He appeared prominently in the 1980s in the role of District Attorney Michael Reston in several Perry Mason television films, and voiced a number of Disney characters, including Cogsworth in 1991's Beauty and the Beast, Governor Ratcliffe and Wiggins in 1995's Pocahontas, and Dr. Jumba Jookiba in the Lilo & Stitch franchise.

Stiers continued to contribute voice work for films and television productions in his later years, narrating M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water (2006) and having a recurring role on the animated series Regular Show.

Subsequent early credits included roles on the television series The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Kojak, and Rhoda.

[10] In contrast to the buffoonish Burns, Winchester was articulate and socially sophisticated, and a highly talented surgeon who presented a very different type of foil to Alan Alda's Hawkeye Pierce and Mike Farrell's B.J.

[10] Burns usually served as the butt of practical jokes instigated by Pierce or Hunnicutt, was frequently inundated by insults for which he had no comebacks, and was often harshly criticized for his surgical skills.

Winchester, however, presented a challenge to his colleagues' displays of irreverence, since his surgical skills could match or even outshine their own, and when it came to pranks and insults, he frequently outmaneuvered his opponent; his patrician manner and aversion to puerile behavior served as the target for his fellow surgeons' barbs and jokes.

At times, however, Winchester could align himself with Pierce and Hunnicutt, and the occasional tantrum aside, held considerable admiration for his commanding officer, Harry Morgan's Colonel Sherman T. Potter.

[11] After M*A*S*H completed its run in 1983, Stiers made guest appearances on the television shows North and South; Star Trek: The Next Generation; Murder, She Wrote; Matlock; Touched by an Angel; Wings; ALF and Frasier, along with a regular role in the first season of Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place as Mr. Bauer.

In 2002, Stiers started a recurring role as the Reverend Purdy on the successful USA Network series The Dead Zone with Anthony Michael Hall.

He collaborated with Disney on eight animated features, including 1991's Beauty and the Beast (as Cogsworth, also providing the opening narration), 1995's Pocahontas (as Governor Ratcliffe and Wiggins), 1996's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (as the Archdeacon), 2001's Atlantis: The Lost Empire (as Mr. Harcourt), and 2002's Lilo & Stitch (as Jumba Jookiba).

[15][16][17] Stiers traced his love of music back to a performance by George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra on the basketball court at the University of Oregon in the 1950s.

Stiers came out as gay in 2009,[20][21] telling Oklahoma City blog Gossip Boy that he feared coming out would hurt his career[21] and that "a lot of my income has been derived from voicing Disney and family programming.