David Ogden Stiers, Winchester on 'M*A*S*H,' Dead at 75

David Ogden Stiers, the distinguished actor celebrated for his portrayal of uptight Major Charles Winchester on "MASH," died Saturday at 75. Variety reports his agent, Mitchell K. Stubbs, confirmed Stiers' death from bladder cancer.

Stiers played Winchester from 1977-1983 on the series, one of the most popular in TV history, twice receiving Emmy nominations for his work on the show. He received another Emmy nomination for "The First Olympics: Athens 1896" (1984).

Among his other memorable TV work was as a congressman in the miniseries "North and South" (1985) and "North and South, Book II" (1986), in the Katharine Hepburn TV movie "Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry" (1986) and as a foil for Raymond Burr's Perry Mason in a series of mystery specials that aired in 1987 and 1988.

In film, he debuted in the Jack Nicholson movie "Drive, He Said" (1971), provided a voice in George Lucas's first film "THX 1138," and appeared in a number of successful features, including "Oh, God!" (1977), "The Cheap Detective" (1978), "Magic" (1978), "Better Off Dead..." (1985) and "The Accidental Tourist" (1988).

He was best known on the silver screen for a string of performances in Woody Allen films, including "Mighty Aphrodite" (1995).

Later in his career, Stiers — who in spite of being born in Iowa had a sonorous quasi-New England delivery — was known as a voice artist, narrating 1991's "Beauty and the Beast" and working in the hit films "Pocahontas" (1995), "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1996) and "Lilo & Stitch" (2002).

Stiers became so associated with children's projects he forestalled coming out publicly as gay until 2009.