Story Clary was the last surviving original principal cast member of Hogan's Heroes (Kenneth Washngton, who replaced Ivan Dixon on the show in its final season, is still aliove as of this writing).
Clary, who portrayed Corporal Louis LeBeau, was a Holocaust *which I had known) and was married to one of Eddie Cantor's daughters (which I had not known).
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I didn't know that Clary was Jewish or that he was in concentration camps. It had been pointed out previously that Werner Klemperer (Col Klink) and John Banner (Sgt Schultz) were both from Jewish families that got out of there before the Holocaust. They were happy to portray the Nazis as stupid.
Leon Askin (General Burkhalter) and Howard Caine (Major Hochstetter) were Jews, as well.
Richard Willis said:
Allegedly Klemperer reserved the right to leave the series if Klink was ever portrayed in either a positive manner or as something other than a bumbling buffoon while Clary was seen talking to Askin and/or Caine off camera on a regular basis but nobody at first knew it was about their common history.
I did not know about him being a Holocaust survivor until today. Sorry, to hear of his passing.
My dad was a huge fan of Hogan's Heroes, and I remember when I would be home from school, he would often come home for lunch, and watch this in syndication.