Hogan's Heroes Star Ivan Dixon Dead at 76

Ivan Dixon was an actor who played Sgt. Kinchloe on the hit TV show "Hogan's Heroes". He played that role from 1965 to 1970, just one year shy of its ending. He was good at imitating voices and mimicking the German actors on the phone to confuse the Germans. I remember laughing at this black man thinking that he was so witty and cool. He had that "Eddie Murphy" type mimicking which made the situations laughable even though the content should have been serious.

I was born in January 1980. I never got to see the show the dates it originally aired. My uncle was in the army at the time. My uncle Eddie came to live with us when I was about 9 years old. We all lived in this little apartment in the city of Mt. Vernon, NY. He was into all things army and would watch all these war stories on TV. He never got to go to war. He got in just shy of going to Vietnam. I remember him having all these tapes of old TV shows. He would play these old tapes whenever nothing was on TV because we didn't have cable at the time.

He told me about "Hogan's Heroes". I would laugh as he would imitate Sgt. Kinchloe. He was so convincing. I didn't get a chance to verify my uncle's acting until 2006. He found out that they were releasing the show on DVD. My uncle purchased seasons 1 and 2. My uncle was on point. We would watch the DVD's and he actually would reenact the scenes. My uncle is a natural comedian so he made things even funnier. He would even imitate the German soldiers. He would have me and my brothers cracking up.

I watched some of Ivan Dixon's later work on TV though. This man directed on almost all of the TV shows I loved as a kid. He directed on "the A Team", "Magnum P.I.", "the Bionic Woman", and "the Rockford Files". These shows were my life for a time. I used to love Mr. T. and his attitude. He directed a lot of episodes for each of these shows. I would watch them all the time. That was a pretty big deal for a black director in television in 1970. Gordon Parks was the first black Hollywood director for his film "The Learning Tree" which he made for Warner Bros. in 1969. So for him to have done this one year later, that was a big step in equality for African Americans in television.

I didn't know that this man was so well respected. He also starred in the movie "Carwash" which is one of my all time favorite movies. He played the part of the boss. It was a great thing to see all of these black actors in a movie. I'm sad to hear that he has passed. He will always be one of the great black actors and directors. He was a pioneer, civil rights activist, and will always be remembered. I hope it will be for all his achievements, not just "Hogan's Heroes".