet. He voiced the king and prime minister in the 2004 short film The Cat That Looked at a King. In Hoodwinked(2005), the animated movie partly based on Little Red Riding Hood, Stiers voiced the role of Nicky Flippers, the frog detective who is dispatched to Granny's house. He voiced Pop's father, Mr. Maellard, in the animated TV series Regular Show, which debuted in 2010. Stiers had voices in several video games, including Icewind Dale, Kingdom Hearts II, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, as Jeff Zandi in Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, and as Esher in Myst V: End of Ages.

Stiers was the reader for numerous audiobook versions of novels, include Tom Wolfe's A Man in Full (1998), and Colleen McCullough's The First Man in Rome.

Music

Stiers was the associate conductor for the Newport (Oregon) Symphony Orchestra and the Ernest Bloch Music Festival. 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.

Death

Stiers died at his home in Newport, Oregon, on March 3, 2018, at the age of 75, from complications related to bladder cancer.