The Authenticity of the Hogan's Heroes Cast
I was watching this random clip of Larry Hovis on a 70's sitcom Alice (which I am not that familiar with except one of the lead actresses was a panelist on Match Game this week).
Anyways you will see once again that Larry Hovis is playing something he played in Hogan's Heroes
This leads me to one of my favorite things about the Hogan's Heroes cast
1) We find out in a 3rd season episode that Carter is actually Sioux. Well as it turns out Larry Hovis was also of Native American heritage. Although he was actually of the Yakama tribe (I wouldn't be surprised if the Hogan's Heroes staff wrote Carter as Native American because of Hovis' background. They probably went with Sioux heritage because that is more recognizable to most Americans).
2) And of course Richard Dawson like Newkirk is really British (although he did not really have a Cockney accent he was faking that).
3) Robert Clary like Lebeau was really French (and a Jewish Holocaust survivor).
4) Werner Klemperer, John Banner, & Leon Askin were all really from Germany/Austria (and were all Jewish)
5) Howard Caine was from the US (but like all the other main Germans he is also Jewish).
I also read an anecdote that Dawson is the one who is partially responsible for Caine's caricature of Hochstetter. I am taking this from an IMDB review
While the cast were in the sitting room reading their lines before shooting, Howard Caine provided some comic relief by going off the wall, screaming his lines. But when it was time to shoot the episode, Caine was firm but cool, calm and collected. Richard Dawson then suggested that he read his lines like he did during the reading, "like a madman." Hence, this is how the Major Hochstetter character came about.
6) In RL Kinch's (Ivan Dixon) character would have been segregated back then and probably would not have the important role he had in the show. However, in this case I think it is cool that HH went against history and cast an African American in a non-stereotypical role. Kinch was shown to be highly intelligent and even Hogan's 2nd in command.
And Bob Crane was really a womanizer I am sorry I shouldn't have went there. :P
So yeah one thing the series got really right was the casting of the main cast. I love that the cast had so many actual Europeans and not people "faking" accents (although they did enough of that in the show as well to very amusing effects. I especially love Hovis & Dawson's impersonations). I also love that so many members of the cast really were affected by the war.
They did fail a little in the casting of the random female characters though.
Anyways you will see once again that Larry Hovis is playing something he played in Hogan's Heroes
Click to viewThis leads me to one of my favorite things about the Hogan's Heroes cast
1) We find out in a 3rd season episode that Carter is actually Sioux. Well as it turns out Larry Hovis was also of Native American heritage. Although he was actually of the Yakama tribe (I wouldn't be surprised if the Hogan's Heroes staff wrote Carter as Native American because of Hovis' background. They probably went with Sioux heritage because that is more recognizable to most Americans).
2) And of course Richard Dawson like Newkirk is really British (although he did not really have a Cockney accent he was faking that).
3) Robert Clary like Lebeau was really French (and a Jewish Holocaust survivor).
4) Werner Klemperer, John Banner, & Leon Askin were all really from Germany/Austria (and were all Jewish)
5) Howard Caine was from the US (but like all the other main Germans he is also Jewish).
I also read an anecdote that Dawson is the one who is partially responsible for Caine's caricature of Hochstetter. I am taking this from an IMDB review
While the cast were in the sitting room reading their lines before shooting, Howard Caine provided some comic relief by going off the wall, screaming his lines. But when it was time to shoot the episode, Caine was firm but cool, calm and collected. Richard Dawson then suggested that he read his lines like he did during the reading, "like a madman." Hence, this is how the Major Hochstetter character came about.
6) In RL Kinch's (Ivan Dixon) character would have been segregated back then and probably would not have the important role he had in the show. However, in this case I think it is cool that HH went against history and cast an African American in a non-stereotypical role. Kinch was shown to be highly intelligent and even Hogan's 2nd in command.
And Bob Crane was really a womanizer I am sorry I shouldn't have went there. :P
So yeah one thing the series got really right was the casting of the main cast. I love that the cast had so many actual Europeans and not people "faking" accents (although they did enough of that in the show as well to very amusing effects. I especially love Hovis & Dawson's impersonations). I also love that so many members of the cast really were affected by the war.
They did fail a little in the casting of the random female characters though.