# Werner Klemperer (Colonel Klink) dead at 80 **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 8, 2000, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werner-klemperer-colonel-klink-dead-at-80/44605 "2000-12-08T11:27:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2000, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werner-klemperer-colonel-klink-dead-at-80/44605/1 "2000-12-08T11:27:44Z")
He died of cancer Wednesday night. I was surprised and saddened to hear the news. I saw him not too long ago on Politically Incorrect. He was a much better actor than most people gave him credit for. I rather enjoyed Hogan’s Heroes (mostly because of him) but I always thought his talents were wasted there. He won two Emmy awards for his work on the show, but unfortunately he didn’t have many roles afterward. Though he was best known as an actor, his first love was music. His father Otto Klemperer was a famous conductor. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2000, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werner-klemperer-colonel-klink-dead-at-80/44605/2 "2000-12-08T13:03:31Z")
I heard this from my SO this morning. Yea, I think he found that the Hogan’s Heroes gig more or less determined the rest of his career, and that’s too bad. ---
**Author:** ![cygnus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e0b2c6/32.png) [@cygnus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cygnus)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2000, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werner-klemperer-colonel-klink-dead-at-80/44605/3 "2000-12-08T13:17:30Z")
I became “acquainted” with Klemperer as a huge HH fan when I was a child, but when I grew a bit older I learned about his more serious and especially musical background. I read an interview with him long ago and seem to recall that, while he did find himself limited by forever being identified with the inevitably described as “bumbling” Klink, he nevertheless found satisfying work onstage and in music, and seemed to be a man content and happy with his life. Sad that he is gone, but at least he went at a ripe old age and of natural causes, unlike Schultz/Banner (natural but young) or Crane/Hogan (at once early, violent, and terribly sordid - shudder). Don’t know of any of the other primary HH characters having shuffled off this mortal coil (although I could swear someone else has - Carter?), but I have to admit that I will feel mimimal grief when that sleazy Richard Dawson’s number finally comes up. Now, mean-spirited remarks in the face of death are hardly called for, are they? [duly self-chastised, cygnus wanders off to do morning penance in the form of three loads of laundry] ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2000, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werner-klemperer-colonel-klink-dead-at-80/44605/4 "2000-12-08T14:31:13Z")
He played a Nazi officer in one of these, and looked real. He was in the US Army in WWII??? [http://us.imdb.com/Name?Klemperer,+Werner](http://us.imdb.com/Name?Klemperer,+Werner) ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Zero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@Saint\_Zero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Zero)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2000, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werner-klemperer-colonel-klink-dead-at-80/44605/5 "2000-12-08T14:38:58Z")
Now that’s sad. I caught his Law&Order episode, and he did so well. Amazingly calm, and playing his part well. ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2000, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werner-klemperer-colonel-klink-dead-at-80/44605/6 "2000-12-08T14:42:45Z")
Thanks to THIS message board, my first thought was, “I wonder if anyone had him on their Celebrity Deathpool 2000”. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2000, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werner-klemperer-colonel-klink-dead-at-80/44605/7 "2000-12-08T14:49:19Z")
He was Jewish, and his family fled Germany in the 1930s. Wonder how his late father (a famous orchestra conductor—or was he a violinist?) would have felt about the fact that his son’s “NY Times” obit photo had him in a Nazi uniform? Yikes! Oh, well, the fact that a Jew played a bumbling Nazi would have pissed-off Hitler, so it’s OK in my book. ---
**Author:** ![CnoteChris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/278dde/32.png) [@CnoteChris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CnoteChris)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2000, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werner-klemperer-colonel-klink-dead-at-80/44605/8 "2000-12-08T14:50:35Z")
**Vanilla** - I know of one poster who has him in the upcoming pool. Too bad. Oh so close… yet so far away. Regarding the O.P.- I saw him on a Law and Order and thought his acting was very subtle and persuasive. Too bad he was pigeon-holed. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2000, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werner-klemperer-colonel-klink-dead-at-80/44605/9 "2000-12-08T14:55:35Z")
John “Sgt Schultz” Banner and Leon “Gen Burkhalter” Askin were also Jewish, and I know that Askin’s family fled Europe, also. (I think he was actually from Austria.) And, Robert “LeBeau” Clary actually spent time in a camp in Nazi occupied Europe (don’t know exactly where). Askin might be dead now, but he was alive up until a couple of years ago (in his 90s!), and living in a retirement home somewhere in Austria. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2000, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werner-klemperer-colonel-klink-dead-at-80/44605/10 "2000-12-08T14:56:11Z")
A related rant: I heard about Klemperer’s death on news/talk radio yesterday. I really liked his work. As I was remembering some of his scenes I was startled back to reality by the newsreader saying “…he will be best remembered in his role on “Hogan’s Heros” for wearing those one-eyed spectacles…” Excuse me? One-eyed spectacles? It’s called a monocle. Did the newsreader not know that? Did the newswriter not know? Did they know but think the general public wouldn’t? How stupid. As news/talk stations are wont to do, they repeated the story several times, each time with the reference to ‘one-eyed spectacles’. Now my memories of Klemperer will be forever marred with that ignorant phrase. Crap. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Zero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@Saint\_Zero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Zero)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2000, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werner-klemperer-colonel-klink-dead-at-80/44605/11 "2000-12-08T14:58:13Z")
According to a quote in the Lexington Herald Leader, he requested the Klink never win. That was his condition. Seems he was happy to ruin the image of Nazis, portraying them as bumbling idiots. He would have quit if they’d ever let Klink win. And I agree, the irony of him being a Jew forced out of Germany, then playing a Nazi Colonel is quite sweet. He was very proud of the part, even tho he knew it would follow him for the rest of his life. Oh well… the good ones are leaving us, and we’re stuck with dreck for actors these days… ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Zero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@Saint\_Zero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Zero)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2000, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werner-klemperer-colonel-klink-dead-at-80/44605/12 "2000-12-08T15:01:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mjollnir \* > \*\*Robert “LeBeau” Clary actually spent time in a camp in Nazi occupied Europe (don’t know exactly where). > \*\* Friend and I met Clary during our HS days. I had a simple question, which he answered, but Charles asked one which seemed to irritate him to no end. He asked him how he liked playing a concentration camp prisioner after being in the real thing, albeit at an early age. He left without answering. Odd. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2000, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werner-klemperer-colonel-klink-dead-at-80/44605/13 "2000-12-08T15:06:18Z")
Klemperer’s “Klink” was not too far removed from his character in “Judgment at Nuremberg.” While that was not a comical character, it was a similar clueless, namby-pamby low-level Nazi stooge. ---
**Author:** ![broccoli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@broccoli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/broccoli)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2000, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werner-klemperer-colonel-klink-dead-at-80/44605/14 "2000-12-08T15:14:39Z")
**NOOOOOOOO** [zoom out to shout of house] **OOOOOOOOOOOOO** [zoom out to neighborhood] **OOOOOOOOOOO** [zoom out to U.S.A] **OOOOOOOOOOOOOooooo** [zoom out to Earth] **ooooooooooooo…** ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2000, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werner-klemperer-colonel-klink-dead-at-80/44605/15 "2000-12-08T15:26:07Z")
He liked playing Klink enough to reprise the role on The Simpsons. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2000, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werner-klemperer-colonel-klink-dead-at-80/44605/16 "2000-12-08T16:28:44Z")
I heard the news and subsequent stories about his role as Klink on the radio today. The new source, highly respected, said that Werner did not want to take the role as Klink unless he could portray him like an idiot. I too, saw the Law & Order episode where he was on and thought, " Hey, I haven’t seen him in a while, he’s terrific." He was also terribly proud of his father’s musical career. [hijack] I always thought that General Burkhart looked alot like the Heat Meiser in the Christmas story that name escapes me right now. [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2000, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werner-klemperer-colonel-klink-dead-at-80/44605/17 "2000-12-08T16:37:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bibliophage \* > \*\*Though he was best known as an actor, his first love was music. His father Otto Klemperer was a famous conductor. \*\* I hadn’t made the connection, or if I had I had long ago forgotten it. And yes, my first thought too was to check the CD2001 thread. \ I had seen him on various interviews post-HH and he seemed such a gentle soul. jr8 ---
**Author:** ![Fillet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/2acd7d/32.png) [@Fillet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fillet)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2000, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werner-klemperer-colonel-klink-dead-at-80/44605/18 "2000-12-08T17:00:00Z")
Ah, what a pity. He was indeed a fine actor; I used to really enjoy watching him. I did _not_ realize that Otto was his father… ::fishes around for some music to play in memoriam:: RIP. (Shirley - it’s “The Year Without a Santa Claus”) ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2000, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werner-klemperer-colonel-klink-dead-at-80/44605/19 "2000-12-08T19:35:12Z")
He was a very accomplished actor, I enjoyed him on stage very much. A shame that he is gone. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2000, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werner-klemperer-colonel-klink-dead-at-80/44605/20 "2000-12-08T23:59:27Z")
He was one of the few “typecast” character actors who didn’t seem to mind people only referring to his best known character. And for that, I have great respect. Most actors bitch and moan. HOOOOOOOOOOOGGGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNN!!! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werner-klemperer-colonel-klink-dead-at-80/44605.md?page=2)