Werner Klemperer
Werner Klemperer ( born March 22, 1920 in Cologne, † December 6, 2000 in New York ) was a German - American actor and musician.
Life
Werner Klemperer was born in 1920 as son of the famous conductor Otto Klemperer and the singer Johanna Geisler. He grew up in Cologne, Wiesbaden and Berlin. Since he was the son of a Jewish father, he and his father fled in 1935 before the Nazi threat in the United States.
From 1942 to 1945 he served as a soldier in the U.S. Army. He was a distant nephew of become known among other things, his diaries and his voice analysis LTI Romanists and writer Victor Klemperer.
After the Second World War Klemperer became an American citizen and turned to acting. In 1951, he appeared in numerous U.S. television series. In 1959, he played Emil Hahn in the television version in 1961 and then in the game film Judgment at Nuremberg. Director and producer Stanley Kramer cast him in 1965 as a Lieutenant Huebner in The Ship of Fools.
His most famous role was in the television series Klemperer Hogan's Heroes ( Hogan's Heroes ). From 1965 to 1971 he played the bumbling Colonel Wilhelm Klink, which is constantly being led around by the nose as commander of a German prisoner of war camp by the most senior prison officer. Due to his own biography Klemperer had accepted the role only on the condition that he would never triumph as German commander over his opponent. In order to display the character authentic, he acquired back in a German accent. For his performance Klemperer was nominated five times for an Emmy in 1968 and 1969 he won the award.
After the end of the series, Klemperer, who was an excellent piano and violin player turned increasingly to classical music. For many famous symphony orchestra he appeared as a speaker. Particularly well known, he was the narrator of the musical tale Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev and as Speaker of the melodrama in Arnold Schoenberg's Gurrelieder.
In 1993, Klemperer a guest appearance in the animated series The Simpsons. In the episode, Homer Mindy loves he played Colonel Klink, Homer repeatedly stands as a consulting mind aside.
Werner Klemperer died on 6 December 2000 at his home in New York of cancer.