got sidetracked tonight. I saw the original movie "Judgement at Nuremberg" with Spencer Tracy today on cable. And who was playing one of the bad Nazis but, none other than Col Klink (Werner Klemperer) himself! So while I'm watching the movie I'm thinking, "They're gonna whack Klink...FINALLY...for war crimes!"
HH was voted the fifth worst idea for a TV show ever. What a premise...
So tonight I start reading up on Hogan's Heroes. Some pretty interesting stuff:
1) All the main Nazis (Col Klink, SS Col Hochstetter, Gen. Bulkhalter, Sgt Schultz) were Jews. Robert Clary (who played LeBeau the Frenchman) was also Jewish.
2) Kleperer's father was a famous orchestra conductor, and he took his family and fled Germany to Los Angeles in 1933. Werner was a master violinist, but in many HH Episodes, he plays a violin very badly (ala Jack Benny.) In later life he conducted orchestras like his father. He served in the US Army Special Entertainment Division during WWII, playing violin to entertain servicemen in the Pacific. In 1993, Klemperer reprised the role of Klink in an episode of The Simpsons as Homer's guardian angel and spirit guide in the episode "The Last Temptation of Homer" According to the episode's DVD commentary, when Klemperer appeared, he had to be given a quick reminder of how to play Colonel Klink. He declined other offers to reprise the character, including one from talk show host Conan O'Brien. Col. Klink died of cancer in 2000 in New York City.
3) John Banner was also Jewish. He escaped Austria for the US in 1938, but lost family members in German Concentration camps. In WWII he served in the US Army Air Corps. He was the most beloved actor on the set of HH.
4) Robert Clary (LeBeau) was Jewish, and the youngest of 14
children. When the Nazis invaded France, he was deported with other
members of his family to a concentration camp. He had a Nazi tattoo on his arm from being branded. Some of his family perished in the camps, some (including Robert) survived.
5) Bob Crane (who played Col. Hogan) was originally a DJ from Connecticut, who was one of the first real "Morning Drive" DJ's in LA in the 1950s. He was also an accomplished drummer, and is the guy playing the drums in the HH Theme Song for the TV show. A high school drop out, during WWII he was in the Army Reserve as a clerk. There's been a lot of speculation about Crane's death in 1978 -he was bludgeoned to death with a camera tripod in a Scottsdale, AZ apartment- and whoever killed him took the time to ejaculate all over his dead body after killing him. There was a lot of talk that Crane was into freaky sex and weird sexual fetishes. His murder was never solved.
6) One of the Nazis who played an ongoing role was Major Hochstetter. Played by actor Howard Caine. Caine was from a Jewish Family from Nashville, TN. He graduated summa cum laude from Columbia University in Drama, and served in the US Navy in the Pacific during WW II. He was a master actor, able to do more than 32 different dialects. He also was
self-taught on the five string banjo, and had won numerous trophies at banjo and fiddle contests across Appalachia, and played at a number of folk clubs and festivals before his death in 1993.
7) General Burkhalter: Played by actor Leon Askin, who was also Jewish and was born in Vienna. He escaped Germany via France in 1940 and arrived in New York not speaking a word of English. He joined the US Army during WW II. While in the Army he learned his parents were both killed in the Treblinka Extermination Camp. After HH, he returned to Austria and was a theater director for many years, and was awarded the Vienna Gold Medal of Honor for artistic achievement. He died in Vienna in 2005 at the age of 97.
8) Hilda the Secretary: Klink's secretary, the blonde with the pigtails. Actress named Patricia Olsen (stage name Sigrid Valdis.) Bob Crane left his wife Anne (his high school sweetheart and wife of 21 years) for Sigrid in 1970. They were married on the HH set. She died of lung cancer in 2007.
9) Larry Hovis: Played Sgt Carter, the bomb maker and chemist. Hovis was a graduate of the University of Houston, and was originally a singer, and also did a season of Rowan & Martin's Laugh In. While doing HH, he refused to remove his wedding ring. So, in most scenes, he is either wearing gloves, or you don't see his left hand. In 1990 he became a drama teacher at Texas State Univ at San Marcos. He died of cancer in 2003.
10) Ivan Dixon: Played Sgt Kinchloe, the communications specialist. Dixon was from Harlem, and grew up with actor Gregory Hines. After HH, he worked as a television director, directing series like The Waltons, Magnum PI and The Rockford Files. He owned an FM radio station in Maui, HI (KONI-FM). He died from kidney failure in 2008 at age 76.
11) Richard Dawson: Played Brit Corporal Newkirk. Dawson's real name is Colin Emm. He ran away from his home in England at age 14 to join the Merchant Marine. He eventually found his way to LA in the early 1960s and landed a bit part on the Dick Van Dyke show, which was his big break. He was originally considered for the role of Col Hogan on HH, but producers said he didn't sound "American Enough," so they wrote the role of Newkirk for him. Besides doing HH, he was a regular on "Laugh In" for three seasons, then went on to become a game show panelist (primarily on Match Game) then a game show host on Family Feud. He's now retired from TV and living in LA. He has four grandchildren.