Bob Crane

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bob Crane as Col. Hogan

Bob Crane (July 13 1928 – June 29 1978) was an American disc jockey and actor, best known for his performance as Colonel Robert Hogan in the television sitcom Hogan's Heroes from 1965 to 1971.

Crane was born Robert Edward Crane in Waterbury, Connecticut. He dropped out of high school and became a drummer, performing with dance bands and a symphony orchestra. In 1949, he married high school sweetheart Anne Terzian; they eventually had three children, Deborah Ann, Karen Leslie, and Robert David, who referred to himself as "Bob, Jr." despite having a different middle name.

In 1950, Crane started his broadcasting career at WLEA in Hornell, New York, from which he quickly moved to WBIS in Bristol, Connecticut, followed by WICC in Bridgeport, Connecticut, a 500-watt operation where he remained until 1956. The station had virtually no listeners; one time Crane offered $100 to the first listener who called in - and the phone didn't ring. Crane moved to WEEI in Boston before he moved his family to California to host the morning show at KNX in Hollywood. He filled the broadcast with sly wit, drumming, and guests including Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, and it quickly became the number-one rated morning show in the LA area, with Crane known as "The King of the Los Angeles Airwaves."

Crane's acting ambitions led to his subbing for Johnny Carson on the daytime game show Who Do You Trust? and appearances on The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and General Electric Theater. When Carl Reiner appeared on his show, Crane persuaded him to book him for a guest shot on The Dick Van Dyke Show, where he was noticed by Donna Reed, who suggested him for the role of neighbor Dr. Dave Kelsey in her eponymous sitcom from 1963 through 1965.

In 1965, Crane was offered the starring role in a television comedy pilot about a German P.O.W. camp. Hogan's Heroes, with a spirit resembling that of the films Stalag 17 and The Great Escape, became a hit and finished in the Top Ten in its first year on the air. The series lasted six seasons, and Crane was nominated for an Emmy Award twice, in 1966 and 1967. During its run, he met Patricia Olsen, who played Hilda under the stage name Sigrid Valdis, and he divorced his wife of twenty years and married Olsen on the set of the show in 1970. They had a son, Scotty, and adopted a daughter, Ana Marie.

Following the cancellation of Hogan's Heroes in 1971, Crane continued to act, appearing in two Disney films and a number of TV shows, including Police Woman, Quincy, M.E., and The Love Boat. A second series of his own, 1975's The Bob Crane Show, was cancelled by NBC after three months.

During the run of Hogan's Heroes, Crane met John Henry Carpenter, an electronics expert who was involved with the development of the VCR. Under his influence, the non-drinking, church-going family man became a sex addict, obsessed with having relations with as many women as possible and filming his experiences with the newest technology provided by Carpenter, who usually participated in the orgies. After leading an increasingly dissolute life that was affecting his public image and ability to get steady work for several years, Crane allegedly told Carpenter their friendship was over in a late-night phone call. The following day, he was discovered violently bludgeoned to death with a video camera tripod at the Winfield Place Apartments in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he had been appearing in a dinner theatre production of a third-rate play entitled Beginner's Luck.

According to an A&E program on the subject, initial police investigation turned up few clues but a large number of suspects, due to the dozens of homemade pornographic videos found at the murder scene. Countless female participants and their spouses were questioned. Although Carpenter was the prime suspect, he wasn't arrested until 1994. During his trial, the prosecution showed videotape of Crane and Carpenter engaging in sex with a woman to demonstrate their close relationship and hopefully shock the jury into convicting Carpenter, but the strategy backfired, and Carpenter was acquitted. Both the murder and the motive remain unsolved. Carpenter maintained his innocence and continued to hope for a solution to Crane's murder until his death on September 4 1998.

Crane's life and murder were the subject of the 2002 film Auto Focus, much of which was based on speculation. His second wife and their son objected to the way Crane was portrayed and took to the media to present their side of the story. Shortly before the film's release, Scotty started a website featuring Crane's amateur pornography, but later removed the video clips from the site.

1 Filmography
2 See Also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Filmography

Man-Trap (1961)
Return to Peyton Place (1961)
The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz (1968)
Superdad (1973)
Gus (1976)

[edit] See Also

Colonel Hogan

Hogan's Heroes

[edit] References

The Murder of Bob Crane by Robert Graysmith, published by Berkley Books, New York, NY, 1994
"The Bob Crane Story: Everything but a Hero," by A.O. Scott, New York Times, October 4, 2002