'Hogan's Heroes' Actor Dies at 97
Monday, June 06, 2005
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com)
Leon Askin, who played Nazi Gen. Albert Burkhalter in "Hogan's Heroes," died recently in a hospital in Vienna, Austria at the age of 97.
The actor passed away on Friday, June 3, reports his official website. A funeral service will be held at on Thursday, June 9 at Vienna's Zentralfriedhof.
Askin, whose parents were imprisoned and killed at a Nazi concentration camp, is best known for his portrayal of "Hogan's Heroes" Nazi Gen. Burkhalter, who perpetually threatened the incompetent POW camp commander Col. Wilhelm Klink with "I send you to the Russian Front!"
"After I had become well-known through the TV series 'Hogan's Heroes,' Beverly Hills school children would call after me 'Klink, Klink!'" Askin writes on his website. "People driving through Beverly Hills who saw these children raising their arms in the Hitler salute couldn't continue out of sheer shock and amazement and brought traffic to a standstill."
Leo Aschkenasy was born in Vienna on Sept. 18, 1907. His family could not afford to send him to school full time to sturdy acting, so he attended night classes while working as a bookkeeper and salesman in 1925 and landed his first acting gig on stage a year later.
He worked as an actor and director at the Dumont Playhouse in Vienna, but was thrown out in 1933 for being Jewish. He twice fled to Paris to escape persecution, and in 1938 his parents were killed in a concentration camp. After a stint in a French internment camp, Askin emigrated to the United States in 1940 and served in the Army Air Corps during World War II.
After the war, he returned to the stage and worked as a director on Broadway as well as a drama teacher. In 1952, he finally broke into the Hollywood film world with "Assignment Paris." He continued in some 60 films including "Road to Bali," Billy Wilder's "One, Two, Three," "The Terror of Dr. Mabuse," "The Perils of Pauline," "Double Trouble" and "Airplane II: The Sequel."
He also acted frequently on TV. Besides his run on "Hogan's Heroes," Askin made guest appearances on "Studio 57," "The Adventures of Superman," "Soldier of Fortune," "My Favorite Martian," "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," "Mission: Impossible," "Three's Company" and "Diff'rent Strokes."
He returned to Vienna in 1994 and later received the city's Gold Medal of Honor.
"We have lost a huge actor and artist and a wonderful man," says Vienna's Mayor Michael Haeupl in a statement.
Monday, June 06, 2005
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com)
Leon Askin, who played Nazi Gen. Albert Burkhalter in "Hogan's Heroes," died recently in a hospital in Vienna, Austria at the age of 97.
The actor passed away on Friday, June 3, reports his official website. A funeral service will be held at on Thursday, June 9 at Vienna's Zentralfriedhof.
Askin, whose parents were imprisoned and killed at a Nazi concentration camp, is best known for his portrayal of "Hogan's Heroes" Nazi Gen. Burkhalter, who perpetually threatened the incompetent POW camp commander Col. Wilhelm Klink with "I send you to the Russian Front!"
"After I had become well-known through the TV series 'Hogan's Heroes,' Beverly Hills school children would call after me 'Klink, Klink!'" Askin writes on his website. "People driving through Beverly Hills who saw these children raising their arms in the Hitler salute couldn't continue out of sheer shock and amazement and brought traffic to a standstill."
Leo Aschkenasy was born in Vienna on Sept. 18, 1907. His family could not afford to send him to school full time to sturdy acting, so he attended night classes while working as a bookkeeper and salesman in 1925 and landed his first acting gig on stage a year later.
He worked as an actor and director at the Dumont Playhouse in Vienna, but was thrown out in 1933 for being Jewish. He twice fled to Paris to escape persecution, and in 1938 his parents were killed in a concentration camp. After a stint in a French internment camp, Askin emigrated to the United States in 1940 and served in the Army Air Corps during World War II.
After the war, he returned to the stage and worked as a director on Broadway as well as a drama teacher. In 1952, he finally broke into the Hollywood film world with "Assignment Paris." He continued in some 60 films including "Road to Bali," Billy Wilder's "One, Two, Three," "The Terror of Dr. Mabuse," "The Perils of Pauline," "Double Trouble" and "Airplane II: The Sequel."
He also acted frequently on TV. Besides his run on "Hogan's Heroes," Askin made guest appearances on "Studio 57," "The Adventures of Superman," "Soldier of Fortune," "My Favorite Martian," "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," "Mission: Impossible," "Three's Company" and "Diff'rent Strokes."
He returned to Vienna in 1994 and later received the city's Gold Medal of Honor.
"We have lost a huge actor and artist and a wonderful man," says Vienna's Mayor Michael Haeupl in a statement.
