Posted on 03/03/2018 5:08:53 PM PST by lowbridge
David Odgen Stiers -- best known for playing Major Charles Winchester on "M*A*S*H" -- has died after a battle with bladder cancer ... according to his agent.
The actor joined the cast of "M*A*S*H" in 1977, playing an arrogant aristocrat and talented surgeon who filled the void left by the departure of the show's Frank Burns character. Stiers did it splendidly too ... earning himself 2 Emmy nominations.
(Excerpt) Read more at tmz.com ...
Yeah he was great in... in... in...
Father Mulcahey is gone to. So is Colonel Flagg. So is Major Sydney Freeman.
Alan Alda grew up in burlesque. Subtly was not found in the burlesque house.
Behind The Burly Q (trailer)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=189Zme-Ioh8
That was Burns in the book and movie but in the show they got rid of the racism and Christianity. Instead he just became a caricature of blind devotion to institutions. Ironically he was portrayed as totally incompetent but only holding his position because of favor with higher ups. In reality the real world equivalent of that is affirmative action but that’s not what they were going for there.
Afraid of being typecast, which (unfortunately), he was. Larry Linville spent much of his remaining career as a stage actor in Canada. Also, there was only so much you could do with a character like Frank Burns, and I believe Linville saw his part growing smaller on the show.
One more anecdote—which will come as a surprise to no one. I remember reading Jackie Cooper’s autobiography a few years ago. Cooper spent his entire life in Hollywood and had a lot of success, as a child actor, a studio exec and as a director. He directed a number of episodes of M*A*S*H until he started butting heads with Alan Alda, who had become the insufferable star of the show and enjoyed throwing his weight around.
Alda made sure Cooper didn’t get any more directing assignments on the show. Other people left the show during the same period, including Linville. He always said he wanted to do other things and didn’t want to be known only as Frank Burns. But it’s also clear that M*A*S*H became “The Alan Alda Show” at a certain point. As long as other members of the company accepted that, they were fine. Those who had a problem with it usually moved on.
Funny. So true. I use the middle names of my kids on them as nicknames. It’s a way to privately connect with them in a crowd.
He seemed to be a poor-man's imitation of Hawkeye.
An insufferable, preachy liberal who tried to "out Alda" Alan Alda.
One Alda was too many.
At least Wayne Rogers had a character of his own.
Richard Hooker, who wrote the novel, hated the Alda Hawkeye character, because he was conservative, and Alda played him as a liberal.
>>>and most notoriously, “Condo<<<
Hey, I went to see a Taping of “Condo”, once...
Morgan was on MASH on one episode a season before taking the role as Potter. He was a fruitcake named General Steele "The General flipped at dawn" was hilarious.
“That was Burns in the book and movie but in the show they got rid of the racism and Christianity. “
Yes. In general. But I do remember “yellow horde” comments and other such on the show, with Hawkeye saying he’d physically assault Burns if he used such terms again.
It’s a shame that he was portrayed as a bumbling idiot. The original doctor who inspired the “Frank Burns” character was a great surgeon. I know a nurse who worked at the same hospital as he in Greensboro. She said nobody wanted to work with him, but he’d be their first choice if they needed a surgeon.
He was homosexual? Yikes! Kept wondering, and hoping I was wrong, why Stiers’ death was listed under HomosexualAgenda.
Very interesting, thanks!
Farrell should have been croaked a long time ago.
Radar snaps to attention as General Steele approaches.
Steele: Where ya from, son?
Radar: (relaxes and smiles) Iowa, sir--
Steele: NO TALKING IN RANKS!
Radar snaps back to attention.
Yes, I enjoyed him on Fox Business on the Saturday show and just enjoyed him generally.
I thought I recalled him saying, or I read somewhere, that Alda washed his hands of Rogers, simply disappeared when he could have used a little pull.
I liked the show as a kid though it disgusts me now—everything about the smug, needy and despicable Alda and his equally despicable sidekick “Beej”.
That's still one of the best finales ever (ignoring the parts where Hawkeye is crying to Sydney).
When it's announced that the war is finally over, the first character reaction we see is from Winchester.
The rest of the 4077 erupts in cheers and dancing, but Charles is stunned silent.
1. In the books, Hawkeye WAS a conservative. Known to hippy bash.
2. Stiers didn't decloset until he was about his mid-60s which, along with coming out as bisexual is a "why bother".
3. The beauty of the first 3 seasons was it captured the zanyness of the movie, which I don't think Hooker (pen name) liked either.
4. There was M*A*S*H, then there was "Make Room For Hawkeye".
5. Episode "Showtime", Season 1. Episode 24. Frank provides Hawkeye's comeuppance.
6. B.J. and Women's Lib Hot Lips were show ruiners.
7. The show because too anachronistic.
Oh the irony of you posting about a stutter four times!
“Don’t ever use your middle name. It either turns you gay or into a serial killer”
Charles Nelson Reilly.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.