Actor Ivan Dixon appeared in the original Broadway production A Raisin in the Sun, worked as a director on some of the most popular series on TV, and was nominated for an Emmy for his work in the 1967 TV movie, The Final War of Olly Winter. But he is best remembered, even years later for his performance as POW Staff Sergeant James “Kinch” Kinchloe, the only Black character in the World War II-era sitcom Hogan’s Heroes.
At a time when Black protagonists were few and far between, the work that Dixon did on the show certainly had more than enough staying power for generations to appreciate.
While the original cast of Hogan’s Heroes stayed together for all six seasons of the series, Dixon elected to leave after his fifth. But why did he end up leaving?
Who was Ivan Dixon?
Dixon was born and raised in New York City, in 1931 and was neighbors in Harlem with the legendary writer Ralph Ellison, as well as actor and tap dancing icon, Gregory Hines. In 1954, he earned a drama degree from North Carolina Central University, a historically Black college. The theater troupe at the school was later named “The Ivan Dixon Players” in his honor.
In 1957, Dixon got his first break on Broadway in William Saroyan’s experimental play, The Cave Dwellers, which ran for 97 performances. In 1959, he appeared in A Raisin in the Sun, a hit Broadway play by Lorraine Hansberry, the first Black female playwright to have her work produced on Broadway. In 1961, he reprised his role in the film version with Sidney Poitier, Louis Gossett, Jr., and Ruby Dee.
Work in TV and film followed, including getting cast in Hogan’s Heroes in 1965, a show with which he would stay until 1970.
What about Dixon’s time on Hogan’s Heroes?
In 1965, Hogan’s Heroes made its series premiere on CBS. It was a sitcom set in a World War II prisoner-of-war camp. Bob Crane played U.S. Colonel Robert Hogan, whose squad uses their imprisonment in (real life) Stalag 13 as a cover to run covert operations against the German army.
To ensure that the Nazi higher brass have no reason to investigate so their cover won’t be blown, they secretly help the camp’s commandant, the incompetent Colonel Wilhelm Klink (Werner Klemperer, a Jewish actor who in real life had fled the Nazis to the US), run it with 100% efficiency and zero escapes.
Dixon played Kinch, the squad’s communication expert and connection to the underground. However, a key ability he possessed was the capability to imitate Klink to perfection. It seemed the ensemble cast was due for long-lasting success.
But in 1970, at the end of the show’s fifth season, Dixon left and was replaced by actor Kenneth Washington as Sergeant Richard Baker.
Why did Dixon leave?
Well, to put it mildly, Dixon might’ve just been bored. After five seasons, he felt his character wasn’t utilized enough during the course of the series, which left him wanting to explore new challenges in his career.
And by the time he began his run on Hogan’s Heroes, Dixon was already active in the American Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. He firmly believed in the platform that television could provide, having said once, “This is the most powerful medium operating in the world today and we must have access to it to discuss our problems and concerns.”
While for some actors, it can be a huge mistake to leave a hit sitcom (see: Shelley Long), for Dixon it proved to be the right move.
Did Dixon continue to find acting work after Hogan’s Heroes?
For one thing, Dixon never stopped accepting gigs after leaving Hogan’s Heroes. He guest-starred on hit shows of the mid-to-late 1960s, including I Spy, The Fugitive, and It Takes a Thief. In addition, he appeared on the CBS Playhouse anthology series, The Final War of Olly Winter, playing the titular role of an American soldier in Vietnam. He was nominated for an Emmy for his performance in that project.
After leaving Hogan’s Heroes, he also began a directing career, thanks to all the knowledge he absorbed on-set of the sitcom. He started in film with the back-to-back blaxploitation classics, Trouble Man, in 1972, and the following year in The Spook Who Sat by the Door, in which he also starred. He then moved into television, directing episodes of various hit shows such as The Waltons, Starsky and Hutch, and Wonder Woman.
His final film as a director was the 1993 James Earl Jones-starring TNT original Percy & Thunder, which also starred Courtney B. Vance and Billy Dee Williams.
Ivan Dixon passed away on March 16, 2008, from complications related to kidney failure at the age of 76.
