'Hogan's Heroes' Actor Leon Askin Dies (Gen. Albert Burkhalter)

[norml]

'Hogan's Heroes' Actor Leon Askin Dies


Leon Askin, Known for Role of Gen. Albert Burkhalter in 'Hogan's Heroes,' Dies at 97 in Austria By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press

VIENNA, Austria Jun 3, 2005 — Leon Askin, the actor who played Gen. Albert Burkhalter in the 1960s television comedy "Hogan's Heroes," has died, Austrian officials said Friday.

The actor was 97. Neither city officials nor the Vienna hospital where he died disclosed the cause or date of his death.

Askin was best known for his role as the Nazi general who constantly threatened to send the prisoner of war camp's inept commander, Col. Wilhelm Klink, to the Russian front because of his stupidity.

"Beverly Hills school children would call after me, 'Klink, Klink!'" Askin wrote on his Web site. "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."




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http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=818066






File photograph of 2002 shows Hollywood actor Leon Askin who died in an hospital in Vienna on Friday, June 3, 2005. The career of the 97-year-old actor spanned decades and included work in film, theater and television. Askin was born in 1907 into a Jewish family in Vienna but fled to the United States to escape persecution by the Nazi and worked in Hollywood. He returned to Austria 1994 and took up residence in Vienna. (AP Photo/Votova)

[enigmatic]

1. Wow, how weird is that...

Having a Bob Crane thread going here, and now this!

RIP Mr. Askin..

[Crazy Guggenheim]

2. There was another thread on this called Nazi General dies.

[norml]

4. I saw that thread, and thought it was serious.

I didn't think about how young the person would've had to have been when they became a WW2 General.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. More irony: like Askin, Werner Klemperer was born into a Jewish

family that fled Nazi persecution and ended up playing (convincingly) a Nazi on a popular television show.