Robert Clary, who played French chef Corporal Louis LeBeau on Hogan’s heroes, is dead. Clary’s granddaughter, Kim Wright, confirmed The Hollywood Reporter that the actor died on the morning of Wednesday, November 16, at his home in Los Angeles. He was 96 years old.
Best known for his role as Cpl. LeBeau on Hogan’s heroes, Clary brought a harsh reality to the role. A Holocaust survivor, Clary was imprisoned by the Nazis in the 16th.
“I had to explain that [Hogan’s Heroes] was about POWs in a stalag, not a concentration camp,” Clary wrote in her 2001 memoir. From the Holocaust to Hogan’s Heroes. “While I don’t want to diminish what the soldiers went through during their internments, it was like night and day compared to what people endured in the concentration camps.”
Born on March 1, 1926 in Paris, France, Clary got the showbiz bug early on. The youngest of 14 in a strict Orthodox Jewish family, he started singing at age 12. Four years later, he would be kidnapped by the Nazis and imprisoned in Buchenwald and then in Auschwitz for 31 months. He was the only member of his family to survive.
“Singing, entertaining and being healthy at my age is why I survived,” he said. The Hollywood Reporter in 2015. “I was very immature and young and didn’t really realize the situation I was involved in. I don’t know if I would have survived if I had really known that.
When the camp was liberated in 1945, Clary returned to Paris, where he began recording music. He made his first recordings in 1948 before making his American television debut in 1950 on the Ed Wynn show. Shortly after, Clary met Eddie Cantor, which helped the career of the French singer “tremendously.” Cantor helped Clary land The Colgate Comedy Hourwhich put him on Broadway’s radar.
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Clary performed on Broadway throughout the next decade before landing a role as Cpl. LeBeau on Hogan’s heroes. Although his character would faint at the sight of blood, LeBeau was an integral part of Robert Hogan’s many schemes, escape attempts, and pranks on his Nazi foils. As a cook, he fed his fellow inmates and frequently used his skills to create diversions for Colonel Klink.
LeBeau stayed on Hogan’s heroes until 1971, appearing in over 165 episodes. But his acting continued throughout the 70s, playing Robert LeClair on 500 episodes of the soap opera. days of our lives and Pierre Jourdan on Love glory and beauty.
Clary married his wife Natalie Cantor, the daughter of his mentor Eddie, in 1965 after 15 years of friendship. She died in 1997.
Inspired by a documentary he saw in the 80s, Clary spent his last years touring the United States and Canada, speaking about the Holocaust. He says the talks helped him heal. Like Clary said“I stopped having nightmares as soon as I opened my mouth.”
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