Robert Clary, last of the ‘Hogan’s Heroes’ stars, dies at 96

[Platapus]

Robert Clary, a French-born survivor of Nazi concentration camps during World War II who played a feisty prisoner of war in the improbable 1960s sitcom “Hogan’s Heroes,” has died. He was 96.
Clary died Wednesday of natural causes at his home in the Los Angeles area, niece Brenda Hancock said Thursday.
“He never let those horrors defeat him," Hancock said of Clary's wartime experience as a youth. “He never let them take the joy out of his life. He tried to spread that joy to others through his singing and his dancing and his painting.”
When he recounted his life to students, he told them, “Don't ever hate,” Hancock said. “He didn't let hate overcome the beauty in this world.”
“Hogan’s Heroes,” in which Allied soldiers in a POW camp bested their clownish German army captors with espionage schemes, played the war strictly for laughs during its 1965-71 run. The 5-foot-1 Clary sported a beret and a sardonic smile as Cpl. Louis LeBeau.

[Buddahaid]

R.I.P. Cpl. LeBeau. Another show brought to you by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez. Stalag 13 was part of the back forty lot of the old RKO film studio where Gone with the Wind was filmed.
https://retroweb.com/40acres_rko_later_years.html
https://retroweb.com/40acres_desilu_years.html

[les green01]

rip

[August]

A5714 was his concentration camp number which was tattooed on his forearm. He got to look at it until he died. RIP.

[Commander Wallace]

Rest in peace, Robert. :Kaleun_Salute:

[Jimbuna]

R I P Sir

[Eichhörnchen]

https://i.imgur.com/lHCPuTe.jpg

So sad to hear of this. Perhaps my favourite TV show as a kid - maybe of all time

[nikimcbee]

He was the last cast member still alive?

[August]

He was the last cast member still alive?


Sadly yes.

[HW3]

I remember the show being quite controversial among the WWII veterans at the time it came out. I loved it myself.

[Eichhörnchen]

^ I'm not surprised to hear that; our own wartime comedy 'Allo 'Allo, casting the Nazis as comic characters, ruffled feathers as recently as the 1980s when it came out

People maybe forget that one way the US and UK population coped with fear of Hitler and his gang was to make fun of them - no belittling of the armed forces was intended in either case, even if the two RAF escapers in the British show were portrayed as buffoons - it was affectionately done

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0Fjydw-p3E

(They are also disguised as Frenchmen in this)

[Ostfriese]

He was the last cast member still alive?


Of the original members yes. Kenneth Washington (who played Sgt. Richard Baker in Season 5) is still alive.


I always loved "Hogan's Heroes" (not shown on German TV before 1992), which in the German version is even more of a parody than in the original English version due to the translation.


Rest in Peace, Robert Clary.

[Platapus]

Almost interesting Trivia: The original plot of the story was supposed to take place in a US prison. Hogan's Hoard was a group of criminals operating against the bumbling prison guards.



For obvious reasons, this plot did not fly well with the networks so the writers had to come up with a plot where the prisoners can be the good guys and the guards can be the bad comic foils.


Hence the POW plot.

[Eichhörnchen]

It was such a great idea - one of the first (maybe even the first?) of what we now call situation comedies