Seventies M*A*S*H star David Ogden
Stiers has come out of the closet.
“I am [gay],” the actor who is best
know for playing the uppity doctor Major Charles Emerson Winchester
III on CBS's long running series M*A*S*H said. “Very proud to be
so.”
The revelation came in an overlooked
interview posted online in March at gossip-boy.com.
Stiers says he's finally comfortable
speaking publicly about his sexuality. Adding he would not want to
impose the closet on a potential suitor.
“I wish to spend my life's twilight
being just who I am,” Stiers said. “I could claim noble reasons
as coming out in order to move gay rights forward, but I must admit
it is for far more selfish reasons. Now is the time I wish to find
someone and I do not desire to force any potential partner to live a
life of extreme discretion with me.”
Stiers, 66, said he is looking for a
man who is both “mature and youthful” with “developed arms.”
And explained that he kept his
sexuality hidden for so long because he feared Hollywood would reject
him: “Even though many have this idealistic belief that the
entertainment industry [is] gay friendly. For the most part they
are, but that doesn't mean for them that business does not come
first.”