A lovely gentleman named Robert Clary died Wednesday morning, November 16 at his home. He was 96 and you probably knew him best as Corporal LeBeau on Hogan's Heroes, the sitcom set in the unlikeliest of settings…a World War II German prison camp. As it happened, Clary had in spent 31 months of his real life in such confinement, and was the only member of his family to get out alive. Though I was with him on several occasions, I learned about his wartime horrors from articles, not from him.
I knew other survivors of such horrors who talked incessantly about them but at least around me, Mr. Clary talked more about positive things. Mostly, it was his very long career as an entertainer, here and in France. He was an actor but his main area was cabaret-type performing and you couldn't help but love every song he sang and every story he told on the stage.
I got to know him because of my friendship with Howard Morris. Howie directed many episodes of Hogan's Heroes and at one point (before they found Werner Klemperer) was slated to play what would have been a very different Colonel Klink. I believe Howie's close friendship with Robert pre-dated the show, however.
Once or twice, Howie took me to lunch with Robert and sometimes others from Hogan's Heroes. At one point, they had a little Wednesday lunch group at an Italian restaurant in Beverly Hills. I recall very little talk about the show itself, some chatter about Bob Crane's bizarre personal life and great stories about their experiences in show business. Robert Clary was unquestionably the star of the table. He had performed all over the world. He talked about everywhere he had been…except Auschwitz. Not unless he was forced to.
No, I take that back. Howie and I went one night to a performing space in Culver City called The Jazz Bakery to see Robert perform. It was an enchanting evening. Everyone in the small room loved spending time with Clary as he sang and told stories…one or two of which were even about surviving the camps. But the point of everything he said about those days was survival and getting over the nightmares to live what he said was a long, happy, productive life. Which he proved was possible by living as long and as well as he did.