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Actor Robert Clary, who played the role of Corporal Louis LeBeau on the TV series Hogan’s Heroes, died Wednesday at his Los Angeles home at the age of 96.
Clary’s granddaughter Kim Wright confirmed his death to The Hollywood Reporter.
Clary, a Holocaust survivor, was the last living member of the principal cast of the CBS sitcom which ran for six seasons from September 1965 to April 1971.
The latest: Actor Robert Clary, who played the role of Corporal Louis LeBeau on the TV series Hogan’s Heroes, died Wednesday at his Los Angeles home at the age of 96. He was pictured in 2016 in LA
The series starred Bob Crane in the titular role of Colonel Robert E. Hogan, an American leading a group of Allied prisoners of war in a mission to beat the Nazis from the Luft Stalag 13 camp.
Clary was born Robert Max Widerman on March 1, 1926 in Paris as the youngest in an Orthodox Jewish family with 14 children.
He started singing and entertaining at the age of 12, and was 16 when his family was sent to Auschwitz, where his parents were murdered in the gas chamber.
‘My mother said the most remarkable thing,’ he told THR in 2015. ‘She said, “Behave.” She probably knew me as a brat. She said, “Behave. Do what they tell you to do.”‘
Clary was the last living member of the principal cast of the CBS sitcom Hogan’s Heroes, which ran for six seasons from September 1965 to April 1971
Clary was seen in a September 17, 1965 episode of the series
The actor was pictured with costar Larry Hovis in a 1967 episode of the series
Clary was pictured with Cynthia Lynn in a 1967 episode of the series
Clary said that his ability to entertain was key to staying alive – he performed in front of SS soldiers every other week – as he was the only person among his captured relatives to survive amid his 31-month incarceration in concentration camps.
‘Singing, entertaining and being in kind of good health at my age, that’s why I survived,’ he said in the 2015 interview.
Clary had not spoken publicly about his time during the Holocaust, but eventually detailed the events in response to Holocaust deniers.
‘For 36 years I kept these experiences during the war locked up inside myself,’ Clary said. ‘But those who are attempting to deny the Holocaust, my suffering and the suffering of millions of others have forced me to speak out.’
He opened up about the juxtaposition of working on the WWII series amid his real-life experiences in his 2001 memoir From the Holocaust to Hogan’s Heroes.
‘I had to explain that [Hogan’s Heroes] was about prisoners of war in a stalag, not a concentration camp,’ Clary said. ‘And although I did not want to diminish what soldiers went through during their internments, it was like night and day from what people endured in concentration camps.’
Clary was seen with one-time Broadway costar Eartha Kitt on the game show Stump the Stars in 1963
Clary had also appeared soap operas including Days of Our Lives, The Bold and The Beautiful and The Young and the Restless
Clary was seen at a 2017 dinner presented by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in LA
Following his liberation, he relocated to France in May of 1945 where he continued singing; and to Los Angeles in 1949, where he recorded material for Capitol Records.
He went on to appear in movies such as 1951’s Ten Tall Men and 1951’s Thief of Damascus before legendary entertainer Eddie Cantor took him under his wing.
After accompanying Cantor to the La Vie en Rose club, where he performed, he was cast in the New Faces of 1952, a Broadway musical revue that was partially penned by Mel Brooks and featured Eartha Kitt and Paul Lynde. Clary sang the tunes Lucky Pierre and I’m In Love With Miss Logan in the production, which was subsequently filmed by Fox and screened in theaters in 1954.
Clary in 1955 worked on the Broadway production of Seventh Heaven alongside Ricardo Montalban and Bea Arthur.
He appeared in films such as 1963’s A New Kind of Love featuring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward; and 1975’s The Hindenburg.
He had also appeared soap operas including Days of Our Lives, The Bold and The Beautiful and The Young and the Restless.
Clary’s singing was also featured on multiple jazz records that included contributions from songwriters Irving Berlin and Johnny Mercer.
He had been married to the late Natalie Cantor, one of Eddie Cantor’s daughters, for 32 years prior to her 1997 death.
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