(Ivan Dixon)'Hogan's Heroes' actor dies in Charlotte

wcnc.com ^ | Tuesday, March 18, 2008

[ArrogantBustard]

The guy who played the FRee FRench POW, (can't remember his name, was a survivor of the Holocaust.

Best casting (IMO):

Werner Klemperer (Col. Klink) was Jewish; his family fled Germany before the war, and he agreed to play the part only if Klink was always portrayed as a failure.

[Richard Kimball]

Kind of hard to believe she'd bust a cap on you, isn't it? Next question: Would you go out with her, even knowing she might take you out? I'm guessing about 75% of the guys would say yes.

[IndyTiger]

Banner even played a commandant at a death camp in a Marlon Brando movie I can’t remember the name of.

"The Young Lions." Monty Clift and Dean Martin also starred. I have the DVD, great flick.

[durasell]

I wonder if he ever refused an invitation to one of Bob Crane’s “parties.”

---

Beats me.

[boop]

"wonder if he ever refused an invitation to one of Bob Crane’s “parties.”"

Apparently Richard Dawson accepted. They were into all kinds of kink.

[bannie]

Bless him and all of the others on that show. They brought many smiles to many of us.

Rest In Peace, Sir.

[colorado tanker]

Lots of Jews were connected with the show, including the producer, Bernie Fine, Schultz, Le Beau and I believe one of the two regular visiting German officers. Werner told Sigrid Valdis, Hogan's wife, that he took the role because he was an actor and actors don't turn down work.

Interesting trivia: the initial concept for the series was for prisoners in an American prison breaking out at night to do good deeds and then return. They didn't think the concept would work but hit on the idea of making them POW's instead, where returning to the prison to do intel and underground work made more sense.

I frankly don't see how anyone could have been offended by the series where it made the Nazis into such buffoons.

[Richard Kimball]

I frankly don't see how anyone could have been offended by the series where it made the Nazis into such buffoons.

The show was created only twenty years after the end of WWII.

Many people who had been through the war in Europe and escaped to the US objected to the trivializing of the Nazi camps as being run by humorous clowns, when they had seen the reality.

[colorado tanker]

Uh, Le Beau was a camp survivor in real life. He wasn’t offended.

[Political Junkie Too]

She was married to Andy Williams and then became a recluse after killing Spider Sabich.

I remember the Claudine Longet Invitational Ski Tournament sketch on SNL many years ago.

-PJ

[SkyDancer]

Love the re-runs ....

[SkyDancer]

Right - too late after I posted it to correct myself ....

[Richard Kimball]

I'm aware of that. Clary was not the only person who had been in a concentration camp, and many who had been in concentration camps were offended, as were people who had lost loved ones. Some also objected to it humanizing the German guards.

Some people deal with trauma by making fun of it. Others deal with it differently. Having been born after WWII, I didn't understand the hubbub when the show came on, but some people I know with serial numbers on their arms talked about it, and eventually I figured it out. I'm not saying whether it was right or wrong, but many of the holocaust survivors saw it as I would see a humorous show about child rape. They didn't see anything funny about the situation.

[the_devils_advocate_666]

More of a Sigrid Valdis fan myself...

[Riverman94610]

Thanks for mentioning Nothing But a Man,a marvelous film with co-star Abbey Lincoln.
And don’t forget Dixon’s most controversial work,The Spook Who Sat by the Door,based on the Sam Greenlee book about a black guerilla uprising filmed in Gary,Indiana.

[Lurker]

She also played the love interest opposite Peter Sellers in "The Party" which is one of the funniest movies ever made.

L

[steve-b]

no memorial is planned

In fact, the news people only found out about it because they had a microphone hidden in his nurse call button.

[steve-b]

What I recall is that Hogan's scheme was to make the other Germans think that Klink was "Nimrod" for long enough to distract them while they pulled off something else.

One scene:

[Klink walks past]
Maj. Hochstetter: See, you only thought he was stupid--
Gen. Burkhalter: I thought he was stupid? You thought he was stupid too! Everybody thought he was stupid!!
Maj. Hochstetter: Hard to believe that that's the most brilliant enemy agent in Germany....
Gen. Burkhalter: He still looks like stupid old Klink to me.

[scrabblehack]

In the final scene, Hogan reads a letter from Nimrod — I think it is cut from the telecasts today in order to show an extra commercial — it mentions Klink, and Hogan is left with a surprised look on his face, as if he hadn’t really fooled the Germans as much as he thought he did.

Does anyone have the episode uncut? It’s episode 107, “The Missing Klink,” shown in Season 4 (Jan 4, 1969).