I haven't seen Auto-Focus, the new movie about the life and sleaze of Hogan's Heroes star, Bob Crane…and the more I hear of it, the less I want to catch it. Earlier today, I saw its director, Paul Schrader, interviewed and he said (approximately), "This is the story of a man whose acting career was ruined by sexual addiction." I don't know from sexual addiction; not sure what it is or whether Mr. Crane had it, whatever it is. An actor I know who knew Crane well says that he wasn't sick. He was just a very horny guy who had the good fortune to have women falling over him and the bad fortune to get murdered.
So I don't feel qualified to discuss sexual addiction but I can address the matter of his career, which didn't exactly end after Hogan's Heroes. But it could easily have, for reasons other than the sex-related ones the film apparently postulates. There were certainly a lot of folks who starred in sixties' TV shows — especially the broader, gimmicky ones — whose careers pretty much stopped when the series got cancelled. What happened to Robert Vaughn after The Man From U.N.C.L.E.? To Adam West after Batman? What were the other acting jobs awaiting the cast of The Monkees? Some stars go on to other shows and others, for arguable but non-sexual reasons, simply don't. Given that a lot of people thought Hogan's Heroes was an embarrassment (I don't but many did), Crane's post-Hogan career of guest shots, movies and even another series doesn't strike me as inexplicably sparse.
My friend who knew him well says, "Bob thought he was going to be the new Jack Lemmon. He didn't realize that, first of all, the old Jack Lemmon was still around to get all those parts. He also didn't realize he wasn't as good as Jack Lemmon." Both those points sound valid to me. Perhaps Crane also alienated potential employers because of his sexual activities but let's not forget that men who cheat on their wives are hardly a rare breed in Hollywood. They're almost as prevalent as actors who have a hit series and, once it goes off, can't move on to the kind of roles they want. I suspect that Bob Crane could have ditched the 8mm cameras and taken a vow of celibacy…and today, we'd see him at those Hollywood Collectors' Shows, signing Hogan's Heroes photos and sitting next to the cast of Petticoat Junction. He might be alive but he'd still be a trivia question.