An actor, Klemperer is best known as the bumbling camp commandant Colonel Wilhelm Klink from the Hogan’s Heroes TV show. Klemperer brought an interesting background to his part: a Jew, he and his family fled Germany just as Hitler came to power.
The 1960s show, which is still a cult hit (even in Germany), poked exquisite fun at Germany’s World War II machine and won Klemperer two Emmy awards. Klink’s ineptitude was in large part his own idea. “He insisted in all the shows that he come out as the loser,” said his longtime publicist, Bernie Ilson. “He was sensitive about that. He was worried that the commandant would come out as a winner.” He died December 6 at home in New York from cancer. He was 80.