Bro. Ivan Dixon Joins the Ancestors

[nattyreb]

They can only hope to limit him to a memory of Hogan's Heroes, but my favorites are "Nothing But a Man" and "The Spook Who Sat by the Door." i salute that Brotha!
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Wednesday, Mar. 19, 2008
Hogan's Heroes Actor Ivan Dixon Dies


(AP/CHARLOTTE, N.C.) — Actor Ivan Dixon, who brought the problems
and promise of contemporary blacks to life in the film Nothing But
a Man and portrayed the levelheaded POW Kinchloe in TV's Hogan's
Heroes, has died. He was 76.

Dixon died Sunday at Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte after a
hemorrhage, said his daughter, Doris Nomathande Dixon of
Charlotte. He had suffered complications from kidney failure, she
said.

Dixon, who also directed scores of television shows, began his
acting career in the late 1950s. He appeared on Broadway in
William Saroyan's 1957 The Cave Dwellers and in playwright
Lorraine Hansberry's groundbreaking 1959 drama of black life, A
Raisin in the Sun. In the latter, he played a Nigerian student
visiting the United States, a role he repeated in the film version.

While not a hit, the 1964 Nothing But a Man, in which Dixon
co-starred with Abbey Lincoln, also drew praise as a rare, early
effort to bring the lives of black Americans to the big screen.

Other film credits included Something of Value, A Patch of Blue
and the cult favorite Car Wash.

"As an actor, you had to be careful," said Sidney Poitier, star of
Patch of Blue and a longtime friend. "He was quite likely to walk
off with the scene."

In 1967, Dixon starred in a CBS Playhouse drama, The Final War of
Olly Winter, about a veteran of World War II and Korea who decided
that Vietnam would be his final war. The role brought Dixon an
Emmy nomination for best single performance by an actor.

He was probably best known for the role of Staff Sgt. James
Kinchloe on Hogan's Heroes, the hit 1960s sitcom set in a German
prisoner-of-war camp during World War II.

The technically adept Kinchloe was in charge of electronic
communications and could mimic German officers on the radio or phone.

While Dixon was most proud of roles such as those in A Raisin in
the Sun and Nothing But a Man, he had no problem about being
recognized for Kinchloe, his daughter said.

"It was a pivotal role as well, because there were not as many
blacks in TV series at that time," Nomathande Dixon said. "He did
have some personal issues with that role, but it also launched him
into directing."

Dixon also directed numerous episodes of TV shows, including The
Waltons, The Rockford Files, Magnum, P.I. and In the Heat of the
Night.

In 1973, he directed the film The Spook Who Sat by the Door, a
political drama based on a novel about a black CIA agent who
becomes a revolutionary. He also directed the 1972
"blaxploitation" story Trouble Man.

His honors included four NAACP Image Awards, the National Black
Theatre Award and the Paul Robeson Pioneer Award from the Black
American Cinema Society.

Born in 1931 in New York, Dixon graduated in 1954 from North
Carolina Central University in Durham.

In addition to his daughter, survivors include his wife of 53
years, Berlie Dixon of Charlotte, and a son, Alan Kimara Dixon of
Oakland. At Dixon's request, no memorial or funeral is planned,
the family said.