hollywood: Werner Klemperer

Saturday, 30 June 2012

Werner Klemperer

Werner Klemperer, everyone's favorite TV German Air Force colonel, was best known for his role as the bumbling Col. Wilhelm Klink on the comedy series "Hogan's Heroes"(1965). Although he'll forever be known as the blustering but inept German commandant of Stalag 13, Klemperer was in fact a talented dramatic actor.The Klemperer family emigrated to the United States in 1935, settling in Los Angeles where Otto Klemperer took up work as a conductor. Werner Klemperer began acting in high school and enrolled in acting courses in Pasadena before joining the United States Army to serve in World War II.While stationed in Hawaii, he joined the Army's Special Services unit, spending the next years touring the Pacific entertaining the troops. At the end of the war, he worked on Broadway before moving into television.