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Werner Klemperer
Werner Klemperer (March 22, 1920 – December 6, 2000) was an American actor. He was best known for playing Colonel Wilhelm Klink on the CBS television sitcom Hogan's Heroes, for which he twice won the award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series at the Primetime Emmy Awards in 1968 and 1969.
Klemperer served in the United States Army during World War II, then began performing on the Broadway stage in 1947. He appeared in several films during his early acting career, such as The Wrong Man (1956), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), and Houseboat (1958), and he had numerous roles on television shows such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1956), Perry Mason (1957), Maverick (1957), Gunsmoke (1958), The Untouchables (1960), and Have Gun – Will Travel (1961), prior to his Hogan's Heroes role.
Klemperer was born in Cologne, Germany, to a musical family but he said that he had little musical aptitude. His father was renowned orchestra conductor Otto Klemperer and his mother was soprano Johanna Geisler. He had a younger sister named Lotte (1923–2003). His father was Jewish by birth; he converted to Catholicism but later returned to Judaism. His mother was Lutheran. His grandfather was part of the Jewish community in Prague, and his grandmother was a Sephardic Jew from Hamburg, Germany. Otto Klemperer was a first cousin of Victor Klemperer.
The Klemperer family emigrated to the United States in 1933, settling in Los Angeles, where Otto Klemperer became conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (1933–1939). Werner Klemperer began acting as a student at University High School and enrolled in acting courses at the Pasadena Playhouse before joining the United States Army to serve in World War II. While stationed in Hawaii, he joined the Army's Special Services unit, spending the next years touring the Pacific entertaining the troops.
After the war, he performed on Broadway, appearing in Heads or Tails and Bertolt Brecht's Galileo, both in 1947, the comedy Twentieth Century by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur in 1951, and Dear Charles, another comedy, in 1955.
Klemperer's first major film role was as a psychiatrist in Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man (1956). Earlier that year in Death of a Scoundrel he had a smaller role as the lawyer of the hero/villain portrayed by George Sanders. He played a German government officer in the 1959 episode, "The Haunted U-Boat", of the series One Step Beyond. Also in 1959, he appeared as a Frenchman in the episode "Fragile" of the Western TV series Have Gun – Will Travel. He received significant notice for his role in the award-winning 1961 film Judgment at Nuremberg. The film presents a fictionalized account of the post-World War II Judges' Trial, one of the Nuremberg trials, with Klemperer portraying Emil Hahn, a Nazi prosecutor and one of the defendants at the trial. Prior to this, he had a small role in the 1957 Errol Flynn film Istanbul and a pivotal part in the "Comstock Conspiracy" episode of Maverick that same year. He played the title role in the 1961 film Operation Eichmann, opposite his future co-star John Banner.
Klemperer guest-starred in the first Brian Keith television series, Crusader, a Cold War drama that aired on CBS. During this time, he made three guest appearances on Perry Mason: he played East German murder victim Stefan Riker in the 1958 episode "The Case of the Desperate Daughter"; the East European character Ulrik Zenas in the 1963 episode "The Case of the Two-Faced Turn-a-bout"; and Police Inspector Hurt in 1964 in "The Case of a Place Called Midnight". In 1963, Klemperer also portrayed a professor of psychology in "The Dream Book", an episode on the sitcom My Three Sons. He played Lt. Huebner in the 1965 film Ship of Fools, in which he tells Mrs. Mary Treadwell, played by Vivien Leigh, that her life "ends by sitting in a nightclub with a paid escort who tells [her] the lies [she wants] to hear."
Prior to Hogan's Heroes, Klemperer appeared in the 1956 episode "Safe Conduct" of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, along with John Banner; twice appeared as Hugo on the syndicated romantic comedy series, How to Marry a Millionaire (1957–1959), with Barbara Eden and Merry Anders; and appeared on the "Purple Gang" episode of The Untouchables.
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Werner Klemperer
Werner Klemperer (March 22, 1920 – December 6, 2000) was an American actor. He was best known for playing Colonel Wilhelm Klink on the CBS television sitcom Hogan's Heroes, for which he twice won the award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series at the Primetime Emmy Awards in 1968 and 1969.
Klemperer served in the United States Army during World War II, then began performing on the Broadway stage in 1947. He appeared in several films during his early acting career, such as The Wrong Man (1956), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), and Houseboat (1958), and he had numerous roles on television shows such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1956), Perry Mason (1957), Maverick (1957), Gunsmoke (1958), The Untouchables (1960), and Have Gun – Will Travel (1961), prior to his Hogan's Heroes role.
Klemperer was born in Cologne, Germany, to a musical family but he said that he had little musical aptitude. His father was renowned orchestra conductor Otto Klemperer and his mother was soprano Johanna Geisler. He had a younger sister named Lotte (1923–2003). His father was Jewish by birth; he converted to Catholicism but later returned to Judaism. His mother was Lutheran. His grandfather was part of the Jewish community in Prague, and his grandmother was a Sephardic Jew from Hamburg, Germany. Otto Klemperer was a first cousin of Victor Klemperer.
The Klemperer family emigrated to the United States in 1933, settling in Los Angeles, where Otto Klemperer became conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (1933–1939). Werner Klemperer began acting as a student at University High School and enrolled in acting courses at the Pasadena Playhouse before joining the United States Army to serve in World War II. While stationed in Hawaii, he joined the Army's Special Services unit, spending the next years touring the Pacific entertaining the troops.
After the war, he performed on Broadway, appearing in Heads or Tails and Bertolt Brecht's Galileo, both in 1947, the comedy Twentieth Century by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur in 1951, and Dear Charles, another comedy, in 1955.
Klemperer's first major film role was as a psychiatrist in Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man (1956). Earlier that year in Death of a Scoundrel he had a smaller role as the lawyer of the hero/villain portrayed by George Sanders. He played a German government officer in the 1959 episode, "The Haunted U-Boat", of the series One Step Beyond. Also in 1959, he appeared as a Frenchman in the episode "Fragile" of the Western TV series Have Gun – Will Travel. He received significant notice for his role in the award-winning 1961 film Judgment at Nuremberg. The film presents a fictionalized account of the post-World War II Judges' Trial, one of the Nuremberg trials, with Klemperer portraying Emil Hahn, a Nazi prosecutor and one of the defendants at the trial. Prior to this, he had a small role in the 1957 Errol Flynn film Istanbul and a pivotal part in the "Comstock Conspiracy" episode of Maverick that same year. He played the title role in the 1961 film Operation Eichmann, opposite his future co-star John Banner.
Klemperer guest-starred in the first Brian Keith television series, Crusader, a Cold War drama that aired on CBS. During this time, he made three guest appearances on Perry Mason: he played East German murder victim Stefan Riker in the 1958 episode "The Case of the Desperate Daughter"; the East European character Ulrik Zenas in the 1963 episode "The Case of the Two-Faced Turn-a-bout"; and Police Inspector Hurt in 1964 in "The Case of a Place Called Midnight". In 1963, Klemperer also portrayed a professor of psychology in "The Dream Book", an episode on the sitcom My Three Sons. He played Lt. Huebner in the 1965 film Ship of Fools, in which he tells Mrs. Mary Treadwell, played by Vivien Leigh, that her life "ends by sitting in a nightclub with a paid escort who tells [her] the lies [she wants] to hear."
Prior to Hogan's Heroes, Klemperer appeared in the 1956 episode "Safe Conduct" of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, along with John Banner; twice appeared as Hugo on the syndicated romantic comedy series, How to Marry a Millionaire (1957–1959), with Barbara Eden and Merry Anders; and appeared on the "Purple Gang" episode of The Untouchables.
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