 Many of his
co-workers -- he considered them to be his enemies -- were always
trying to trick him, yet they wanted to keep him around. They needed
him in order to succeed. Other co-workers, who were supposed to be
on his side, either despised him or showed a total lack of respect
for him.
His failure in school, where he graduated last in his class,
carried over into his military and personal life. He crashed his
plane while flying for the Germans in World War I, causing his
passenger, "The Blue Baron," to walk with a limp for the rest of his
life. And he was constantly threatened with being forced to marry
the sister of his boss.
Werner was born in Cologne, Germany, in 1920. Like several of his
co-workers, he fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s. After he landed in
Los Angeles, he got work as an actor in movies and TV shows such as
"Gunsmoke," "Perry Mason," "My Three Sons" and even "The Love Boat."
You might not recognize him by his full name, Werner Klemperer,
but by the name of the main character he played -- the bumbling,
monocle-wearing Col. Klink of "Hogan's Heroes" fame. The show about
Allied prisoners during World War II ran from 1965 to 1971.
Klemperer played the role of a German officer during World War
II, despite the fact that he was Jewish. In fact, several of his
co-workers who played the Germans on the show were Jewish, too,
including John Banner, who played Sgt. Schultz; Leon Askin, in the
role of Gen. Burkhalter; and Howard Caine, as Maj. Hochstetter.
On the Allies' side, Robert Clary, as French Cpl. LeBeau, was
also Jewish. He and Banner both spent time in German concentration
camps before fleeing to America.
Some of the Jewish actors were criticized for playing the roles
of Nazis, but as Banner said: "Who can play Nazis better than us
Jews?" And Klemperer only agreed to play the role of Klink on the
condition that his character would never be successful against the
Allies. He wanted to portray the Germans as the losers.
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And what about his failures that I mentioned earlier? It was on the
show rather than in real life that Klink graduated last in his
class. The same goes for crashing his plane in World War I. And the
woman he wanted to avoid marrying was Gen. Burkhalter's sister,
Gertrude, played by Kathleen Freeman. Again, it was all on the show
rather than in real life.
With his success as an actor, Werner Klemperer escaped the large
shadow that his father's career had cast over him. But his success
as an actor portraying Klink -- he was nominated for five Emmy
awards and won two times -- cast another large shadow over him. In
what often happens to actors who play a major role as well as
Klemperer did, he was typecast and found it difficult to get hired
for other roles. He decided that he would never reprise the role of
Col. Klink in plays and other appearances. Then, in 1993, he was
given a script that he just couldn't resist. What show was that?
"The Simpsons," in which he played Klink appearing as Homer's
guardian angel. D'ohhh!
Here are a few other little-known pieces of trivia about "Hogan's
Heroes":
-
Klemperer did serve
in World War II -- in the U.S. Army.
-
Klemperer was
originally slated to play the role of Sgt. Schultz, while Banner
was slated to play the role of Col. Klink.
-
In real life, Bob
Crane, who played Col. Hogan, was married to Sigrid Valdis, who
played Klink's secretary, Hilda, on the German side. They later
divorced.
-
Banner didn't speak
English when he came to America. In his first few roles, he had
to memorize his lines phonetically in English, even though it
was a foreign language to him. He also served in the United
States military.
-
The sitcom
"M*A*S*H" was originally going to be titled "Hawkeye's Heroes."
[Text from file received
from Paul Niemann]
Paul Niemann may be reached at
niemann7@aol.com.
Copyright Paul Niemann 2007
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