'Hogan's Heroes' Actor Ivan Dixon Dies

[Kor37 9]

'Hogan's Heroes' Actor Ivan Dixon Dies

 

 

 

 

AP

Posted: 2008-03-19 13:00:47

Filed Under: Star Obituaries, Movie News, TV News

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (March 19) - Actor Ivan Dixon, who brought the problems and promise of contemporary blacks to life in the film "Nothing But a Man" and portrayed the levelheaded POW Kinchloe in TV's "Hogan's Heroes," has died. He was 76.

 

Dixon died Sunday at Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte after a hemorrhage, said his daughter, Doris Nomathande Dixon of Charlotte. He had suffered complications from kidney failure, she said.

 

Dixon, who also directed scores of television shows, began his acting career in the late 1950s. He appeared on Broadway in William Saroyan's 1957 "The Cave Dwellers" and in playwright Lorraine Hansberry's groundbreaking 1959 drama of black life, "A Raisin in the Sun." In the latter, he played a Nigerian student visiting the United States, a role he repeated in the film version.

 

While not a hit, the 1964 "Nothing But a Man," in which Dixon co-starred with Abbey Lincoln, also drew praise as a rare, early effort to bring the lives of black Americans to the big screen.

 

Other film credits included "Something of Value," "A Patch of Blue" and the cult favorite "Car Wash."

 

"As an actor, you had to be careful," said Sidney Poitier, star of "Patch of Blue" and a longtime friend. "He was quite likely to walk off with the scene."

 

In 1967, Dixon starred in a CBS Playhouse drama, "The Final War of Olly Winter," about a veteran of World War II and Korea who decided that Vietnam would be his final war. The role brought Dixon an Emmy nomination for best single performance by an actor.

 

He was probably best known for the role of Staff Sgt. James Kinchloe on "Hogan's Heroes," the hit 1960s sitcom set in a German prisoner-of-war camp during World War II.

 

The technically adept Kinchloe was in charge of electronic communications and could mimic German officers on the radio or phone.

 

Dixon was active in efforts to get better parts for blacks in movies and television, telling The New York Times in 1967: "Sponsors haven't wanted anything negative connected with their products. We must convince them that the Negro is not negative."

 

"Heretofore, people have thought that, to use a Negro, the story must pit black against white. Maybe we're getting to the problems of In addition to his daughter, survivors include his wife of 53 years, Berlie Dixon of Charlotte, and a son, Alan Kimara Dixon of Oakland. At Dixon's request, no memorial or funeral is planned, the family said.

http://www.aolcdn.com/aolnews_photos/07/00...319072209990065

 

 

One of my favorite TV shows of all time. RIP Kinchloe.....

[trekz 7]

Hogan's Heroes was great and always got me laughing. Lots of great lines: Here's one prisoner bit with one line by Ivan Dixon:

 

Cpl. Peter Newkirk: Steal a German tank?

Col. Robert E. Hogan: We'll give it back... after we take it apart and make blueprints of it.

Sgt. James 'Kinch' Kinchloe: Well, how do we get ahold of it?

Cpl. Louis LeBeau: How do we get it in here?

Cpl. Peter Newkirk: Where are we going to hide a tank?

Sgt. Andrew Carter: Where do we take it apart?

Col. Robert E. Hogan: Look, I got the idea of stealing it, right? The rest is detail.

 

May Sgt. Kinchloe, and Ivan Dizon, R.I.P.