# RIP David



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

“David Ogden Stiers, best known for his role as the arrogant surgeon Major Charles Emerson Winchester III on ‘M*A*S*H,’ died Saturday. He was 75.” Some us will remember him marching a captured North Korean military band around the MASH compound playing Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet.

And he knew music in real life: “He served as the associate conductor for the Newport Symphony Orchestra in Oregon and guest-conducted dozens of orchestras around the world, said Entertainment Weekly.”

Time marches on.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

RIP. One of my favourite sitcoms of the 70s/early 80s.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Yes, RIP. One of the very few Hollywood types who really enjoyed classic - on and off the set. What's really annoying though is that anytime TV or the movies has someone who is into the classics, they're always portrayed as a rich, insufferable snob (Winchester in MASH or as in Fraser) or a psychopath (Silence of the Lambs). I have a good friend who plays in Newport and she has always been very complimentary about Stiers' work - he truly loved the music.


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## Totenfeier (Mar 11, 2016)

That is sad. I would have loved to watch him conduct! As to classical lovers always being "strange": in the M.A.S.H. universe - I don't know about Trapper John, but I'd bet a zillion dollars that both Hawkeye, and especially BJ, knew and appreciated a lot more classical music than they would ever have let on to Charles. Pity.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Major Charles Winchester was one of my favourite M*A*S*H characters - I always felt he was a more rounded character than his predecessor Major Frank Burns. Winchester was an inveterate and unrepentant snob but with a compassionate and vulnerable side deep down, characteristics which David Ogden Stiers portrayed to wonderful effect. The episode when Winchester jealously guarded his specially flown-in copies of the _Boston Globe_ when no-one else in the camp had access to newspapers still makes me laugh.


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

His character was terrific. It's really great that when Frank left MASH they didn't try to replace him with another bumbling incompetent surgeon, but instead went for an entirely new character. It was on MASH that I first found out about the concerti written for the left hand only.


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## Boston Charlie (Dec 6, 2017)

As a huge fan of MASH, I can tell you that Charles Emerson Winchester's preferences in classical music were mostly Classical and Romantic. From the famous final episode, we know that he loved Mozart; but he was also seen enjoying Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, as well as, "Songs on the Death of Children" by Mahler. Winchester once ordered the complete works of Wagner and once while he was the commanding officer while Colonel Potter was away, he was playing "Die Walkure" loudly. Upon Potter's return, he ordered Winchester to "Turn off those musical Nazis!". 

Frasier Crane was more a fan of opera; had a liking for Renata Tebaldi, so we can therefore conclude that Frasier was mostly attracted to Italian opera by Verdi or Puccini. Frasier once said that he slept through Glass' "Einstein on the Beach". 

Felix Ungar from "The Odd Couple" was a huge fan of opera (as was the actor, Tony Randall, who portrayed Felix). Felix belonged to an opera club and Martina Arroyo even made a guest appearance on the show. 

Thurston Howell on "Gilligan's Island" once said that he liked the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and was once seen listening to classical orchestral music on the radio while he pretended to conduct the orchestra. The "Professor" on "Gilligan's Island" once said he liked waltzes. 

Just to show, as someone here pointed out, that classical music is not just for the snooty, Lieutenant Colombo of the LAPD often expressed a love for classical music and several episodes included references to classical music.

RIP David Ogden Stiers and thanks for the memories.


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## Richard8655 (Feb 19, 2016)

Boston Charlie said:


> Felix Ungar from "The Odd Couple" was a huge fan of opera (as was the actor, Tony Randall, who portrayed Felix). Felix belonged to an opera club and Martina Arroyo even made a guest appearance on the show.


I remember Walter Matthau (also "Odd Couple") was guest host of Saturday Night Live way back. Also a classical music (especially opera) fan, he wanted classical music for the music segment. Garrett Morris sang "Dalla Sua Pace" from the opera "Don Giovanni".


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Sad to read this. A brilliant actor and an all round nice guy. He was superb in MASH.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

He also played the new station manager who fired the entire news department, except for Ted, in the last episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

He was also outstanding in Doc Hollywood and the Accidental Tourist.


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