R.I.P. Trapper John, M.D. actor Charles Siebert
Siebert, who played Stanley Riverside II for over 150 episodes, was 84.
Charles Siebert, a prolific TV actor with tons of roles in the ‘70s and ‘80s—most famously on Trapper John, M.D.—has died. This comes from Deadline, which says a statement from Santa Rosa, California’s 6th Street Playhouse confirmed that Siebert died earlier this month from COVID-related pneumonia. He was 84.
Siebert was born in Wisconsin in 1938 and studied acting at Milwaukee’s Marquette University and the London Academy Of Music And Dramatic Art. He worked as a theater actor in the ‘60s throughout the U.S. and eventually settled in New York, making his onscreen debut in soap operas like Search For Tomorrow.
In the ‘70s, he moved to Los Angeles and started working more regularly on TV, with appearances on shows like Another World, Hawk, N.Y.P.D., and The Rockford Files. In 1977, he appeared in a handful of episodes of Norman Lear’s Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, setting up a run of Norman Lear roles on All In The Family, Good Times, Maude, and One Day At A Time. Though he had a few notable appearances past the ‘80s, like a few roles on The Love Boat, Murder, She Wrote, and Xena: Warrior Princess (where he had his final TV role), he had retired from onscreen acting by the mid-‘90s.
But before all of that, Siebert got 151 episodes on M*A*S*H spin-off Trapper John, M.D. playing the stuffy, self-important Dr. Stanley Riverside II. The show, starring Pernell Roberts as the eponymous Trapper John (replacing Wayne Rogers from the M*A*S*H TV show and Elliott Gould from the movie), ran for seven seasons, from 1979 to 1986. Siebert also directed several episodes of Trapper John, M.D., as well as episodes of Xena, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Pacific Blue, Knots Landing, and The Pretender.
Deadline says Siebert is survived by his wife and several children and stepchildren.