RIP: Ivan Dixon

[Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker]

Didn’t see this posted anywhere. Sorry if it’s been noted.

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1723845,00.html

[Sir_Rhosis]

A fine actor – particularly enjoyed his work in “The Big Tall Wish” episode of “The Twilight Zone.”

RIP

Sir Rhosis

[Annie-Xmas]

The news leaked out from his doctors office because there was a microphone in their coffeepot.

[Chimera]

Initially, I was kind of curious as to why this small time bit actor from the 60’s, who in my limited knowledge hadn’t done anything other than Hogan’s Heroes would be in the news. Then I checked out his IMDB page. I had not the slightest clue that the man had such an impressive body of work, much of it as a Director after his HH days.

[Wee_Bairn]

I know him only from a couple of Fugitive epiosdes, but he was quite good in those.

[zamboniracer]

As Sgt. Kinchloe of Stalag 13, and as a director of many fine episodes of The Rockford Files, he will be greatly missed. RIP Mr. Dixon.

[KneadToKnow]

@zamboniracer

as a director of many fine episodes of The Rockford Files

Sumbitch. I knew I recognized that name from somewhere, and just never did bother to look at his IMDb page. Died here in Charlotte, too.

RIP, Ivan. You knew how to shoot car chases better than any TV director I’ve ever seen.

[Baker]

@Annie-Xmas

The news leaked out from his doctors office because there was a microphone in their coffeepot.

It took me a minute to get this, and then I went :smack:

[Ceejaytee]

@Annie-Xmas

The news leaked out from his doctors office because there was a microphone in their coffeepot.

That’s brilliant.

I was very sad to hear the news yesterday. I loved him in Hogan’s Heroes and he directed some of my favorite shows ever. There were so many '70s tv shows where I’d point to the tv and say, “Cool! Ivan Dixon!”

Of course, I also watched Family Feud solely for Richard Dawson and Days of Our Lives just for Robert Clary, so perhaps I have issues.

[StGermain]

He was always the coolest of the HH bunch. Well, except for Bob Crane, but really - was *anybody * cooler than Bob Crane?

StG

[Mr.Moto]

@StGermain

He was always the coolest of the HH bunch. Well, except for Bob Crane, but really - was *anybody * cooler than Bob Crane?

I’d tell you to ask John Henry Carpenter, but he’s dead too.

[Annie-Xmas]

His best line in HH:

Hogan: The first thing to do is to not panic.
Klinch: I’ve already done that. What’s the second thing?

[Sampiro]

A bit of an aside, but does anybody know how they explained his absence in the show’s final year?
I always thought Dawson would go first, and then Robert Clary, and only then Kinchloe. This messes up all my arrangements.

[Tamerlane]

@Chimera

Initially, I was kind of curious as to why this small time bit actor from the 60’s, who in my limited knowledge hadn’t done anything other than Hogan’s Heroes would be in the news. Then I checked out his IMDB page. I had not the slightest clue that the man had such an impressive body of work, much of it as a Director after his HH days.

Yep, I had no idea he had directed the semi-obscure, but kind of compelling The Spook Who Sat By The Door. Quite the impressive career, indeed. Hats off to a successful man.

[Rick]

@StGermain

He was always the coolest of the HH bunch. Well, except for Bob Crane, but really - was *anybody * cooler than Bob Crane?

StG

That is exactly what I came here to say. RIP Mr. Dixon

[Oslo_Ostragoth]

@Rick

That is exactly what I came here to say. RIP Mr. Dixon

Errm, you guys know how he died, right? (Referring to Bob Crane.)

[Cicero]

so Le Beau and Newkirk scheme alone.

[Rick]

@Oslo Ostragoth

Errm, you guys know how he died, right? (Referring to Bob Crane.)

Yes, I read the book. But before that, Bob Crane was cool.

[wolf_meister]

Yes, I also remember him in the “Big Tall Wish” Twilight Zone episode. That’s the kind of Twilight Zone you appreciate when you’re grown up. (I mean it had no spaceships, monsters, time travel, etc).
I also remember him as Connover in the original Outer Limits episode entitled “The Inheritors”. He was great in that.

RIP Ivan. You did well.

[ElvisL1ves]

I had no idea, either:

While not a hit, the 1964 “Nothing But a Man,” in which Mr. Dixon costarred with jazz vocalist Abbey Lincoln, also drew praise as a rare, early effort to bring the lives of black Americans to the big screen.

In the script for the film, Mr. Dixon saw something familiar in the character Duff Anderson.

Duff was a railroad worker in love with Josie, a school teacher and minister’s daughter who lived in an Alabama town. The story of Duff’s attempts to live with dignity and to love, despite racial injustice, was an honest depiction of black life in the United States, Mr. Dixon said. The character, which Mr. Dixon later called the most important role he portrayed, resonated in a way that others did not.
…

Mr. Dixon was active in efforts to get better parts for blacks in movies and television, telling The New York Times in 1967: “Sponsors haven’t wanted anything negative connected with their products. We must convince them that the Negro is not negative.”

“Heretofore, people have thought that, to use a Negro, the story must pit black against white. Maybe we’re getting to the problems of human beings who happen to be black.”

Which explains why he took a straight-man role on perhaps the dumbest show ever produced. It worked, too, in hindsight - the only time Kinch’s race mattered was when the other prisoners were putting on black makeup for night operations, while he pointedly just stood and watched.

Thanks, Mr. Dixon.