Actors - Werner Klemperer

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	Actors - Werner Klemperer

Werner Klemperer (Cologne, March 22, 1920 – New York City, December 6, 2000) was an Emmy Award-winning comedic actor, best known for his role as Colonel Klink on the Hogan's Heroes television sitcom.

Beginnings

Born into a musical family, he was the son of Johanna Geisler, a soprano, and of the great conductor Otto Klemperer. A "Halbjude" (half-Jew), Werner fled the Nazi regime with his family in 1933; they all made their way to Los Angeles, where his father obtained a conducting post.

Werner began acting in high school, and, although an accomplished concert pianist, he enrolled in acting courses in Pasadena before joining the U.S. Army to fight in World War II. While stationed in Hawaii, he joined the army's Special Services unit, spending the next few years touring the Pacific entertaining the troops. At the end of the war, he worked on Broadway, and the advent of rapid growth in the television industry opened new doors to him.

Television

Most remembered as Colonel Klink in Hogan's Heroes, which ran on CBS from 1965 to 1971, Werner Klemperer was very conscious of the fact that he was playing a German officer under the command of Nazis, and agreed only to play Klink on the condition that he would be portrayed as a fool and that he never succeeded. For his performance, Klemperer received four Emmy Award nominations for best supporting actor in each of the show's six seasons, winning in 1968 and again in 1969. He reprised the role of Klink in an episode of The Simpsons in 1993 as Homer's guardian angel/spirit guide in the episode: "The Last Temptation of Homer" (episode # 5.9).

Later career

With his famous father’s passing in 1973, Werner felt confident enough to enter a musical career as an opera baritone and a singer in Broadway musicals, earning a Tony Award nomination for his performance in Cabaret. A member of the Board of Directors of the New York Chamber Symphony, Werner Klemperer served as a narrator with many other U.S. symphony orchestras. He also made occasional guest appearances on television dramas, and took part in a few studio recordings, notably a version of Schönberg's Gurrelieder in 1979.

Werner Klemperer passed away on December 6, 2000. His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea.

Trivia

Werner was a pole vaulter in high school. In an episode of Hogan's Heroes, Colonel Klink tried to see if he could pole vault over a fence.

Once he was asked by a town in California to be the Grand Marshal of its Memorial day parade. The protests about having a "Nazi" as Marshal, caused the town to disinvite him. Ever the gentleman, Klemperer agreed, but wrote a letter to the local paper stating that as a man who had been persecuted by the Nazis as a Jew and as a WWII veteran of the U.S. Army, he felt somewhat confused at the uproar.

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Actors - Werner Klemperer

Beginnings

Television

Later career

Trivia

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