Werner Klemperer
{{Short description|American actor (1920–2000)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Werner Klemperer
| image = Werner Klemperer on Password 1971.jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = Klemperer in 1971
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1920|3|22}}
| birth_place = Cologne, Germany
| death_date = {{death date and age|2000|12|6|1920|3|22}}
| death_place = New York City, U.S.
| nationality = American
| occupation = Actor
| years_active = 1947–1995
| known_for =
| spouse = {{ubl
| {{marriage|Janet Riley|1950|1959|end=div}}
| {{marriage|Susan Dempsay|1959|1968|end=div}}
| {{marriage|Louise Troy|1969|1975|end=div}}
| {{marriage|Kim Hamilton|1997}}
}}
| children = 2
| parents = {{ubl|Otto Klemperer|Johanna Geisler}}
}}
Werner Klemperer (March 22, 1920 – December 6, 2000){{cite news |author-link=Bernard Weinraub |last=Weinraub |first=Bernard |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/08/arts/werner-klemperer-klink-in-hogan-s-heroes-dies-at-80.html |title=Werner Klemperer, Klink in Hogan's Heroes, Dies at 80 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=December 8, 2000 |url-access=limited |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100523084000/https://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/08/arts/werner-klemperer-klink-in-hogan-s-heroes-dies-at-80.html |archive-date=May 23, 2010}} was an American actor. He was best known for playing Colonel Wilhelm Klink on the CBS television sitcom Hogan's Heroes, for which he twice won the award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series at the Primetime Emmy Awards in 1968 and 1969.
Klemperer served in the United States Army during World War II, then began performing on the Broadway stage in 1947. He appeared in several films during his early acting career, such as The Wrong Man (1956), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), and Houseboat (1958), and he had numerous roles on television shows such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1956), Perry Mason (1957), Maverick (1957), Gunsmoke (1958), The Untouchables (1960), and Have Gun – Will Travel (1961), prior to his Hogan's Heroes role.
Early life
Klemperer was born in Cologne, Germany, to a musical family but he said that he had little musical aptitude.{{cite news |last1=Wigler |first1=Stephen |title=Col. Klink Goes Classical; Seriously Talented Werner Klemperer On FSO Program |url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1985-05-07-0300010065-story.html |access-date=May 22, 2018 |work=Orlando Sentinel |date=May 7, 1985 |quote=I studied piano and violin, but I made noises a dog shouldn't hear |url-access=limited |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018095317/https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1985-05-07-0300010065-story.html |archive-date=October 18, 2021}} His father was renowned orchestra conductor Otto Klemperer and his mother was soprano Johanna Geisler. He had a younger sister named Lotte (1923–2003). His father was Jewish by birth; he converted to Catholicism but later returned to Judaism. His mother was Lutheran. His grandfather was part of the Jewish community in Prague, and his grandmother was a Sephardic Jew from Hamburg, Germany.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1996/10/31/nights-at-the-opera/ |title=Nights at the Opera |last=Craft |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Craft |magazine=The New York Review of Books |date=October 31, 1996 |access-date=October 3, 2020}} Otto Klemperer was a first cousin of Victor Klemperer.{{cite news |last1=Elon |first1=Amos |author1-link=Amos Elon |title=The Jew Who Fought to Stay German |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/11/22/specials/elon-klemperer.html |access-date=August 26, 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=March 24, 1996 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190417122203/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/11/22/specials/elon-klemperer.html |archive-date=April 17, 2019 |quote=Klemperer had four brothers ... The conductor Otto Klemperer was their cousin.}}
The Klemperer family emigrated to the United States in 1933, settling in Los Angeles, where Otto Klemperer became conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (1933–1939). Werner Klemperer began acting as a student at University High School{{cite web |first1=Skip E |last1=Lowe |author-link1=Skip E. Lowe |title=Werner Klemperer--1992 TV Interview, Hogan's Heroes |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gl_smVVkEI |website=YouTube |access-date=August 28, 2021 |language=en |date=1992 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181115181215/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gl_smVVkEI |archive-date=November 15, 2018}}{{cbignore}} and enrolled in acting courses at the Pasadena Playhouse before joining the United States Army to serve in World War II. While stationed in Hawaii, he joined the Army's Special Services unit, spending the next years touring the Pacific entertaining the troops.
After the war, he performed on Broadway, appearing in Heads or Tails and Bertolt Brecht's Galileo, both in 1947, the comedy Twentieth Century by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur in 1951, and Dear Charles, another comedy, in 1955.{{IBDB name|48280|Werner Klemperer}}
Career
Klemperer's first major film role was as a psychiatrist in Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man (1956). Earlier that year in Death of a Scoundrel he had a smaller role as the lawyer of the hero/villain portrayed by George Sanders. He played a German government officer in the 1959 episode, "The Haunted U-Boat", of the series One Step Beyond. Also in 1959, he appeared as a Frenchman in the episode "Fragile" of the Western TV series Have Gun – Will Travel.{{IMDb title|tt0597519|Have Gun – Will Travel|(S03E07)}} He received significant notice for his role in the award-winning 1961 film Judgment at Nuremberg. The film presents a fictionalized account of the post-World War II Nuremberg trials, with Klemperer portraying Emil Hahn, a Nazi prosecutor and one of the defendants at the trial. Prior to this, he had a small role in the 1957 Errol Flynn film Istanbul and a pivotal part in the "Comstock Conspiracy" episode of Maverick that same year. He played the title role in the 1961 film Operation Eichmann, opposite his future co-star John Banner.
Klemperer guest-starred in the first Brian Keith television series, Crusader, a Cold War drama that aired on CBS. During this time, he made three guest appearances on Perry Mason: he played East German murder victim Stefan Riker in the 1958 episode "The Case of the Desperate Daughter"; the East European character Ulrik Zenas in the 1963 episode "The Case of the Two-Faced Turn-a-bout"; and Police Inspector Hurt in 1964 in "The Case of a Place Called Midnight". In 1963, Klemperer also portrayed a professor of psychology in "The Dream Book", an episode on the sitcom My Three Sons.[http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/my-three-sons/episode-20-season-3/the-dream-book/100316/ "The Dream Book"], S03E20, My Three Sons, originally broadcast January 31, 1963. TV Guide Retrieved August 4, 2017. He played Lt. Huebner in the 1965 film Ship of Fools, in which he tells Mrs. Mary Treadwell, played by Vivien Leigh, that her life "ends by sitting in a nightclub with a paid escort who tells [her] the lies [she wants] to hear."
Prior to Hogan's Heroes, Klemperer appeared in the 1956 episode "Safe Conduct" of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, along with John Banner; twice appeared as Hugo on the syndicated romantic comedy series, How to Marry a Millionaire (1957–1959), with Barbara Eden and Merry Anders; and appeared on the "Purple Gang" episode of The Untouchables.
=''Hogan's Heroes'' era=
File:Werner Klemperer Bob Crane Hogan's Heroes.jpg during an episode of Hogan's Heroes]]
Klemperer is best known, however, as Colonel Wilhelm Klink, the bungling, cowardly, conceited, and self-serving Kommandant of Stalag 13 on Hogan's Heroes which was broadcast on CBS from 1965 to 1971. Klemperer was conscious that he would be playing the role of a German officer during the Nazi regime, and he accepted the part only on the condition that Klink would be portrayed as a fool who never succeeded.
Klemperer made a cameo appearance in the character of Klink in the Batman episode "It's How You Play the Game" and as Officer Bolix in the Lost in Space episode "All That Glitters" in 1966. He played a bumbling East German official in the 1968 American comedy film The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz, directed by George Marshall and starring Elke Sommer and several of his costars from Hogan's Heroes, including Bob Crane and John Banner. Klemperer starred in Wake Me When the War Is Over in 1969, playing the role of German Major Erich Mueller, alongside Eva Gabor. He also played a villain in an episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea titled "The Blizzard Makers".
For his performance as Klink, Klemperer received five consecutive Emmy Award nominations for best supporting actor, from 1966-1970, winning successive awards in 1968 and 1969.{{cite web |title=Werner Klemperer |url=https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/werner-klemperer |website=Academy of Television Arts & Sciences |access-date=3 July 2025 |language=en}}
Later career
File:Werner Klemperer, actor.jpg (The Abduction from the Seraglio), 1982 ]]
After his father's death in 1973, Klemperer returned to Broadway, appearing in The Night of the Tribades in 1977. He expanded his acting career with musical roles in opera, and earned a Best Featured Actor Tony Award nomination. nomination for his performance in Cabaret in its 1987 Broadway revival, playing "Herr Schultz".
A member of the board of directors of the New York Chamber Symphony, Klemperer served as a narrator with many other American symphony orchestras including the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. He also made occasional guest appearances on television dramas, and took part in a few studio recordings, notably a version of Arnold Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder with the Boston Symphony and Seiji Ozawa, in 1979. From 1979 to 1982, he appeared as Bassa Selim in 18 performances of Mozart's Singspiel Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.[http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/bowse3a.w?term=Die%20Entf%FChrung%20aus%20dem%20Serail%3A%20Selim%20%5BKlemperer,%20Werner%5D&typ=Subject&x=0&xHomePath=http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/&xHome=http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/bibpro.htm "Werner Klemperer"], Metropolitan Opera Archives. In 1981, he appeared, to critical and audience raves, as Prince Orlofsky in Seattle Opera's production of Die Fledermaus.
In 1990, he narrated the children's story "Gerald McBoing Boing" (music by Gail Kubik) for a CD of classical music for children. In January 1991 he performed as narrator in the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra's concerts and subsequent Koss Classics recording of "Lelio", by Hector Berlioz, in an English translation. In 1992, he made a guest appearance in an episode of Law & Order, "Starstruck", as the father of an attempted murder suspect.
In 1993, Klemperer reprised the role of Klink in an episode of The Simpsons as Homer's guardian angel and spirit guide in the episode "The Last Temptation of Homer". According to the episode's DVD commentary, when Klemperer appeared, he had to be given a quick reminder of how to play Colonel Klink. He declined other offers to reprise the character, including one from talk-show host Conan O'Brien.
Klemperer made his final appearance on Broadway in 1995 in the Circle in the Square production of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, in which he played Professor Serebryakov.
Klemperer appeared in several episodes of the news/talk show Politically Incorrect.{{cite web |title=Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher: Episode Guide |url=http://tv.msn.com/tv/series-episodes/politically-incorrect-with-bill-maher/?sb=0&si=1&ipp=40 |publisher=MSN |access-date=June 26, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121012091905/http://tv.msn.com/tv/series-episodes/politically-incorrect-with-bill-maher/?sb=0&si=1&ipp=40 |archive-date=October 12, 2012}}
For many years, Klemperer was an elected member of the council of Actors' Equity Association, and was a vice president of the union at the time of his death.{{cite news |last=Woo |first=Elaine |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-dec-08-me-62884-story.html |title=Werner Klemperer; Played Col. Klink in 'Hogan's Heroes' |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=December 8, 2000 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108095207/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-dec-08-me-62884-story.html |archive-date=November 8, 2020}}
Personal life
File:WernerKlemperer975 headcrop.jpg
Klemperer was the father of two children, Mark (born 1959) and Erika (born 1963), with his second wife, Susan Dempsay.{{cite magazine |url=https://people.com/archive/camp-clown-vol-55-no-1/ |title=Camp Clown |magazine=People| last=Lipton| first=Michael A.| date=January 8, 2001| access-date=March 12, 2019}}{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=YepTAAAAIBAJ&pg=3668,5527269&dq=werner+klemperer+susan&hl=en |title=Klemperer Likes Trend in Which Heroes Have Faults |date=May 29, 1966 |newspaper=St. Joseph News-Press |page=6C |access-date=January 14, 2013 |agency=Associated Press |via=Google News}} On the set of Hogan's Heroes he met his third wife, actress Louise Troy, who was making a guest appearance. They married in 1969, and divorced in 1975.
In 1997, Klemperer married his fourth wife, television actress Kim Hamilton, after dating her for 21 years.{{cite news |first=Alan K. |last=Rode |author-link=Alan K. Rode |title=Kim Hamilton interview with Alan K. Rode – Pt 1 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js3PALKaM5w&list=PL1FFD3E380E245AB0&index=1 |work=YouTube |publisher=Film Noir Foundation |date=April 13, 2007 |access-date=October 13, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131107203111/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js3PALKaM5w |archive-date=November 7, 2013}}{{cbignore}} They remained married until Klemperer's death.
Death
Klemperer died of cancer at his home in Manhattan on December 6, 2000, at the age of 80. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=q4VVAAAAIBAJ&pg=1361,6238126&dq=werner+klemperer+death&hl=en |title=Werner Klemperer; portrayed Col. Klink |date=December 8, 2000 |work=Reading Eagle |page=B6 |access-date=January 14, 2013 |agency=Associated Press |via=Google News}}
Filmography
=Film=
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |
|---|
| 1956
| Bendesh | |
| 1956
| Herbert Bauman (Clementi's lawyer) | |
| 1956
| Dr. Bannay | Uncredited |
| 1957
| Istanbul | Paul Renkov | |
| 1957
| Dr. Simmons | |
| 1957
| Lieutenant Walter Wallace | |
| 1958
| Joseph Jessup | |
| 1958
| Joe Wilsey | |
| 1958
| Harold Messner | |
| 1961
| |
| 1961
| Emil Hahn | |
| 1962
| Walter Brunner | |
| 1964
| Mr. Leffer | |
| 1965
| Professor Malaki | |
| 1965
| Lieutenant Huebner | |
| 1968
| The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz | Klaus | |
| 1991
| Fat Man Looking for a Tax Break | |
| 1992
| Haman | Voice, direct-to-video release |
=Television=
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |
|---|
| 1951–1952
| Goodyear Television Playhouse | Various roles | 2 episodes |
| 1953
| The Secret Files of Captain Video | Meister | Episode: "The Box" |
| 1955
| Dubrov | Segment: "Win a Cigar" |
| 1955
| Crusader | Wilhelm Leichner | Episode: "The Bargain" |
| 1955
| Climax! | | 2 episodes |
| 1956
| Professor Klopka / Captain Kriza | Season 1 Episode 21: "Safe Conduct" |
| 1957
| Navy Log | Ludwig | Episode: " After You, Ludwig" |
| 1957
| Krylov | Episode: "The Washington Stars" |
| 1957
| Muller | Episode: "The Questioning Note" |
| 1957
| M Squad | Heinrich Ronn | Episode: "Face of Evil" |
| 1957
| Maverick | Alex Jennings | Episode: "Comstock Conspiracy" |
| 1958
| Stefan Riker | Episode: "The Case of the Desperate Daughter" |
| 1958
| Dorfmann | Episode: "Balance of Terror" |
| 1958
| Albert | Episode: "The Pre-Incan Caper" |
| 1958
| Gunsmoke | Clifton Bunker | Episode: "Sunday Supplement" |
| 1958
| Malone | Episode: "The Allen Cutler Case" |
| 1958
| The Silent Service | Captain Lieutenant Prien | Episode: "U-47 in Scapa Flow" |
| 1959
| Mr. Ranks | Season 5 Episode 2: "The Crystal Trench" |
| 1959
| Emil Hahn |
| 1959
| Slavko | Episode: "Crypto 40" |
| 1959
| Linz | Episode: "Iron Curtain" |
| 1959
| Holz Donner | Episode: "The Third Medaillon" |
| 1959
| Etienne | Season 4, Episode 7: "Fragile" |
| 1959
| Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond | Herr Bautmann | Episode: "The Haunted U-Boat" |
| 1959
| Mr. Obermeyer | Episode: "Gwen's Secret" |
| 1960
| Baron | Episode: "Gold Fever" |
| 1960
| Arnold Braun | Episode: "Vigilantes of Montana" |
| 1960
| Colonel Hanning | Episode: "The Observer" |
| 1960
| Rawhide | Kessel | Episode: "Incident of the Music Maker" |
| 1960
| Major Kralenko | Episode: "Flare Up" |
| 1960
| Jan Tornek | Episode: "Purple Gang" |
| 1960
| Thriller | Mr. Clark | Episode: "Man in the Middle" |
| 1961
| Michel Serati | Episode: "The Pearls of Ratu" |
| 1961
| Leander Johnson | Episode: "The Uneasy Grave" |
| 1961
| Kuberli | Episode: "Survival" |
| 1962
| Franz Leder | Episode: "An Assassin Arrives, Andante" |
| 1963
| Ulric Zenas | Episode: "The Case of the Two-Faced Turn-a-bout" |
| 1963
| Gustavsen | Episode: "The Wonder of Wanda" |
| 1963
| Schtiekel | Episode: "Escape to Freedom" |
| 1963
| Colonel von Bleist | Episode: "Trial at Grand Forks" |
| 1963
| Professor Engel | 2 episodes |
| 1963
| GE True | Episode: "Heydrich" (two parts){{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/122935451/terrorist/ |title=Terrorist |newspaper=The Fresno Bee |page=1-TV |date=May 5, 1963 |accessdate=April 15, 2023 |via=Newspapers.com}} |
| 1964
| Hurt | Episode: "The Case of a Place Called Midnight" |
| 1964
| Laslo Kurasov | Episode: "The Project Strigas Affair" |
| 1964
| Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea | Cregar | Episode: "The Blizzard Maker" |
| 1965
| Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea | Brainwasher (voice) | Episode: "The Saboteur" |
| 1965
| Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre | Colonel Wertha | Episode: "Escape into Jeopardy" |
| 1965–1971
| 168 episodes |
| 1966
| Bolix | Episode: "All That Glitters" |
| 1966
| Batman | Colonel Klink (uncredited cameo) | Episode: "It's How You Play the Game" |
| 1968
| Colonel Wilhelm Klink | Episode #2.6 |
| 1969
| Wake Me When the War Is Over | Mayor Erich Mueller | Television film |
| 1972
| Ludwig Asper | Episode: "Green Fingers/The Funeral/The Tune in Dan's Cafe" |
| 1972
| Jacques Moreau | Episode: "Gowns by Louis" |
| 1972
| Inspector Hoffman | Television film |
| 1972
| Harold Baxter | Segment: "Love and the Unbearable Fiance" |
| 1973
| Dr. Ernest Bleeker | Episode: "The Devil You Say" |
| 1977
| Franz Altmuller |
| 1978
| Tabitha | Henry Hastings | Episode: "Tabitha's Party" |
| 1979
| Mr. Perkins | Episode: "The Grass Is Always Greener..." |
| 1980
| Steve Martin: Comedy Is Not Pretty | Plato | Television special |
| 1981
| Vega$ | Siegfried Klaus | Episode: "Heist" |
| 1981
| Return of the Beverly Hillbillies | C.D. Medford | Television film |
| 1983
| Felix Randolph | Episode: "The Purrfect Crime" |
| 1986
| Dean | 2 episodes |
| 1988
| Prince Maximilian of Bavaria | Episode: "Views of a Vanishing Frontier" |
| 1992
| William Unger | Episode: "Star Struck" |
| 1993
| Homer's Guardian Angel as Colonel Klink | Voice, Episode: "The Last Temptation of Homer", (final appearance) |
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Portal|Biography}}
{{Commons category}}
- {{IBDB name}}
- {{IMDb name|459252}}
- {{TCMDb name|103296{{!}}154439}}
- [https://catalog.nypl.org/record=b20490386~S1 Werner Klemperer papers, 1943–2001], held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20101206163803/http://www.concentric.net/~onk145/StageScreen.htm Werner Klemperer] at concentric.net (Wayback Machine)
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20161015022004/http://www.geh.org/ar/strip88/htmlsrc/m197701881650B_ful.html#topofimage Klemperer's parents, Otto and Johanna, 1920s] portrait by Nickolas Muray(Wayback Machine)
- [http://www.bruceduffie.com/klemperer.html Interview with Werner Klemperer], July 1985
{{EmmyAward ComedySupportingActor}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Klemperer, Werner}}
Category:20th-century American male actors
Category:American male film actors
Category:United States Army personnel of World War II
Category:American male musical theatre actors
Category:American operatic baritones
Category:American male stage actors
Category:American male television actors
Category:Deaths from cancer in New York (state)
Category:Male actors from Cologne
Category:Actors from the Rhine Province
Category:United States Army soldiers
Category:20th-century American male opera singers
Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States
Category:American people of German-Jewish descent
Category:American people of Czech-Jewish descent
Category:University High School (Los Angeles) alumni