“Forgotten Hollywood”- Farewell to Robert Clary…
Manny P. here…
“`Robert Clary was the French actor, singer and Holocaust survivor. He was best known for playing Corporal LeBeau in the World War II sitcom Hogan’s Heroes. He also had recurring roles in the soap operas Days of Our Lives, and The Bold and the Beautiful. ROBERT CLARY ->
“`Born in 1926, Clary was the youngest of fourteen children; ten would die in the Holocaust. At the age of twelve, he began a career singing on a French radio station and also studied art in Paris. In 1942, because he was Jewish, he was deported to Buchenwald concentration camp. Clary was liberated on April 11, 1945.
“`After the war, Clary returned to entertainment. One of his first American appearances was a French-language comedy skit on The Ed Wynn Show in 1950. He later met Merv Griffin and Eddie Cantor. This led to Clary meeting Cantor’s daughter, whom he married in 1955. Cantor later got Clary a spot on The Colgate Comedy Hour.
“`His film roles included Ten Tall Men, Thief of Damascus, A New Kind of Love, and The Hindenburg. On television, he guest-starred on The Gisele MacKenzie Show and Fantasy Island. He had a recurring role in The High Chaparral.
“`After Hogan’s Heroes was cancelled in 1971, Clary maintained his close ties to fellow cast members Werner Klemperer, John Banner, and Leon Askin, whose lives were also affected by the Holocaust. Clary spent subsequent years touring and speaking about the Holocaust. In his memoirs, he wrote:
Sometimes I dream about those days. I wake up in a sweat terrified for fear I’m about to be sent away to a concentration camp, but I don’t hold a grudge because that’s a great waste of time. Yes, there’s something dark in the human soul. For the most part, human beings are not very nice. That’s why when you find those who are, you cherish them.
“`Robert Clary was ninety-six.
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Thursday, November 17th, 2022 at 12:02 am and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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