His sitcom role had him coming out to Marty Crane, but it was years before the actor could reveal that he too was gay

Your obituary to the wonderful David Ogden Stiers (21 April) makes mention of his appearance in a 2003 episode of Frasier. You say that in many ways his snobbish Winchester (in the TV series of M*A*S*H) was an antecedent of Frasier. But the central point of the episode was that Marty Crane (the equally wonderful John Mahoney) starts to question if he is the father of Frasier and Niles, because they share so many things in common with Leland, who had been very close to their mother. When Marty confronts Leland with his suspicions Leland says the reason he was so close to Marty’s wife was because she was the only person he could tell he was gay.

How sad, therefore, that it should be another six years (at the age of 67) before the actor himself felt able to come out publicly and say he was gay.

Bob Wood

Manchester

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