Who played Major Charles Emerson Winchester III on M*A*S*H?

David Ogden Stiers played Major Charles Emerson Winchester III on M*A*S*H. He joined the series in its sixth season after Larry Linville's departure, taking over the role of the unit's senior surgeon opposite Alan Alda's Hawkeye Pierce and Mike Farrell's B.J. Hunnicutt.

Winchester was deliberately written as a very different rival from Frank Burns. He was wealthy, highly educated, cultured, and often condescending, but he was also an exceptionally skilled surgeon. His aristocratic Boston background and sharp verbal exchanges gave the later seasons a new kind of comic tension, while storylines about his compassion and professional ethics revealed more depth than his pompous manner initially suggested.

Stiers remained with M*A*S*H through its 1983 finale and received two Emmy Award nominations for the role. Viewers may remember him from other work as well: he voiced Cogsworth in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Governor Ratcliffe in Pocahontas, and Dr. Jumba Jookiba in Lilo & Stitch. He was also an accomplished conductor who worked with orchestras after his television career.