Another actor familiar to fans of classic ’60s television has passed away: Leon Askin, the squatty man with the bulldog face who constantly threatened to send Col. Klink to the Russian Front on Hogan’s Heroes, died recently in his hometown of Vienna. He was 97 years old.
Hogan’s Heroes was one of my favorite sitcoms when I was young, part of the afternoon block of then-ten-year-old syndicated re-runs that included Gilligan’s Island, The Brady Bunch, The Beverly Hillbillies, I Dream of Jeannie, and Bewitched. None of these shows was what you’d call “edifying” — my fourth-grade teacher, Mr. LeBaron, who was an anti-television crusader, believed they had exactly the opposite effect, that watching these particular shows actually reduced one’s intelligence — but they were solid entertainment of a sort you don’t find on television these days. They were good-natured instead of shrill and sarcastic, based on gentle mocking instead of go-for-the-throat insults. And they were truly “family friendly” in that people of all ages could enjoy them. Hogan, especially, was dual-layered, containing a lot of innuendo that passed over the heads of the kiddies but tickled the knowledgeable grown-ups with a long-lost mid-60s brand of wholesome sexiness. Modern programming, by contrast, falls into two very distinct categories: grown-up fare that I wouldn’t let a kid watch through a welder’s mask (this includes wildly popular but very sexual sitcoms like Will and Grace and Friends) and “family-friendly” entertainment that is so sanitized and sappy only Ned Flanders could enjoy it, and then only if he closely monitored his glucose levels at every commercial break during the broadcast.
It’s hard to believe now, but Hogan’s Heroes was actually a controversial show in its time. World War II was only twenty years in the past when the show premiered, a fresher memory for adults of the time than Vietnam is for us now, and many people wondered if a Nazi POW camp was an appropriate setting for a comedy. (The great irony, of course, is that half the show’s cast were either European Jews or veterans themselves, including Leon Askin.) These concerns didn’t affect the show’s rating, though, and it went on to a successful multi-season run; I understand the recently released DVDs have sold quite well, too. Nowadays, any lingering whiff of controversy over HH stems from the sexual activities and unsolved murder of the show’s star, Bob Crane, which I suppose tells you where we’ve come as a society in the last forty years.
As for Mr. Askin, his role as Gen. Burkhalter in HH was small, but memorable. He didn’t even appear in all the episodes of the show — I don’t know off the top of my head but I would guess no more than half of them. However, I think for many of us, he is the very personification of a certain comedic type, a blustery military officer who is filled with utter contempt at the incompetence around him (see also, Carter, Sgt., Gomer Pyle USMC).
A check of the filmography on Askin’s official website shows that he also appeared in a number of notable movie roles, including the Bob Hope-Bing Crosby flick Road to Bali, the Biblical epic (and first CinemaScope film) The Robe, Young Frankenstein (one of my favorite comedies), and Airplane II: The Sequel (not one of my favorite comedies, despite the presence of the immortal William Shatner). Leon Askin also did a lot of stage work and many German-language films. However, I think it’s Burkhalter for whom he’ll be remembered, and I also suspect from the amusing anecdote at the top of that filmography page that he’d be just fine with that.
