The whole Hollywood/Entertainment scene in Los Angeles has to be one of the most surreal in modern culture. Actors who play "cool" and "suave" characters are often thought to be those characters in real life, but often they are not. Their creations are fantasies designed to entertain. Among the few name acting talents who receive accolades from both audiences and critics, some of them played characters which have become nearly iconic. Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock on Star Trek is one, Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker is another. And who could forget George Reeves as Superman in the 1950's. And Bob Crane playing the quick-witted and shrewd but lovable Colonel Hogan on the sit-com "Hogan's Heroes" is another. (Interesting that so many iconic television characters appeared from the 1950's to 1970's.)
Bob Crane was one of the most recognizable of television stars from the mid-1960's to the early 1970's as the title character of "Hogan's Heroes". "Hogan's Heroes" was a light-hearted fantasy set in a POW camp in Germany during World War II. During the show, Hogan and his fellow "prisoners" out-witted and out-smarted their incompetent German captors in light and mostly inoffensive farce, of course unless you were possibly of German descent. In particular Colonel Klink who was almost as lovable as Hogan was often the butt of Crane and his compatriots' schemes who ran an underground communications system inside the camp. (It is one of the few sit-coms from its era which has withstood the test of time more or less.)
Hogan's Heroes aside, the film "Auto Focus" paints a darker picture of Bob Crane. Although the finer details of his "other life" were slightly altered according to his sons, Bob Crane (Greg Kinnear) is depicted as a sex addict. When he was not in the studio playing Hogan, he would avoid his family and engage in sex-capades with a video tech rep, John Carpenter (Willem Dafoe). At first the two spend hours at strip clubs in which Crane would sometimes sit in as a drummer, and Crane would claim long hours at the studio as his excuse to his family.
Carpenter then introduces Crane to the wonders of home video technology, first reel-to-reel then video cassette tape, nearly 10 years before it would be widely available on the consumer market. They can not only watch pre-made videos, but they can produce their own. Crane and Carpenter would pick up young women at a club and invite them to Carpenter's place where he video tapes their sexual encounters. They were almost never rejected because of Crane's star status which would be too much for young girls to resist. Later Crane and Carpenter would watch their videos as yet another way to achieve stimulation and gratification. Soon, Crane's wife since high school discovers some of his tapes and videos and his appalled at his extracurricular activities. To add insult to injury, Crane begins seeing one of the actresses on the set of "Hogan's Heroes".
Probably the two most tragic television actors who enjoyed their biggest successes during the era from circa 1950 to 1970 are George Reeves who played Superman and Bob Crane who played Colonel Hogan. George Reeves was found dead in 1959 just after his stint as Superman ended, apparently having committed suicide. Bob Crane was found murdered in his bed in an apartment in 1978 while engaged in a theater play, "Beginner's Luck", in Scottsdale, AZ. Both struggled as actors after their respective shows ended. They may have suffered from "type casting" in which the characters they played were so fused with themselves they couldn't find acting work as different characters in other productions. Unlike Reeves, Crane did receive some work after "Hogan's Heroes", such as appearing in two Disney films. However, his career would never equal the success he had playing Hogan. The murder of Crane is still regarded as unsolved but the film implies who probably committed the murderous deed.
Bob Crane was one of the most recognizable of television stars from the mid-1960's to the early 1970's as the title character of "Hogan's Heroes". "Hogan's Heroes" was a light-hearted fantasy set in a POW camp in Germany during World War II. During the show, Hogan and his fellow "prisoners" out-witted and out-smarted their incompetent German captors in light and mostly inoffensive farce, of course unless you were possibly of German descent. In particular Colonel Klink who was almost as lovable as Hogan was often the butt of Crane and his compatriots' schemes who ran an underground communications system inside the camp. (It is one of the few sit-coms from its era which has withstood the test of time more or less.)
Hogan's Heroes aside, the film "Auto Focus" paints a darker picture of Bob Crane. Although the finer details of his "other life" were slightly altered according to his sons, Bob Crane (Greg Kinnear) is depicted as a sex addict. When he was not in the studio playing Hogan, he would avoid his family and engage in sex-capades with a video tech rep, John Carpenter (Willem Dafoe). At first the two spend hours at strip clubs in which Crane would sometimes sit in as a drummer, and Crane would claim long hours at the studio as his excuse to his family.
Carpenter then introduces Crane to the wonders of home video technology, first reel-to-reel then video cassette tape, nearly 10 years before it would be widely available on the consumer market. They can not only watch pre-made videos, but they can produce their own. Crane and Carpenter would pick up young women at a club and invite them to Carpenter's place where he video tapes their sexual encounters. They were almost never rejected because of Crane's star status which would be too much for young girls to resist. Later Crane and Carpenter would watch their videos as yet another way to achieve stimulation and gratification. Soon, Crane's wife since high school discovers some of his tapes and videos and his appalled at his extracurricular activities. To add insult to injury, Crane begins seeing one of the actresses on the set of "Hogan's Heroes".
Probably the two most tragic television actors who enjoyed their biggest successes during the era from circa 1950 to 1970 are George Reeves who played Superman and Bob Crane who played Colonel Hogan. George Reeves was found dead in 1959 just after his stint as Superman ended, apparently having committed suicide. Bob Crane was found murdered in his bed in an apartment in 1978 while engaged in a theater play, "Beginner's Luck", in Scottsdale, AZ. Both struggled as actors after their respective shows ended. They may have suffered from "type casting" in which the characters they played were so fused with themselves they couldn't find acting work as different characters in other productions. Unlike Reeves, Crane did receive some work after "Hogan's Heroes", such as appearing in two Disney films. However, his career would never equal the success he had playing Hogan. The murder of Crane is still regarded as unsolved but the film implies who probably committed the murderous deed.