DEATHS ; Notable Passings; The Thread to Pay Last Respects

[LizzieMaine]

I knew a man, a father of one of my high school friends, who *was* Charles Emerson Winchester to the very core -- David Ogden Stiers clearly knew, and what's more, *understood* a certain type of on-the-hill New Englander, and brought him very very convincingly to life. I enjoyed his work on that show tremendously.

 

[triple-d]

Roger Bannister, the first runner to break the 4-minute barrier in the mile, has died....88

 

[Zombie_61]

One of the interesting things to note, IMHO, is that near the end of Larry Linville's run, they fleshed out Frank's character a bit. I think they gave him a bit more humanity and gave him some pathos. Most notably, during the period when Hot Lips was dragging his heart through the mud as she had found Donald. IT would have been interesting if his character had taken that turn earlier.

Major Burns got stranger, more clueless, and seemingly less intelligent as the series progressed. I've read that was the reason Linville left the series--he felt Burns was one-dimensional and that there was nothing more that could be done with him. I would agree that he (the character) "rallied" a bit before his departure, but felt they robbed him of that final bit of dignity somewhat with the literally phoned-in reports of Burns' misdeeds in Tokyo. But considering he was cleared of any charges, re-assigned to a hospital in The States, and promoted to Lt. Colonel, I think he got the last laugh.

 

[ChiTownScion]

I knew a man, a father of one of my high school friends, who *was* Charles Emerson Winchester to the very core -- David Ogden Stiers clearly knew, and what's more, *understood* a certain type of on-the-hill New Englander, and brought him very very convincingly to life. I enjoyed his work on that show tremendously.

Winchester was a great character. He wasn't always on the same manic page as Hawkeye and B.J., but he carried that Officer & Gentleman With a Strong Sense of Noblesse Oblige aspect very well. And while he could get pompous, he really did try to do the right thing.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That was the thing that really separated him from Frank -- I always thought Burns was the worst kind of ladder-climbing middle-class backstabber who became a doctor because that's where the bacon was, and you couldn't really make him a sympathetic figure because he was at his core a louse. Winchester had a streak of real decency underneath all the bluster and he also had a wicked sense of humor -- something Frank utterly and absolutely lacked.

MASH had the disadvantage of being rerun to death in syndication during the 80s -- it was on four times a day in some markets, and with that sort of overexposure a lot of the seams showed, and a lot of people became very critical of how it "stopped being funny" in its later years. But I don't think it ever stopped being funny -- it just became a deeper, more nuanced kind of funny, and Winchester was a big, big part of that.

I always imagined that Burns stayed in the service and eventually ended up in Vietnam, where he got fragged by a patient.

 

[Just Jim]

I always imagined that Burns stayed in the service and eventually ended up in Vietnam, where he got fragged by a patient.

Funny--I'd always pictured him kidnapped by NVA infiltrators, and returned as an act of sabotage!

I remember, years ago, hearing of a conductor named "Stiers" and wondering if he were any relation to the actor. Of course, they were one and the same. He did some great work, as a conductor, voice actor, narrator, and actor. I'll miss the pleasant surprise of recognizing his newest work.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

David Ogden Stiers was also a noted voice actor who lent his vocal talents to several Disney movies.

 

[GHT]

Roger Bannister, who, in 1954, became the first person in the world to run a mile in under four minutes. A quiet unassuming man, although he ran in the 1952 Olympics, but he gave up the chance of representing the UK at the 1956 Games in order to continue with his studies. Bannister became a neurosurgeon. He was 88.

 

[Benzadmiral]

He had big shoes to fill on MASH, following the departure of Major Frank Burns as Major Winchester. The show did not miss a beat when he joined the cast.
RIP Mr. Stiers.

The show in fact picked up enormously when Charles came in. As good as Larry Linville was, Major Burns was a thankless role. Frank was providing most of the conflict in the show before he left, and when he did I thought, "That's it, M*A*S*H is going to die slowly."

Nope. Stiers' Winchester was more than a match for the other characters, and yet he had heart. Crabbed and black, sometimes, but heart. Recall the Christmas 1980 episode in which he distributes expensive chocolates to the Korean orphans near the camp, keeping it a dead secret -- only to find that the pastor of the orphanage has sold the chocolates on the black market. Charles is outraged until the pastor points out that the money will feed the children real, healthy meals for a long time. And Charles murmurs, "You're quite right, Father. It is inappropriate for a child to have only chocolates when he has had no dinner."

Klinger, however, has found out what Charles has done, and lets him know, privately, that he thinks the aristocratic major is aces in his book. And Charles swivels around, looks straight at Klinger, and (probably for the only time) says, "Merry Christmas, Max."

Stiers also did well in the Star Trek: The Next Generation story in which he plays an alien scientist who must return home to his world -- to die, as all adults in his culture have to do when they reach a certain age. Woven with it is probably Majel Barrett's best performance on the show, as Lwaxana Troi falls in love with Stiers' scientist, only to have to say farewell to him.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

The king of British comedy, Ken Dodd, little known in the colonies across the pond, died yesterday, aged 90.

 

[Zombie_61]

Physicist and Professor Stephen Hawking has died at the age of 76.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Rapper Craig Mack, pioneer of 90's rap, died aged 46 from heart failure.

 

[Steve27752]

RiP Stephen Hawking.

 

[LizzieMaine]

This morning, the collective IQ of the human race has taken a sharp drop.

 

[Fading Fast]

There is no way Hawking's life story could have been written as fiction - no one would've believed it.

 

[Frunobulax]

Dr. Hawking was a great scientist and researcher. As a scientist myself, I admire the work he did in his field to advance cosmology and quantum mechanics. However, I've never practiced the hero worship of him many have. He was brilliant, but his forays into opining on subjects not of his expertise were unfortunate. As was the pedestal he was put on by the popular media.

RIP Dr. Hawking. Ya done good.


Sent directly from my mind to yours.

 

[OldStrummer]

It seems fitting that Hawking should pass on Pi Day (3.14).

 

[Fading Fast]

Dr. Hawking was a great scientist and researcher. As a scientist myself, I admire the work he did in his field to advance cosmology and quantum mechanics. However, I've never practiced the hero worship of him many have. He was brilliant, but his forays into opining on subjects not of his expertise were unfortunate. As was the pedestal he was put on by the popular media.

RIP Dr. Hawking. Ya done good.


Sent directly from my mind to yours.

Could not agree more. I read is "A Brief History of Time" when it came out and appreciate that he could dumb-down his brilliance to a level that even someone like me could almost grasp.

That said - and with all the respect in the world for his scientific greatness - this quote from Jared Dillian on Twitter echoed your comment and my thoughts on it as well:

A reminder that just because physicists understand the universe's most elemental truths, does not mean they understand ALL truths.​

 

[LizzieMaine]

Nor, alas, does anyone on Twitter. Or on Earth.

 

[Frunobulax]

Nor, alas, does anyone on Twitter. Or on Earth.

All the reason to not put such folks on a pedestal to worship.


Sent directly from my mind to yours.