Sad news. Actor and arts patron David Ogden Stiers died at home in Oregon over the weekend, (March 3rd). Agent Mitchell Stubbs released that he succumbed to cancer.
While his best remembered role may have been Maj. Charles Emerson Winchester III, from M*A*S*H*,
he had a long and successful career
on stage, television & film.
After moving to the Oregon coast some thirty years ago he helped support a local symphony orchestra, (Yaquina Orchestra), which eventually evolved into the Newport Symphony Orchestra, where he served as resident conductor and offered periodic performances and readings through the Performing Arts Center, also in Newport.
I only met him a few times, but he was a kind, generous and witty man. The first year I was here a neighbor girl had been helping at the barn and I took her to his reading of ‘A Christmas Carol’ as a thank you, (not thinking until half an hour in that a ten year old from a rural area might have difficulty with Victorian English). My belated concern was unfounded, she told me later that his voice carried her off and illustrated the story from the first phrase.
He was, in fact, a prolific voice actor, contributing to eight Disney animated films
including Beauty and the Beast, Lilo & Stitch, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, as well as various video games, cartoons and television shows.
From Lilo &Stitch:
"Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten."
He will not be forgotten.