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Dudley Knight
Dudley Knight 320x420
Dudley Knight appeared as Major Overman, an Army opthamologist, in the Season 6 episode of M*A*S*H titled "Out of Sight, Out of Mind".
Personal Information
Born: (1939-07-01)July 1, 1939
Birthplace Rochester, Minnesota, U.S.
Died: June 27, 2013(2013-06-27) (aged 73)
Deathplace Newport Beach, California, U.S. (Heart attack)
Occupation/
Career:
Voice, Speech/Dialect expert, stage and screen actor
Years active: 1961-2013, his death
Spouse(s): Marta Whistler, ?-2013, his death
Character information
Appeared on/in: M*A*S*H
Episodes appeared in: "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" in Season 5
Character(s) played: Major Overman


Dudley Knight (born July 1, 1939 - died June 27, 2013) was a voice/speech/dialect expert and stage/TV actor with over forty-year experience as a speech and dialect teacher and voice director for professional theatre.[1] He conducted workshops and lectures on voice and speech for actors and voice teachers worldwide. He made a guest appearance on the CBS-TV series M*A*S*H as Major Overman, an Army ophthalmologist who examines Hawkeye after a gas furnace which he was trying to re-light for the nurses in their tent explodes in his face in the Season 5 episode "Out of Sight, Out of Mind",

Early life and career[]

Knight was born and raised in Rochester, Minnesota. He became interested in Shakespeare at age 9, during a class outing to see Sir Laurence Olivier's film version of The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France (1944).

Dudley graduated from the Yale School of Drama. He was a co-founder of Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut.He retired from the University of California, Irvine, where he taught for twenty years. Knight coached voice, text, and dialects at many theatres, including the Utah Shakespearean Festival, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, South Coast Repertory, and American Conservatory Theatre.[2]

Dudley was a Master teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework®, which is based on the teachings of Catherine Fitzmaurice.[3] He conducted workshops where he taught Knight-Thompson Speechwork, work he developed that complements the Fitzmaurice technique. His 2012 book, Speaking With Skill, is considered a major work in its field.

Acting work[]

As an actor, he played major roles at American Conservatory Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Mark Taper Forum, and the Utah and Colorado Shakespeare Festivals, among others. He is also known for roles in such films as the TV movie The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974), The Candidate (1972) and Two Is a Happy Number (1972), as well as appearances on numerous TV series such as his appearance on M*A*S*H, Police Story, Eight is Enough, The Facts of Life, and Knots Landing.

Personal life and death[]

Married to the former Marta Whistler, Knight died of a heart attack at his home in Newport Beach, California.

References[]

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